Fine Day For A Riot

A little after 3 p.m. this afternoon, I got an informational E-Mail from a coworker, saying:

Streets leading in, to and around the State Capitol have been CLOSED OFF (15th, 16th, L, N, K, etc.) Apparently the Occupy Protest Movement has escalated into a Small Riot…

I also learned that another coworker was caught in traffic, and had seen someone tossed onto a car hood and arrested by the cops.

Well 3 p.m. was about the time when I normally go to lunch. Time to check out today's chaos. But I wished I had known about the riot in advance: I was caught completely flat-footed, 2/3 of a mile from the scene of all the action. So off I went, to try and learn what I could.

I got down to the riot too late to fully understand what was happening. Quite amazingly, the first person I encountered at 10th and L Streets was my next-door neighbor (an apartment dweller who nevertheless was willing to sweep falling leaves last November, just to keep his area clean, an effort I appreciated.) He said he saw the bicycle cop get jumped on, and saw the assailant flee with cops in hot pursuit, but who that fellow was remains unclear.

The folks along 10th Street seemed watchful, but not terribly tense. There were rumors of scattered pockets of remaining trouble on P Street. Here, the trouble had spread along 10th Street from L Street to J Street.

The Sacramento Bee article seems hard to understand: perhaps a function of the story itself being hard to understand:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- At least two law enforcement officers were injured Monday during a clash with members of the Occupy movement who were at the state Capitol to protest a rally by a pro-white group.

The clash erupted in the afternoon as California Highway Patrol and Sacramento city police officers were escorting about 35 members of the South Africa Project to a parking garage following their protest outside the Capitol building.

About 50 members of Occupy Oakland began throwing cans and bottles at the South Africa group and at the officers. The Occupy members then rushed the officers as people with the pro-whites group rushed into the parking garage.

A city police officer was injured when a member of the Occupy group jumped on him, and a CHP officer was hurt after being struck by an object. Both were taken from the scene by ambulance.

At least two Occupy members were arrested.

The people on-site referred to the 40-to-50 or so 'South Africa' people as the 'neo-Nazis': a term the Sacramento Bee appears loathe to use. I also understood that not all the 60-to-70 opposing people were Occupy Oakland folks, but a coalition of people, of whom Occupy Oakland folks were the largest contingent.

I ran into Laura Peck of the Sacramento Police Department as she gave an informational briefing to the media. Indeed, I also caught Jim Naylor from KFBK radio (News Talk 1530: generally quite conservative in political leaning) as he 'went live' on the radio (which I caught on camera).

Some skepticism is merited on these occasions. One young man said in passing, 'she's lying.' (I think Peck was simply saying what she knew at the time.) Indeed, according to the Sacramento Bee article, one injured officer was Sac PD, and one CHP, but at the time of this briefing it was all still a little unclear, and it was believed that both officers were CHP.

The simplistic meme that seemed to work best for Jim Naylor as he digested Peck's briefing was that the Occupy folks were the aggressors (with the unspoken assumption that the neo-Nazis were the victims), but it's still unclear to me how all that worked. I specifically asked Officer Peck in Naylor's presence whether anyone knew who the assailants were who attacked the police, but she didn't know yet.

I get suspicious of simplistic memes regarding riots. Even the simplest riot can be quite complex. Here, there were at least two kinds of clashes: protesters vs. each other, and some protesters (or provocateurs) vs. the police. Keeping it all straight (and keeping the blame straight too) is important.

So, some civic chaos today, but in my memory it still doesn't hold up to the wilding on October 11, 1991, when frustrated Act-Up AIDS activists from the Bay Area broke away from their State Capitol protest and set upon mourners from Bishop Gallegos' funeral as they left the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Talk about the collision of two utterly-dissimilar worlds! Oil and water!

Here is the live radio briefing:




And here is more video of yesterday's irregularities: from 10th & K Streets, where the injured bicycle cop is sitting on the sidewalk.




And photographs of the demonstrations facing off.