At 11:01 AM -0700 7/20/01, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
Tim May wrote:
WHY AREN'T THE OWNERS OF THESE PROPERTIES DEFENDING THEIR PROPERTY?
Why are't shop owners spraying the looters with automatic weapons fire?
Because, of course, Europeans are disarmed.
Not entirely true. If the G8 folks really wanted to avoid "collateral damage" they'd hold their meetings in Switzerland or maybe Finland. I'm sure the store and gas station owners would take a VERY dim view of having their livelihoods sacrificed to these so-called "anarchists."
True enough, though this in some sense is a quibble. I mean "nearly all Europeans." There are a few pockets where gun ownership is still permitted, but the trend in most of Europe is to disarmament of the citizen-units. (And as Declan pointed out in his message, the cops do what cops usually do: they pulled back, abandoned the citizen-units to the mobs, and munched on the Italian version of doughnuts (biscotti?). And even in Switzerland, my understanding is that the rifles issued to each male head of household (maybe single moms, but I doubt it) are kept IN THE HOUSES, not in shops and businesses and factories. Some of them might have carried their rifles to their businesses, though. (This is what the Korean merchants mostly did. They camped out in their stores all night and shot from rooftops as looters and arsonists approached. Interestingly, though t.v. cameras captured footage of rioters being shot by Koreans, even killed, there were no attempted prosecutions of these Koreans. Realpolitik meant the dead rioters were just part of the "57 killed in the L.A. riots." Which is as it should be.) I assume this will be the last such Public G8 Extravaganza held in a major city. Between Seattle, Gothenburg, and now Genoa, the costs are too high. The taxpayers of Genoa and Italy are stuck with a $110 million security bill, according to CNN. Probably higher. And the city has been shut down by the preparations. Probably not even much restaurant business, certainly nothing to compensate the actual taxpayers. Having these meetings in "securable" locations, like Davos, makes a lot more sense. "Twenty thousand blackshirt "Warriors Against Capitalism" caught in blizzard on march up to Davos...thousands feared frozen!" Of course, there is really no need for these kinds of meetings. Putin is there to beg for more handouts from the G7, the Gay Lobby is simpering about committing a billion dollars to AIDS research and needle exchange programs, and the corporate interests are seeking ways to reduce competition by upstart companies. The more things change.... --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns