"Agent Provocateurs" CONFIRMED: Undercover CHP Among Masked "Anarchists" (Berkeley Protests)

[daredtowork]

Last edited Sat Dec 13, 2014, 03:48 AM - Edit history (7)

Remember those "theories" that some of the masked "anarchists" engaging in looting/rioting during the Berkeley were police?

Here is a claim that the protesters caught police among the masked anarchists - including a claim they were instigating looting. And they pulled out a gun and started making arrests when caught!

https://storify.com/CourtneyPFB/undercover-cops-outed-and-pull-gun-on-crowd

While I can't vouch for anything in this story, I can vouch that while trying to catch up with the protests tonight, I did pass a guy in plain clothes who seemed to be reporting to someone on his phone which direction the protesters were moving in. I also heard protesters discussing concerns about being infiltrated by plain clothes policemen.

But, wow, if they actually caught them! I wonder if they can prove that these guys were actually prompting people to loot...

UPDATE: I edited this story to take out the description of the undercover agents as being from the Oakland PD - now I don't think that's clear from the tweets. However, the Oakland PD did swarm in the minute they were outed, so I think it's likely they knew the agents were there. Very interested to find out just who these guys are!!!

Notes in the source also say the cops picked out the only black person in a group of protesters to arrest, but it could be he is the one that threw the punch.

SECOND UPDATE: Changed my headline to confirmed because reported by these news sources so far:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/undercover-cop-draws-gun-protesters-oakland-n266176

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27120645/oakland-protests-plainclothes-chp-officers-gun-use-draws

http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/11/chp-defends-undercover-officer-who-pulled-gun-on-protesters-in-oakland/

http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/12/11/undercover-chp-officer-points-gun-at-oakland-protesters

http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/chp-plainclothes-officers-were-attacked-before-pointing-guns

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/11/an-undercover-cop-pulled-a-gun-on-protesters-in-oakland-during-demonstration-over-police-killings/

http://www.ktvu.com/story/27606016/undercover-cop-pulls-gun-on-demonstrators

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/undercover-cops-clash-oakland-calif-protesters-article-1.2041892

KTVU says the undercover guys *that were caught* were California Highway Patrol.

Just because I took "instigated looting" out the headline doesn't mean they didn't do it. There are eyewitness reports that they did and supposedly video. But I haven't seen it, so I took it out of the headline because I took the word "claim" out of the headline.

Also, apparently one of the PR people for the CHP has gone batsh*t and is begging the media to represent the protests as "criminal activities" even though his officer is the one pointing the gun at the Reuters photographer. Looking for the direct quote on that now.

Where is the major lamestream media where "agent provocateurs" turns out to be true?

And they are swinging guns at student protesters without guns?

And they zero in on the black protester for their only arrest?

ANOTHER UPDATE: CHP Chief Avery Browne seems to have no qualms about lying to the media, which makes me more inclined to believe random witnesses at the protest in matters of dispute.

First, Chief Browne lied to the LA Times about the Gun Cop flashing his badge and making things nice and official before waving his gun: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chp-officer-gun-demonstrators-20141211-htmlstory.html#panel=comments

Then the Huffington Post seems to have caught CHP Chief Browne in another inconsistency about whether the other officer started the ruckus by pushing one of the protesters (the guy that was trying to unmask him?) rather than merely being "assaulted":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/oakland-police-points-gun-protesters_n_6312200.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

I've seen on twitter that the guy that was arrested has a concussion.

The CHP also made the fictitious claim to CNN that protesters threw 3 "explosives" at them on Sunday. They seem to be trying hard to manipulate the media into depicting the protests as criminal activity.

CHP Chief Browne also mentions a man who was "beaten" because he was mistaken for an undercover officer (could someone please get me a link on this?). If this is the case, it suggests to me that it's a bad idea to plant undercover officers in a crowd of people protesting abuse of police power. And it's especially a bad idea to disguise them as one of the "masked anarchists" who peaceful protesters have been wary of, since they have a tendency to commit vandalism-looting and undermine their message.

