These are among the vehicles set on fire by anti-capitalist protesters Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland. Dominic Favre / AP
Geneva – A protest turned violent when demonstrators set fire to cars, broke shop windows, damaged 12 businesses and committed other acts of violence today.
The protesters named the hooded “black bloc” activists, were opposing a meeting of top world trade officials of the World Trade Organization scheduled to start on Monday.
The United States, China and other powers will be seeking new ways to revive world trade and drag the global economy out of recession.
Police reported having to use cannon fired tear gas and rubber bullets to maintain crowd control. The demonstrators fired back as the “black bloc” threw fire bombs at the police.
So who is the “Black Bloc?” According to the “Urban Dictionary,” during protests, the black bloc is a group of anarchists on their bikes wearing black hoodies with the hoods on, and a bandana over their face so only their eyes show.
They are usually spotted heading off on breakaways and they do things like smash windows of corporations, refuse to obey police orders to disperse, and fight back during police brutality.
However, they do not do this just for fun, or because they are bored. They have political agendas that no one agrees to accept or consider so they revert to aggression to pique interests. They are also very much against the cops. Usually, Black blocs will erupt with their messages during critical political times (i.e. going to war with Iraq).
Comments
Of course violence is not accaptable, but instead of reporting details of the violence , how about a detailed account of just what their gripe is all about, and is there any real legitimate substance to it? I'd like to know!
typically, anti-capitalist viewpoints are not allowed to be expressed by the media of capitalist countries. evidently the examiner is no exception.
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