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Liquid shit thrown at WTO riot cops in Cancun

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21:23 / 23.09.03

Whose streets? ::giggle::

22:41 / 23.09.03

Has the WTO got its own riot cops now then? Or are they Mexican?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:41 / 23.09.03

And David Blaine thinks he's got it bad...

22:45 / 23.09.03

Now those damn punks are going to complain that the stinkin brown shirts were after them just! It's WW2 all over again!!!

03:12 / 24.09.03

I'm now about half as likely to listen to anything an anti-globalization activist has to say.

03:46 / 24.09.03

Because based on one photo we clearly see that the entire anti-globalisation movement has been lobbing an indeterminate browny-yellow liquid at riot cops?

04:41 / 24.09.03

No, but I do think that the extremist elements of any social group act as a litmus test for the sanity of the group as a whole.

This, of course, isn't the best method for measuring ideas or philosophies. However, I am mortal, and the number of world philosophies grows by the day. There's no way that I can delve into each movement and still have enough time to accomplish my life goals. So, I choose to use conduct as a filtering mechanism. In this case, the anti-globalization activists are conducting themselves as chimps, so I'm going to be less inclined to check out their claims.

06:38 / 24.09.03

Bet they started off with eggs. It's a slippery slope...

08:31 / 24.09.03

Ew, gross! I realise we must use all means available to overcome thebtyranny of global economic imperialism and all, but that's just not cricket!

I find myself wondering exactly how they managed to collect so much, um, "liquid shit".. you know, without the solid bits..

Not a pleasant thought I realise, but somebody's got to think it.

08:36 / 24.09.03

Not a pleasant thought I realise, but somebody's got to think it.

No they haven't. I'm not. At least, I wasn't.

10:50 / 24.09.03

I bet they got what shit they had remaining beaten out of them seconds later, though.

11:25 / 24.09.03

how they managed to collect so much, um, "liquid shit"

Probably processed slurry such as farmers buy in bulk and spread over their fields. Smells to high heaven, despite the processing.

Sort of crap soup without, as you say, the solid bits.

17:58 / 24.09.03

Haven't the use of "extremists" been a common tactic used by " the establishment " in the discrediting of a social movement?
Seems a little convenient to pass judgment upon a "movement" based on the actions of a contingent of undetermined size, or relationship to the movement as a whole.

with out any real context that photo is just so much noise and very little signal...

18:23 / 24.09.03

Absolutely disgusting. But I don't think you should dismiss the anti-globalisation stance just because of this, Thjatsi. I agree its a bloody poor show, but pretty much any area of human activity has an unpleasant side.

Besides, there isn't really a single postiion there, rather a series of concerns that are shared by a good few people apart from the shit flingers.

18:28 / 24.09.03

ewwwww!!! not to mention the risk of spreading hepatitis and other lovely diseases... talk about some mean-ass biological weapons!!

19:44 / 24.09.03

How do we know it's not hust a cop with a big mouth barfing into the bucket?

Still, beats killing yourself...

23:17 / 24.09.03

there's a girl that looks like she's waring that...er... shit, on her face...?

A

04:34 / 25.09.03

It's just brown and water.

08:08 / 25.09.03

Hope it's free-range shit.

10:33 / 25.09.03

Probably just a giant catering-sized pack of Brown Windsor Shit.

Or, judging by the colour, might be Mulligatawny.

10:35 / 25.09.03

Oxtail?

15:14 / 25.09.03

Am I the only one who doesn't feel sorry for the cops? I suppose I agree with the person who said filters are required to handle worldviews. Being a cop filters you out, from where I stand.

16:07 / 25.09.03

SHIT FACED:
That's a tricky one... on the one hand I'm fairly certain Riot Police are trained to disconnect themselves from the common humanity in these situations... which has allowed many (violent) abuses of power as demonstrated over the recent history of cop/protester encounters.

On the other hand that cop who caught it full on in the face is still just a guy doing a job. How that job may be viewed, for better or for worse, is subjective. I wouldn't doubt his asking "why me?" in this situation and it probably didn't serve to open his mind to any of the protesters' views.

But, if both the cop and the bucket wielder acted from their proper place in THE TAO, then there realy IS no conflict and that bucket of liquid shit is just the latest manafestation of the growth-decay-composting cycle...

Yeah Riiiiiiiight...

16:36 / 25.09.03

As good an analysis as any, Mr Tricks. I'm still trying to work out why this is a "logical manifestation of societal deprogramming devices." I mean, if you want to deprogramme the people of the developed world, how is chucking the stirred-up contents of your chemical toilet (my guess) over Mexican policemen going to help? It's a Mexican street. It belongs to Mexicans.

10:19 / 26.09.03

Ig, i think anarchists tend to think streets belong to common humanity rather than any one nation or government.

Am I the only one who doesn't feel sorry for the cops?

No. Ever since a cop threatened to piss on me the time before the time before I was last detained (and he did so simply because I existed, I might add), i have had considerably less sympathy with filth (pun intended) on the receiving end of violent and unpleasant tactics such as the above. Oh and on a tactical note, if they had been in a line and had had their visors down, rather than standing about in a rabble with visors up (duh!), they might have had less of a problem.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:59 / 26.09.03

To be honest, I'm with Bill on this one. Unless cops in Mexico are conscripted. Which, as far as I know, they aren't.