Here's an idea - have regular cops who actually believe in the ideas of the protest, join the protest in uniform and just keep an eye on things that way. If some place is getting vandalized or looters, cops can go there and make an arrest just like they would any other day.

UPDATE TO PWN PREVIOUS UPDATES:
The "unruly mob" turned out to be made up not only of and Reuters, SF GATE, and other phototgraphers and reporters - there was even a journalist for Mother Jones in the crowd! This gives a whole new meaning to the pen being a sword (in the eyes of the CHP, at least)! I can't stop laughing.

Anyway, here, finally, is an eye witness account of what happened:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/undercover-officer-gun-berkeley-oakland-protest

That's just what I figured happened.

[Sherman A1]

1. While I would not necessarily

believe that they would do so, likewise nothing would surprise me.

[daredtowork]

2. Still reading the tweets

I think the fact of undercover cops is confirmed (and I passed by an informer at the very least).

Whether they were instigating or performing the vandalism/looting of the last few nights is another question. It's possible Oakland has a manual of "How to Make Protests Look Bad" left over from the Black Panther days, and they stupidly brushed it off to use here. If it wasn't just tonight, I think Berkeley's Mayor is going to want t have a word or two with the Mayor of Oakland, since the vandalism started in Berkeley, and Berkeley has sustained most of the damage so far.

The fact that the guy pulled a gun tells me he is not very well trained for his position. Or he forgot the instructions to play nice with the Berkeley protesters and went back to some Oakland PD gonna-frak-you-up mode.

[True Blue Door]

3. I lived in Berkeley for a few years in the mid-00s.

It was a strange mixture of every possible current, both positive and negative.

Always had the sense that it had become a "city of intrigue," like Berlin in the 1960s on a smaller scale.

[daredtowork]

4. No place like it in the world

Catching the undercover cops...and the cops PULLING A GUN...certainly turns things up a notch!

Can't wait to share that with the *kids making Berkeley protests look bad* grumblers tomorrow!

[True Blue Door]

5. The police politics was always complicated by the existence of Oakland.

Holy shit there were some gangsters over there, coming into Berkeley to rob the students.

But the cops were always lazy - they saw a black face, automatically thought "Oakland."

I'm a white male, so they didn't give a shit what I did, but I saw how they treated black guys.

[daredtowork]

6. Which makes me wonder about the politics of this

If it is just Oakland PD undercover, and not FBI or Homeland Security or whatever...

Is this about something besides trying to make protesters look like looters and trying to turn the press bad?

Is it pro Darren Wilson sentiment? Was there a plan to blame the looting aspect on black men while the "peaceful protesters" were the nice white Berkeley students?

In any case, this gun-pulling undercover cop just made things a whole lot more complicated.

And some people who were quick to pass judgment on Berkeley protesters have some apologizing to do.

[True Blue Door]

9. It's fascinating.

Berkeley PD faces a much more powerful set of political activist groups than most other cities, and in a much more limited space. So usually they hold back.

But there are competing political forces: Berkeley is a disproportionately significant diplomatic city, huge numbers of international students and scientists, and also has a large concentration of security clearances due to the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the Livermore Lab within driving distance. The federal government plays a very strong role in that relatively small city.

The city benefits from tourism based on its hippie history and traditions, but other countries and the feds have little tolerance for actual disorder. A police state bulwark already exists to protect students from Oakland criminals, and that can easily be invoked when convenient for other reasons.

I don't know what's going on there these days, but I never lose interest in hearing about it.

[daredtowork]

11. Some sort of mask is about to come off

This incident took place in Oakland, but who knows who what the mix of protesters were. I had been wandering toward Oakland with drifting threads of young Berkeley people (around college age, but not necessarily UC students), but as I understand it the main body of protesters would have met up with protesters from Oakland. So it's unclear to me whether the group of protesters that confronted the undercover cops were from Berkeley or Oakland.

