Black Bloc Not Part of the Occupy Movement

By harmonleon May 2, 2012 12:00 pm Posted in Features, Lifestyle harmonleon g+ page

First of all, I used to live in the Mission District of San Francisco. This is the neighborhood where a majority of the Occupy movement would call home. The Mission is traditionally a Latino neighborhood – overrun by hipsters. On Monday night, a group of protestors wreaked havoc on the ‘hood. Rumors are flying that the anarchist group, The Black Bloc, is behind the mindless destruction of one of the most beloved neighborhoods in San Francisco. The group has gained a reputation for sparking violence at other protests in Seattle and across the country. (Or were the Feds really behind it?) [photo courtesy of The Blaze]

The Occupy movement is against big corporations. It would make no sense that they would organize a march to smash up the locally-owned businesses on Valencia Street. The neighborhood is as un-corporate as it gets. Years ago, the neighborhood signed a petition to forbid a Gap store from setting up shop on the block. If the Occupy movement were behind this dumbass display of needless anarchy, they would have targeted Union Square – and such businesses as Macy’s, Starbucks, and The Gap. Instead, windows were smashed and Anarchy symbols were spray-painted on walls at such small establishments as Bar Tartine, Four Barrel Coffee and Farina.

To give you an example of part of the senseless damage, some idiot broke one of my favorite storefront windows:

“This was not Occupy,” said Magick, a spokesperson for Occupy SF. “For the past few months we’ve been working hard to build support for peaceful, creative May Day events, and then this happens in one of our very dearest neighborhoods: the Mission. We don’t know who did this and it’s heartbreaking that this group would undermine our efforts.”

According to SF Fist:

At Four Barrel, a handiman fixing the shop’s door was struck with a crowbar, but he was able to keep protesters from shattering the windows. Vinny Eng, Manager of Bar Tartine, also told SFist that service continued throughout the protests, despite one broken window in a side section of the dining room. At Farina, protesters sprayed Anarchy symbols and “Yuppies Out” on the restaurant’s window while diners remained inside.

At Locanda, near 16th Street, one protester unsuccessfully attempted to smash the front window with the restaurant’s valet stand. According to Locanda’s manager, the restaurant was still serving food around midnight. One employee, however, later left work only to find that the vandals had smashed out her car’s windshield.