Nice job Knute. You are exactly right about the black block. They've done great harm to the movement for social justice with their every act of property damage and that is their intention. They live in a world where nothing matters but that they disrupt the demos that are officially committed to non-violence and non-property destruction. You won't find BB'ers engaging in civil disobedience because that's for 'wimps' right? It's a macho, juvenile, f you culture. Glad it's being named and isolated for the bunch of a holes that they are.
Chris Hedges wrote a good article about them in relation to the Occupy Movement' titled "The Cancer within Occupy". Check it out.

For better or worse, the main reason for engaging in violent protest against property is the massive wave of media coverage it generates. A peaceful May Day parade garners about 45 seconds of ho-hum local news treatment somewhere between "more rain tomorrow" and "the Mariners lose again". Break a few downtown windows, and it's headline stuff backfilled with around-the-clock pundit hand-wringing. If you're an angry eco-anarchist tired of being patronized or ignored, it doesn't get any better than that.

On the other hand, if I'm some sort of Municipal League moderate, here's the message I would deliver: The price of being unresponsive to my agenda of boring but sweet reasonableness is that in frustration the action eventually moves to the streets. Take your pick.

Tea Party, 2012: take power from the community and return it to individuals. Occupy, 2012: take power (money) from the economically advantaged and redistribute it to everybody else. Both movements seem based on the idea that a group of folks are mad and aren't gonna take it anymore. Both use imagery that connects with the tribal part of our brains. And both use strong emotional cues to rev up their troops. So to disavow the ensuring behavior of some of their adherents seems a bit of wishful thinking. Own the results of your efforts, Knute and change the goals of the movement if you want to change the behavior of its members.

crankyoldlady: The people who did the window smashing on May day weren't part of the Occupy group. They were a completely separate group with obviously no political goals. They just took advantage of the event to destroy some buildings. They also apparently knew that the cops were just going to push them along rather than arrest them. You can see it on video. The Seattle Police made no attempt to arrest them, which I find completely bizarre and inexplicable. This just encourages more of this behavior. It's also possible that these vandals were inserted into the May day march by another group to try to discredit the Occupy movement, which has been very successful at pointing out the income disparities of the United States of today.

You may well be right Rich about the folks in Seattle who committed the violence. I don't know. We've had sporatic property destruction and uncouth behavior from a handful of people at a number of occupy events. Folks are attracted to these events for lots of diverse reasons. But words and images matter. And the occupy movement uses emotionally charged words and images to motivate the members of the movement. The term Occupy suggests taking something away from somebody. The fist is used to represent the movement. The one percent are not of us so we can confiscate their resources.

I'm suggesting that the folks who organize these movements use emotional words and images that trigger the tribal parts of our brain, the part that suits up into teams and rejects the beliefs and needs of people who aren't members of the team. The part that accepts behavior from team members when it would reject the same behavior from non-team members.

And I'm suggesting that sometimes folks will act outside the original goals of the leaders or organizers of a movement once those tribal instincts are triggered. It's happened with the tea party and with the occupy partiers. Or so it seems to me.

cranky. Unfortunately the Occupy Wall Street movement has mutated into something different than what it is in New York City. In New York City, it's a group 100% committed to peaceable protests. Occupy Wall Street and other groups regularly have marches and rallies 5 times bigger than in Seattle and there is never any property damage, although there are usually at least some arrests.

The people involved in Occupy Wall Street are are smart bunch of people in New York City. It's a brainiac group although obviously not everyone is the same. But the people are very informed about global issues. It's unfortunate the group in Seattle is leaning toward radicalism and violence, or at least has that potential.

"Granted, the May Day demonstrations and violence downtown were on a completely different scale, and Schell's sins might have been overstated" end of story.

Knute, I look forward to yet another application of your considerable talents and to that end encourage you to leave anointing the week's winners and losers to THE WEEK et al.

I think the police should arrest anyone with mask on. The police have open faces, the soldiers have open face and if you don't have enough cojones or belief in free speech to have your face out in the open you should be arrested or shut up. I doubt Paul Revere rode with his face covered. Or Sam Adams etc.

I totally agree david. In addition, sticks and such should also be illegal. In New York City, no one is allowed to carry any stick or pole of any kind. People can carry signs but the signs cannot be on sticks. Seattle should look into passing such a rule.

The reason is clear. Let's say you have a bunch of these black ninjas with wooden and metal clubs in the middle of a huge crowd. There's no way the police could protect any protestors if these ninjas let loose. So in the interest of public safety for all, no one can be masked or carry sticks. That's why New York City can have huge peaceful protests with no problems whatsoever whereas Seattle has problems with just a few hundred protestors.

Plus, anyone breaking windows in New York would have been arrested in 2 seconds. It's dumbfounding why the Seattle cops made no attempt to arrest the black ninjas.

Portland May Day: The Morning march was less confrontational than mainstream media depictions. From Burnside Bridge Waterfront Plaza to Pioneer Square (via SW Oak, 5th, Yamhill), the march was 99% polite cheer. Minimal traffic obstruction didn't prevent police from initiating 2 minor altercations along the march. The 20 bicycle cops, 6 motorcycle cops, 4 horsemen, 2 speaker wagons and random foot & patrol officers were not necessary because that 'first' altercation was over within a minute and the march continued. At this point the term 'Keystone Cops operation' came to mind.

The 2nd altercation was likewise over-dramatized on TV. On the 5th Ave transit mall, MAX and bus operation was a respectable traffic management exercise that became the excuse to again set police loose with more force than necessary. Both altercations involved a sole aggressive protester and a few innocently buffeted bystanders, no biggie. This is how it's done southayourway.

I joined the afternoon march a half hour after the start when it reached City Hall and turned north on 4th Ave toward the waterfront. I neither saw no heard any altercation for the next 15 minutes & left before reaching the waterfront. I suspect afternoon arrests were likewise less confrontational than As seen on TV. Overall, both marches were conducted well with little vandalism, less brute force than was imminently possible initially. Horses & motorcycle cops left early to great rewards of hay and grain from a basket or brewed.

Take this other engineering lesson from Portlanders who pulled off, by design or not, a pair of decent May Day marches, unecessarily overpatrolled by police who otherwise performed ably with less violence than as seen on TV. Seattle, get yor highway gang aliars to fess up. Their dbt is Your worst option,period. White Collar behavior lamentations to better folk upathere. Yea Mike!