I'm not sure which I'm hoping for. If it's Oakland, it makes the fight more legitimate, since it's on their turf, and they have a more personal stake in #BlackLivesMatter. But if it's Berkeley, it's going to be filled with 9 different layers of juicy political intrigue and misdirection. Either would be awesome in their own way.

Also it's nice to know that if nothing else, the Berkeley Protests have contributed a positive good in proving that Agent Provocateurs are real, and not just undermining the people in Canada!

[Jesus Malverde]

25. Home to John Yoo

Strange bedfellows indeed.

[daredtowork]

28. It was strange when he was hired at UC Berkeley

Well, Berkeley is nothing if not diverse. The protest started yesterday by disrupting a talk by Peter Thiel - someone had to invite him!

[Android3.14]

7. "While I can't vouch for anything in this story..."

Golly, no one had a video camera at the protest? Not even a smartphone? That's believable.

[daredtowork]

8. I wasn't there

If you wish, here is my account of how hard I tried to meet up with the protest tonight, lol:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025942888

But, as mentioned above, I did come across what appeared to be a plain-clothes/undercover cop in my own ramble.

As for pictures and video, please click on the link in my post: that leads to the documentation of the witnesses. There are several pictures and at least one youtube video.

There are also other scattered remarks on Twitter.

I'm sure a number of reporters are digging deep into this story tonight: I hope more detail will be forthcoming tomorrow, such as which agency the undercover cops belonged to.

Also, there is an interesting question among the tweets: why was the black man singled out for arrest? Was he the one that threw the punch at the other guy?

[Android3.14]

10. The OP link does not lead to documentation

It leads to images that, without context, do nothing to substantiate the claim. The lack of video is significant, and strains any credibility.

You wrote "I'm sure a number of reporters are digging deep into this story tonight", yet your post is dated this morning. Something is fishy here.

Before I expend my energy in outrage, there needs to be confirmation. Police instigating looting, being discovered, and then arresting people is newsworthy enough to make at least local papers and television news.

Where are the confirming reports?

[daredtowork]

12. Well I'm not going to expend my energy pointing the video out to you

You can do your own research.

You can go take your phony "critical eye" somewhere else, because I've been reading about this for hours now and have nothing to prove to you. If *you* need further proof, you can get it from whatever the news follow-up is later.

[Android3.14]

19. Looks like there might be something to this after all

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/berkeley-brooklyn-protesters-challenge-police-violence-n264526

The "agent provocateur" bit might be a little over the top, but it looks like the crowd definitely outed him.

[Trailrider1951]

13. Sounds like Cointelpro 2.0

You do remember Cointelpro, don't you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

[daredtowork]

14. A model for local PDs everywhere? nt

[justiceischeap]

15. Confirmed by NBC News

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/undercover-cop-draws-gun-protesters-oakland-n266176

An undercover police officer, who had been marching with demonstrators, aims his gun at protesters after some in the crowd attacked him and his partner in Oakland, California on Wednesday.

Police said more than 100 demonstrators marched through Oakland and Berkeley, which has a history of social activism, to protest grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men. Under cloudy skies, turnout was smaller than earlier in the week, when demonstrators in the area threw rocks at police and shut down a major freeway.

[951-Riverside]

20. That dumb fuck could have gotten his head blown straight off if another cop rolled up on that

Common sense says you pull out your badge first you dumb fuck.

He can't even hold his gun right. I am so sick and tired of these gang banging thug types in Law Enforcement.

NOTHING will happen to this guy either.

[daredtowork]

22. The funny thing is

The whole world has been telling the protesters to "do something" about the "anarchists". I guess this cop felt he had to carry a gun for the day the peaceful protesters would heed the world's calls to do just that?

Still noting, no one had guns in this picture but the cop. As I understand it, no one even had sticks or bricks. One guy threw a punch...at the guy wearing the mask. And the guy wearing the mask drew a gun.

