<p>Locking it down at 4 pm. Going home early. Idiots. Tried to set fore to Nike store.</p>
<p>Looks like Seattle got the worst of it.</p>
<p>If you want to make a statement, fine, but don’t destroy the property of others in the process. You really lose the support of the people doing idiotic stuff like they are doing in Seattle. Some guy visiting from BC had his car totally smashed–innocent person just trying to get through traffic–didn’t know there was a protest planned for today. Left a pretty nasty impression of the city of Seattle.</p>
<p>Holy cow! That poor Nike building is a magnet for protesters. Totally agree with puppylove about property destruction.</p>
<p>Do those idiots actually think what they are doing will make people side with them?!</p>
<p>I bet the people aren’t even from Seattle. When they had trouble at wTO, they came from out of state, just to raise a ruckus. :p</p>
<p>If you could get a closeup of some of those morons, you’d probably see them wearing Nike shoes.</p>
<p>I don’t think these people are looking to make a statement, or are hoping people side with them. They are attacking people’s private property, businesses and government offices. They are violent idiots with weapons, just there for the party. It is highly unlikely any of them are from the local area.</p>
<p>You’d think our dingdong mayor would have had the cops a little more ready for this. It’s as predictable an event as rain is around here.</p>
<p>Busdriver, from the local northwest news reports I read, the mayor did have some pre-May Day discussions with the SPD about preparing for the possibility of violent protests. After all, everyone remembers ‘The Battle of Seattle’ in 1999. I also remember that at that time Mayor Paul Schell was criticized for incidents of excessive force by the SPD. That’s the strategy of these loony anarchists, to divide and create disruption among ordinary folks.</p>
<p>Here in the center of the universe, the building management ran around like poultry in the slaughterhouse just before the close of business, telling us to vacate immediately for fear of the OWS protesters, gathering a few blocks way.</p>
<p>The damage to the storefronts is quite substantial. There is a whole bunch of news trucks parked in front of the Nike Town, the Gap store is all boarded up, and a couple of downtown blocks is a complete mess, although most of the broken glass has been swept up. The flagship Nordstrom was on a lockdown for a good portion of the day yesterday, according to the SA’s, and many downtown offices closed early. Damn anarchists!!</p>
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<p>Water resistant morons? Is that why they do not use water cannons on the protesting thugs in Seattle? </p>
<p>Come to think about it, perhaps the Seattle Alcalde should have reached a bit south, and invite UC Davis’ Lt. John Pike and rename the city for a day as John Pike Place. :)</p>
<p>Destroying property is part of the statement.</p>
<p>I say keep the pagan holidays pagan. The communists have corrupted Beltane, bring back the maypoles!</p>
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<p>Are you saying that you agree with this? What if that had been your child driving the car that those idiots attacked? If this starts up in my town I will get a concealed carry permit and a gun.</p>
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<p>How can you tell? Too tanned to be from Seattle? Assuming you are correct and they are all from somewhere else, why then is Seattle such a magnet for this sort of thing? This isn’t the first incident.</p>
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<p>Nothing from my post could suggest I agree with destroying property. The protesters are the less than one percent of the population who are complete losers and want attention because they will never have the skills or ability to gain attention by any means other than destroying someone else’s hard work.</p>
<p>If you’re bent on destruction and mayhem, wouldn’t you want a city that doesn’t fight back? Some cities use military-style responses to this sort of thing - I imagine an anarchist would go after the low-hanging fruit.</p>
<p>"How can you tell? Too tanned to be from Seattle? Assuming you are correct and they are all from somewhere else, why then is Seattle such a magnet for this sort of thing? This isn’t the first incident. "</p>
<p>Oh, we can tell. 
Eugene Anarchists are usually the ones who descend on our city to cause mayhem - that’s what happened during the WTO riots. The cops ad the mayor were criticized as being too harsh on the protesters during that event, so this time the orders were to go easy on the crowds, and the strategy backfired. I listened to the radio interview of the local “superhero”, Phoenix Jones, and he was describing how cops were standing by simply watching the rioters attack a governmental building, because they, the cops, could not do a thing without proper riot gear - that was their order.</p>
<p>Bunsen, that’s exactly what I was going to say, but you said it better.</p>
<p>I don’t blame the cops, they had their orders and did the best they could. But around here we get complacent because for the most part everyone is polite and well behaved. It is the mayor and the police chief’s job to prevent what could happen, and certainly this seemed pretty apparent that it could, seeing as the “anarchists” were advertising it all over their websites. Doesn’t seem like it would be a tough call to have the cops positioned where the trouble could be, with orders to confiscate things that could be weapons BEFORE they used them. Seems obvious when people are wearing all black, masks, with 5 foot poles in their hands that they should be confiscated. The cops shouldn’t be attempting to catch up to them from several blocks away. Our mayor is quite the ineffective guy, doesn’t seem to understand one of the top priorities of his job.</p>
<p>In NYC, the FBI and NYPD were more proactive:</p>
<p>[NYPD</a>, FBI Raid Occupy Wall Street Protesters’ Homes In Anticipation Potentially Violent May Day](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>NYPD, FBI Raid Occupy Wall Street Protesters' Homes In Anticipation Potentially Violent May Day | HuffPost New York)</p>
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<p>So how do you tell a Eugene anarchist from a Seattle anarchist? Are they wearing U of O colors or shouting “Go Ducks!” or something as they carry on with their riot?</p>