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| Europe | ||
| May Day rioting rocks Berlin — for 17th year | ||
| 2003-05-01 | ||
| Happy May Day! Break something for progress! Leftist May Day rioters staged running street battles with police in Berlin early Thursday, marking the 17th year that violence has marred May 1 festivities in the German capital. Hundreds of masked youths smashed store windows and overturned cars in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the city. If it's such an accepted and legal act they wouldn't wear masks — why is this crap tolerated when they know exactly when/where it will occur? By dawn the rioting had spread down down Schoenhauser Allee in what used to be East Berlin. Some 2,500 police in riot gear moved in with batons and tear gas to to bring the violence to an end. But authorities said that, based on experience, more serious street violence was likely to occur again Thursday night, after May 1 parades and rallies. In all, more than 7,500 riot police are standing by in the German capital in a bid to counter what has become an annual rite of spring violence by left-wing extremists.
Move em all to a barren fenced in parking lot and sell tickets — idiots
"Useless Idiots" The rioting has been repeated every year since 1987, first in West Berlin and then, following German unification in 1990, in both halves of united Berlin. Cars are often set ablaze and many residents move their vehicles to other parts of town for May Day. Supermarkets and shops have been plundered in the past. Many people, unassured by the police presence, barricade their windows. It's a tradition now | ||
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #11 Lived with a gal a while back,she decided to go vegiterian,and decided I should too.Course that whent over like a big slab of Tofu.Told her if she wanted to go veggie fine,but don't try to force me to.Then she proposed a compromise:eat meat 1-2 times a week.My counter proposal I would eat veggie 1-2 a week.I like my bacon/sausage,and I damn sure won't give up my chops and steaks. BTW,we don't live together anymore. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-05-02 07:34:04 |
| #10 This reminds me of a bunch of people I shared a house with in college. Some of them were neo-Hippies who'd protest just about anything you could name. They kept a frigging bag of bean curd or some other damn thing hanging in the kitchen and used to lecture us about our eating habits. We all drank like fish in those days, and no one ever called them to task for their alcohol consumption, though. I guess slaughtering your liver is preferable to slaughtering cows, but I digress. There was one girl, one of the most vocal and obnoxious ones, who called herself "Marnie." I don't think that was her real name. It was probably something like Judy or Agnes, but what good is that when you're trying to pretend it's 1967 and this is Haight Ashbury? There was another guy who called himself "Hahn" but I think his real name was Numb Nuts. Anyway, these kids would protest just about any company that came to campus to recruit for employees. They actually protested rape! No doubt it was directed at all the white males within earshot who everyone knows are latent rapists. After that, I decided, what the hell. I'm going to protest cold weather. And the fact that it gets dark too early in the fall. But the best part is that one morning I overheard "Marnie" on the phone, bitching at her Dad, who lived in Pennsylvania and was paying a lot of money to send this girl to Tufts University. See, Marnie used to drive around in a shitty, beat-up old Pinto wagon. And she was demanding that Dad cough up the cash to get her a nicer car. You know, so she could get around to the protests and stuff. |
| Posted by: Joe 2003-05-01 12:59:04 |
| #9 Berlin? I though the article was another Fisker from Baghdad. Sorry. |
| Posted by: john 2003-05-01 11:51:27 |
| #8 Oh I forgot to mention, Rage Against the Machine was once connected to Michael Moore. He produced one of their videos. Now you're even more enlightened! |
| Posted by: RW 2003-05-01 11:40:44 |
| #7 C'mon Joe, it's so obvious! These protesters have to show the world what a potential environmental hazard the underside of a police cruiser can be! Whoa, watch out for flaking rustproofing, and those little weights that they use to balance tires! Of course, what these shmucks don't realize is that when all the protests are over, a large diesel exhaust spewing tow truck of some sort needs to make an extra trip downtown to winch the car rightside up. After that, the body shop needs to run huge, energy munching frame straightening machines, and assuming the car can be salvaged, have to spray new coats of primer and paint, releasing fogs of smelly fumes, even if it's in a proper painting environment. Geniuses, I tell you! they sure showed us a thing or two about saving the environment... |
| Posted by: Dripping sarcasm 2003-05-01 11:38:36 |
| #6 It wasn't global warming, the police car was a symbol of racism. The lyrics to "Killing in the Name Of" from a band called "Rage Against the Machine" explains everything: "Some of those that were forces, are the same that burn crosses" (repeated 4 times) "Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites" (repeated 4 times) So now you're enlightened ;) |
| Posted by: RW 2003-05-01 11:36:45 |
| #5 Joe, police caught them whenever they tried to move into town, whenever 3 of them got together they were dispersed or bagged. The punks said a day later they'd never return to Munich because it was such a boring day. Btw, no Munich shop bothered to barricade its window. And not a single one was smashed. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-05-01 10:28:29 |
| #4 I'd like to know the demographics of these demonstrators. I'd like to ask them to sit down and explain their actions to the people whose property they destroyed. I'm no expert, but here's something I noticed about the demonstrations in the US against the World Bank/IMF. They all look like white college kids on spring break. They're protesting racism, among other things, but I don't think I've ever seen a person of color in the crowd. Here in DC, people of color get pissed off at them because they can't make it to their jobs on account of the protests. They are largely ignored, unless they break things, in which case, they just annoy people. So, TGA, did the police in Munich hand out a good butt-whipping? |
| Posted by: Joe 2003-05-01 10:21:21 |
| #3 Nah, just the usual spring break of people you can't even call "leftists". Germans call them "Chaoten". From what I see they got quite a good whacking from police this time. But you know some people love barfights that end with broken noses. Just a bit of local folklore, not much politics in it. I might add though that they tried it once in Munich. Tried. Once. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-05-01 09:31:45 |
| #2 TGA, is there ANY protest from left wing leaders to this "tradition"? If not, then they should be held responsible. If so, then these are just thugs using politics as an excuse. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-05-01 09:22:25 |
| #1 The article doesn't say how many arrests are made each year. Somehow I think if people were actually arrested and seriously prosecuted for rioting the rioting would be reduced. The rioters should invite US representative Maxim Waters to be their honorary queen of the riot. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-05-01 09:12:14 |