If this were a "Stand Your Ground" State, the first protester aimed at might have been within his or her rights to feel threatened and fire his or her weapon, if they didn't know that masked dude was a cop.

[daredtowork]

16. Good Afternoon America, "Agent Provocateurs" is true!

Hope to see some serious investigatory journalism following this.

[pinboy3niner]

17. The undercover cops may be California Highway Patrol officers

Undercover cops outed, attacked at Oakland protest — 1 pulls gun
By Vivian Ho Updated 1:38 pm, Thursday, December 11, 2014

An undercover law enforcement officer from an outside agency who was attempting to infiltrate a demonstration against police brutality in Oakland pulled a gun on the protesters after he and his partner were outed and the partner was attacked.

...


Oakland police Lt. Chris Bolton tweeted about a report of “an officer in need of assistance” near the Whole Foods on Bay Place north of Lake Merritt.

Bolton, though, said the men were not Oakland police officers. Frank Bonifacio, an Oakland police spokesman, said the department responded to “a request for assistance made by an outside agency near Bay and Harrison Streets in Oakland.”

“We have received a number of questions about the incident,” Bonifacio said in an e-mail Thursday. “We are referring all inquiries regarding this incident to the California Highway Patrol.”

...


http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Undercover-cops-outed-attacked-at-Oakland-5951011.php

[daredtowork]

18. I put that in my changed headline

And I've also updated my OP.

That doesn't mean there are other types of "officers" practicing those tactics. There have been a number that have identified just through local recognition as being plain clothes police officers in the crowd (or perhaps supporters - who knows, in Berkeley!). Going into Oakland, I walked past a plain clothes informer that might have been a police officer of some sort.

I think it's bad whenever police officers on the job monitoring a protest don't identify themselves in some way because it sews paranoia. But these were different in that they had masks over their faces, and were thus blending in with the "anarchists".

[daredtowork]

21. Pulled a Gun on Demonstration Against Police Brutality - the Irony Continues

Oh if only this had happened just a mile or so North over the line in Berkeley...

[daredtowork]

23. Did the Gun Cop Pull his Badge or Not?

CHP Chief Avery Brown told the LA Times that the Gun Cop displayed his badge before pulling his gun.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chp-officer-gun-demonstrators-20141211-htmlstory.html

None of the reports that were occurring as it happened mentioned it. They were nearly unanimous is saying he pulled his baton, and then his gun.

The photographer Michael Short, who took pictures of the cop pulling the gun and sympathizes with the cop pulling the gun in the situation, does not mention a badge being pulled in his KQED interview. Like the live tweets, he mentions the baton, and then the gun.

http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/11/chp-defends-undercover-officer-who-pulled-gun-on-protesters-in-oakland/

Another detailed article that just describes the baton, then the gun:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_27120646/oakland-protests-plainclothes-chp-officers-gun-use-draws

If the L.A. Times printed a lie, I think they should be called on it.

This particularly bothers me because the CHP has been using "weasel words" to make the Berkeley protests seem more violent/criminal than they are. For instance CNN ran a headline about 3 "explosives" being thrown at the CHP on Sunday night. The live-blogger on the scene did not notice any explosives, but she faithfully noted other acts of vandalism, such as bricks being thrown and a police car being set on fire.

Another inconsistency that needs to be cleared up is whether these cops were instigating looting or not. Some tweets claim they were banging on bank windows before the T-Moblile store was vandalized.

Personally, I'm confused at why the vandals of the T-Mobile store weren't just arrested by officers in uniform.

Also I'm disturbed at the way the mainstream media is failing to represent the obvious protester point of view here. For the last week the protesters have been told the anarchist "fringe" is making them look bad, and that they should do something about it. There is a lot of tension over this "fringe" - first because they are made up of a lot of different elements (including, now proven, police) and second, because some believe good protesters/bad looters reproduce racist/class stereotypes. So that's the situation.

