i must say im kinda conflicted on this, I view constitutional rights as basically absolute, because I worry constantly about the rise of an opressive government. I'm always concerned a non violent protest will be declared "unlawful assembly" because the powers that be don't like being told they suck. I'd even go so far as to support capitol punishment for police and govt officials in certain circumstances, ie gross abuse of power, simply because that worries me more than some fuckhead randomly shooting somebody. that being said, i still hate hippies, and most college kids (i say most because they cant ALL be worthless).

I live in Hippie Central, and we have protests all the time over all sorts of things. Often there are protests that have permits or follow the rules (not blocking traffic, no vandalization or property, some rules about amplification devices) and people shout all sorts of terrible things about whatever local, state or federal authority. I'm cool with those.

Equally as often, other interests have protests that block traffic, create hazards, disrupt citizens, damage public and private property, and feature deliberate and systematic provocation of the police. These I hate and I am seldom sympathetic to whatever cause they are supporting. I actually work alongside some of these people during their "day jobs" and I know that their ideology supports the police-baiting. They don't need a plain-clothes provocateur. Also, these people tend to travel to other towns to protest and make every effort to appear to be concerned citizens of those towns.

There are lies and distortions on either side of these controversies. We need to exercise objectivity and good judgment when viewing videos like this. What hasn't been shown? Why would reasonable people behave this way? In the case of the couple "just standing there", they had to have seen and heard the huge wall of riot cops approaching them. Obviously everyone else knew, because otherwise why were cameras trained on them? Are we certain that the audio for that portion is even the authentic audio? Who knows, maybe the cops were warning them repeatedly to move along. Was this the first time the couple had done this that night, or the last of many encounters?

^^^ Thus, very much thus.

Whistler's post reminds me of the "protest" crowd in the movie "PCU."

<chanting>
"We're not gonna protest!"
"We're Not gonna protest!"
"We're NOT gonna protest!"
</chanting>

Meat tosser!