Although, in answer to the question earlier, I figured that camping for three days would probably produce enough shit of that consistency- ain't any of you fuckers aver been to a festival? Especially if you'd been eating Mexican food. (Which rocks, btw).

11:12 / 26.09.03

Ever since a cop threatened to piss on me the time before the time before I was last detained ... i have had considerably less sympathy with filth (pun intended) on the receiving end of violent and unpleasant tactics such as the above.

Ever since I get mugged by a black guy, I can hate niggers as much as I want and brush accusations of racism lightly aside... because I know about black people, I know about them like you never will!

Hey, look, everybody! Bill's back!

resets watch

11:22 / 26.09.03

*resets watch also*

Everything's coming up Posters!

I feel slightly sorry for the cops - but then, I had a policeman as a psychotherapy patient for around eight months, so I got well into the revolutionary 'individual cops are people too' line of thinking.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:28 / 26.09.03

Jack... I think you're making parallels where there are none. Hence my comment about conscription. Your job is NOT equivalent to your race. And not all cops end up in the riot squad; if the UK's anything to go by, that's a matter of choice.

Ever since I get mugged by a black guy, I can hate niggers as much as I want and brush accusations of racism lightly aside... because I know about black people, I know about them like you never will!

That's spurious, and also a bit silly. I don't think anyone's saying that.

Distrust of cops is distrust of an institution, rather than a demographic. Fuck, all the cops I've ever had trouble with have been white, as am I.

I've also met very helpful and nice cops. Unfortunately, it's the bad ones that tend to stick in the memory. And here in Stokey, we have a bad record for black people dying in police custody. Or being shot. (Harry Stanley, anyone?- carrying a table leg in a bag. Roger Sylvester?- obviously a bit mad, the cops HAD to kill him. Hmm... funny how they took their time when Frank Bruno needed sectioning, eh? They sat with him, talked him down LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO... like they maybe should have done with Sylvester, only didn't because he was an UNKNOWN BLACK QUANTITY...)

Sorry. Got a bit carried away there. BUT every time I've needed help from the police, they've been useless. I accept that we need them... I just think there's some serious fucking reorganisation needed.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:34 / 26.09.03

Oh, and to get back on topic...

you knew the risks when you took the job.

Although I don't actually believe that's real poo. It'd be good if it was, though. And I have a good wee-related story, when I'm not so drunk.

11:34 / 26.09.03

I think Jack's commenting on the inadvisability of generalising from the particular, and claiming primacy for one's own 'authentic' experiences.

11:41 / 26.09.03

Ig, i think anarchists tend to think streets belong to common humanity rather than any one nation or government.

Ah, I see. And, judging by the people shuffling up my road, I'd have to concur.

Hey, I'm kidding. Though the line that they're not conscripted so therefore they deserve it doesn't really hold much water for me, especially bearing in mind the opportunities for employment in Mexico. While some of them may well be happy as, er, a pig in shit holding a baton, most of them are just doing it to feed the kids. Maybe I feel this way because an old friend of mine is a police officer. He has done some "questionable things" on the job, but he is motivated overall by the same altruism that anarchists believe in. You'll have to take my word for it but I've seen him be very helpful in an unfortunate situation.

Mind you, a few years ago I was stopped and questioned by two of his colleagues for walking funny.

11:47 / 26.09.03

therefore they deserve it

not so much deserve it, more shouldnt be too surprised by it.
like a soldier getting shot at, or an ambulance man having to watch people die.

11:51 / 26.09.03

I accept that we need them... I just think there's some serious fucking reorganisation needed.

Therefore it's acceptable, even commendable, to fling liquid shit at them?

The logic of that one escapes me. Perhaps someone should draw me a Venn diagram that lays it all out: because it sounds suspiciously like gut-level, reactionary, knee-jerk bullshit, to me.

You quite rightly point out:

Your job is NOT equivalent to your race

and also

Distrust of cops is distrust of an institution, rather than a demographic

...and yet one of the key elements of racism is the way it reduces an individual to a single aspect, so you don't see "Calvin Wynn, who lives four doors down and drives a truck on the early shift at the dairy so he can spend the afternoons with his four kids," you just see "a black guy." And depending on your feelings about black people, you may wish him good or ill.

Institution or demographic: it comes out the same in the end, if you're tarring all members of a group with the same brush, if you're denying the personhood of each one of them by reducing hir to a single label: Nigger. Cop.

It's stupid and reductive to say that all cops are heroes and deserve to be put on a pedestal for doing such a difficult and necessary job and blah blah fishcakes—although this is undoubtedly true of some cops. It is equally stupid and reductive to say that all cops are bastards, or that any cop who ends up on the riot squad desrves what he gets.

Dehumanizing an entire group of people to suit your own interests is ugly and small-minded and foul, and no good can come of it.

12:00 / 26.09.03

Yeah, what Jack said. I think also that "shouldn't be surprised" could equally apply to a shit-chucking protestor having a vigorous encounter with P.C. Wood.

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