Now the protesters unmask a cop disguised an anarchist/"bad protester". This is an example of the abuse of police power they have been protesting as well as proof of agent provocateurs undermining their protest! Of course they are going to be mad about it!

But none of the protesters have weapons! Do any of the pictures or videos show protesters holding weapons - even sticks or bricks? No - they are just shouting. They are just angry about this situation -as well they should be.

And the guy who unmasks the "agent provocateurs" may have ended up with a concussion!

So why is the mainstream media reproducing the CHP Chief narrative that the infiltrator cop in question coolly produced a badged and the "unruly protesters" were still pack of criminals of some sort?

There's a media!fail here, I think.

[Jesus Malverde]

24. Same as it ever was...nt

[brewens]

26. Like with some of the trouble at occuply protests, if people would have followed the instigators,

filmed them or whatever, we would have seen the had to be cops or working with the cops. Catch them ruuning back and allowed through the police lines or get the plates of the car they take off in. It's nothing new.

[daredtowork]

27. Waving a gun trumps the police car, IMHO

At the minute I'm really focused on the "badge washing" at the LA Times, though.

I've always considered the LA Times a major, rather trustworthy news vehicle.

If the part about the gun cop taking out his badge was a major inconsistency, why hasn't the LA Times corrected that in their story yet? Why doesn't just that lie cast doubt on CHP Chief Browne's entire account? Taking out the badge is highly symbolic. That's the minute a person *becomes* a cop. That's the minute the crowd should have deferred to authority, *if* that authority had been properly signaled.

All of the accounts I've read indicate the gun cop just panicked, started waving his baton and then his gun.

Yet the CHP felt the need to craft a different story with false elements for the LA Times...

[951-Riverside]

30. Remember this phrase "The police are not your friends"? Well...

The mainstream media is also not your friends when it comes to police abuse.

They will always report the officer's version of events as absolute fact and they will add little lies to throw people off. As an example even if the person is unarmed they'll call it a "shootout" or an "exchange of gunfire" anyway.

They did this right after the Mike Brown shooting.

A Missouri teenager is dead and a community outraged after a police officer opened fire during a shootout.

When people read this they automatically assumed Mike Brown was armed. This is intentional disinfo.



http://www.9news.com/story/news/2014/08/09/st-louis-ferguson-shooting-canfield-green-apartments/13848223/

[daredtowork]

31. The police need to change their PR playbook

If the police have to use weasel words to look good, they will just lose everyone's trust.

I get the feeling that the police get trained by PR consultants with techniques that assume people are stupid. In the instant it takes an ad to brainwash you, people may be stupid. But over time, people learn, engage in critical thinking, and discuss things. Most importantly, people remember. Over time, people aren't stupid.

It doesn't pay to use short-term tricks.

I'm also getting annoyed with smug middle class folk who insist on dichomizing the issue into: "If you get rid of the police, who will protect you.". I think the basic idea here is Truth/Recognition/Reform/Change. Would the police rather self-destruct than apologize? Maybe. Let's see what happens. But I don't think we have to get rid of the police and invite crime into our neighborhoods just to get them to be honest about stuff, not abuse their power, and not engage in racial profiling.

[johnnyreb]

29. This is excellent inoculation going forward.

The mainstream reporting of this episode is a lot more impressive and current than having to dig up youtubes of the Occupy infiltrations. The power of bearing false witness of vandalism against protesters is reduced to a mere conspiracy theory. Now the way is nearly clear: shutitdown!

[TorchTheWitch]

32. a cop working undercover is not an "agent provocateur"

It's a cop working undercover to gather information/make arrests who in order to preserve their cover may join in causing violence with those that already are of their own accord. An agent provocateur is someone working for someone else (presumably government but could be some other group) that instigates violence during an entirely peaceful demonstration in the hope that it causes peaceful demonstrators to join in - the purpose of which is to use the violence by some demonstrators as an excuse to totally squash a demonstration as well as to turn the public against the demonstrators and their cause.

