This is what is striking on this action

[nadinbrzezinski]

As a medic I got the honor to have a real riot happen. Yes, for real the police had rocks, not eggs, thrown at them. One of my rigs lost a window or two and needed a new paint job. If the cops used lethal force none would have blinked. They didn't. They used battons,shields helmets and a line walk. there were a few injured and a few helmets were sacrificed. On the other side there were a few people hurt, some arrests and on day break there was a need to clean up. It was, quite possibly, one of the scariests. Oh and the chief decided that tear gas was the last resort...

What happened last night was excessive force, what would have been acceptable in an actual riot.

It makes you wonder...it sure makes me wonder.

Alas what happened next though, I don't expect that either. It was a collective wtf happened here and working with community organizers. We could have saved us all that with a health clinic.

Wonders never cease.

[Hardrada]

1. This is getting to be a really long year.

1968 was like this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yup, so was 1848, the year of revolution.

[Hardrada]

7. I missed that one (though I feel I am ancient enough not to have) still

I did partake in the struggles in most of 1968 although the SDS was starting to fall apart. The era in which 1968 was the predominant year ended in 1975 basically after the Mayaquez incident. The left faded out alas. And missed a generation in the 1980's. I thought radical activism would not come back after that but, lo and behold, here it is!

[Selatius]

10. Sadly, the activism only returned after the economy had been reduced to ruin.

Then again, this was the pattern after the crash of 1929. There were more food riots then and a lot more confrontation between workers and management.

[mike_c]

3. that will be NEXT summer, I think....

Yup, I was just thinking that we haven't seen a summer like the one I'm expecting next year since the summers of '67 and '68.

[Selatius]

4. There's more rage and despair nowadays compared to '68, I believe. nt

[Hardrada]

5. The middle class was pampered in those days

but now is being decimated. Yes, big difference.

[jwirr]

8. I agree - at least I think there are more angry people.

[Taverner]

9. And 1968 was a tragic year

Chicago, Tet, Khe Sanh, MLK Jr's assassination, Invasion of Czechoslovakia...

I wasn't born then, but I know what happened

[Hardrada]

12. Yes, there was a Prague Spring

before the Soviet tanks moved back in.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. And it ended in October in Mexico City

[Hardrada]

14. We never heard much about that up here.

Good old MSM. We sure hear about the drug cartels though.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Two weeks before 1968 a few photos

The third one is just so iconic

[Hardrada]

16. Thanks. I had not seen those.

Must be something of a lost generation then. As a consequence.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Not really but the roots to the democratic elections that brought in Foc

Are there. In Mexico none has forgotten. I got the classics in my library as well as the 40 year remembrances. And there are on and off attempts to bring echeverria to court fr that night and Te dirty war. Growing up in the seventies was...interesting and included a police Aparatus people missed in the us. And in the end our anti red warrior legalized the communist party. (Echeverria) as president. Diaz Ordas is quite...hated even today.

[Aerows]

6. They disgraced your profession, Nadin

Thanks for being a credit to it, and not stooping to this level. I can't believe police officers think it's a proper action to flash grenade people trying to help an unconscious person. And leave a woman in a wheelchair in tear gas.

Dear lord, where was the part of "Protect and Serve" lost in their training?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I was a medic

and that happened in one of them third world countries.