Killing the G8 Anarchists

[Tim May]

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 at 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