Personally, I think anyone that joins in causing violence with an agent provocateur or anyone else has no one to blame but themselves... they made the decision on their own to cause violence, and trying to blame an agent provocateur or anyone else is a lame excuse for their own actions.

I don't have any problem with police working undercover to identify/arrest anyone acting violently during a demonstration. Violence during any demonstration is the PROBLEM not just because of the destruction but because it DOES turn the public against the peaceful demonstrators and their cause. I don't happen to like people causing violence nor that they turn the public against peaceful demonstrators and their cause.

[daredtowork]

33. The Jury is Still Out

If those two cops were there that one time trying to find out who vandalized the T-Mobile store, then they aren't agent provocateurs.

However, if those cops had been deployed repeatedly in those Masked Anarchist disguises, and they had been banging on bank windows (encouraging people to break them) as witnesses report that night, and perhaps actually engaging in vandalism/looting on other nights...then they are agent provocateurs. The CHP Chief Avery Browne has repeatedly used weasel words to make rowdy protest activities sound like criminal activities: I would not put an "agent provocateur" operation past him.

By the way, the "badge" lie I caught was not the only conflict in the Chief's "Made for PR" story. This story in the Huffington Post points out another inconsistency that I'd like to see clarified:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/oakland-police-points-gun-protesters_n_6312200.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

The police officer may have been the first to shove a protester (for trying to unmask him?) rather than being the passive victim of some "assault".

I'm also curious about the person that was beaten up because he was "mistaken for an undercover officer". (If this is true, I certainly hope he's okay!). This incident shows what a bad idea it is to plant undercover cops in a protest once you've already sewn a lot of paranoia about undercover cops.

[TorchTheWitch]

34. one more time...

If they were working undercover then they were working to infiltrate violent protesters in order to identify them and/or arrest them. It's clear from the articles that's what they were doing. We already know that the protests as well as pretty much all of them have had people acting violently like those asshole youngsters that like to show up at any protest with their faces covered by masks or bandannas just because they like an excuse to cause destruction.

And like I said, an actual agent provocateur can't cause other people to act violently - anyone following their lead does so on their own and has no one but themselves to blame, so why blame the agent provocateur anyway? The only thing peaceful protesters should be doing with such a person is sitting on them till the police show up and arrest them. Anyone joining in to act violently just because some alleged agent provocateur does is their own fault. Were it not for assholes willing to join in causing violence that an agent provocateur instigates no one would bother using them because it wouldn't work. And it shouldn't work. For the most part I don't believe it does anyway. Peaceful protesters will remain peaceful not wanting any violence during their demonstration, and there's always going to be some asswagons showing up at any demonstration just to cause violence because they think it's fun, and they're too chicken shit to do it without the cover of a large crowd of people.

I don't get it. Why does anyone have a PROBLEM with undercover cops infiltrating violent shits throwing gas on a peaceful protest and fucking up not only the protest but encouraging the public to turn away from them and their cause so they can identify and arrest these asswagons? You're pissed off at the wrong people and just trying to blame the police as the cause of violence during a protest or demonstration when it ISN'T. It CLEARLY isn't. We've seen the fucks in photos and videos and in person, and we KNOW who these assholes are.

Look, either you want a peaceful demonstration or you don't. If you don't, quick fucking everything up for the rest. If you do than quit pretending it's the fault of "agent provocateurs" when we all know it's always the asswagons that show up just so they can destroy stuff because they don't give a fart in the wind about your protest or your cause and are just using the crowd to act like barbarians. Peaceful protesters need to stand up to these shits. Film them, surround them, sit on them, call the cops on them... make it so unpleasant for them and virtually guaranteed to get them arrested or their asses kicked and they'll stop showing up because it won't be worth it to them anymore. Work WITH the police to get rid of them.

Further, the whole point to any demonstration or protest is to get the public on your side and join your cause. Quit doing stupid shit that will just piss off the public and keep them from having any sympathy for protesters and by extension their cause like blocking traffic or sidewalks or anything else that keeps people from doing their day to day stuff. It's just shooting yourself in the foot.

[Tsiyu]

35. You gave us two possibilities in your first post

now you claim only one is valid?

If cops are instigating violence to rile up a crowd, and that crowd goes, "Oh, Hell no," and outs the agents, the agents have some gall to turn violent.

That is what witnesses say happened here. No one was looting. These two undercover dudes were advocating looting. This pissed off the peaceful protesters who want no part of violence.

They start yelling at the undercover goons, who brandish weapons immediately.

Are you saying this is never a possibility? Because you offered 2 scenarios to SEEM fair-minded, but you're intent on selling only one of them, and per your history, the citizen, not the cop, is the only one who is EVER wrong.

It gets old. That one-sided schtick.

[daredtowork]

36. But it's not clear from the articles

It's not clear from the articles because CHP Chief Avery Browne is a liar who keeps trying to build "good cop" narratives for the press at the expense of the truth.

If we could simply believe Chief Browne, that would be that. But he is is the one who has made trust an issue here.

Besides not being able to trust what Chief Browne says to the media and his willingness to use infiltration tactics, we have to look at his obvious desire to portray the protests as criminal. The CHP claim that the protesters were throwing "explosives" at the police was completely bogus - but even if they had been throwing anything like a firecracker - I heard one was launched "at a helicopter" (huh?) 2 days ago - why describe it as an "explosives" unless you want to make a bunch of kids sound like terrorists?

I'm also seeing the word "mob" cropping up (I'll have to go back to see if that can be sourced to Browne). Now I was actually at these protests, though far behind where this occurred. The picture of this is long streams of people. Perhaps some clumps. All headed from Berkeley to Oakland along roughly the same street. The stream became a crowd when someone cried "cop" and a scuffle occurred. People gather when there is a spectacle! This was not a lot of peasants with pitchforks - this was just people who gathered to see what was going on, and they were pissed off to find out that one of the "masked anarchists" who have been a thorn in all our sides this whole time turned out to be a cop. None of them were holding weapons. It's normal behavior, not a "mob" that needs to be criminalized in any way.

I disagree with you about the non-existence of incitement. Sure there are jerks that will cause chaos no matter what. But there are also impressionable kids - and the Berkeley Protests are made up of a LOT OF KIDS - who may be just imagining stuff until they see some "hero" set an example. If a cop threw the first rock through a bank window, that could have encouraged and entrapped these on-the-fence kids. It also could have molded their future paths.

Peaceful protesters need to stand up to these shits. Film them, surround them, sit on them, call the cops on them...

When peaceful protesters call them out, they are ignored or told to check their privilege for policing the tactics of others (thanks BAMN for teaching random opportunistic looters to be race/class poseurs!). When they try to take pictures or surround them, these jerks get violent. One guy was hit in the head with a hammer. Another had 2 front teeth knocked out. Several have been thrown from bicycles. I'm sure there are more stories. So it's just big talk to insist the peaceful protesters "do something".

Look at what happened when they surrounded the unmasked cop with no weapons - he waved a gun at them! This is when violent people tend to panic!

The "public" should also remember that when they are ordering the protesters to preserve their comfortable status quo, this is the status quo that represents oppression to the protesters. Upholding the status quo has been getting nothing done for them. Asking nicely and asking quietly has resulted in zilch. Now the public is saying "inconveniencing us won't get you anywhere!", but for these kids it's all a wash since they weren't going to get what they want either way. So they are focusing on sending messages about how they feel instead.

Also, when "winning the public to your side" is more a matter of how the media presents you than what you actually did, then your actions become meaningless. That, too, might be part of the message.

[daredtowork]

37. Mother Jones Reporter lays out exactly what happened

This went down exactly as I guesstimated it did:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/undercover-officer-gun-berkeley-oakland-protest

I have to say, with so many photographers and reporters on the scene, who in the crowd were actual protesters?