My response to someone that said that the police were justified in their actions, and that non-peaceful protest was in opposition to the point. The incidents that happened to me specifically are in reference to the Hollywood Oscars protests.
It is easy for someone who was not there to say this. Unless a mere statement can be seen as provocation, people did not do anything to provoke the police. By sitting on my own front lawn, I did not provoke the police into doing a mock charge to intimidate me. By asking a police officer if I could go home, I did not justify him pretending that he was going to run me over. By carrying a sign that said "thou shalt not kill," the woman in DC did not justify an officer hitting her with a vehicle. By not moving fast enough because he did not want to trample disabled people in front of him, the man here did not justify having his head smashed open on the pavement. Illegal action does not justify violence. Illegal action legally justifies arrest, and most protestors come into it with a firm understanding of this. While morally right, taking back our streets does justify criminal penalty. However, there was no legal statute that called for violence. The next time that one of you is arrested for getting high or drinking underage, one of you ought to suggest to the police officer that he beat you, if you feel so strongly about it.
I will use whatever means are necessary and subjectively justifiable to perpetuate my personal agenda. I did not witness any violence on the part of protestors at any of the three protests that I went to. However, were they to commit violence, it would not have been contradictory to my goal (or the goal of a great percentage of the protestors). I am not against violence. A person can not win a boxing match with their hands tied behind their back. Peace is a concept that can serve as a rallying point in reference to a temporary situation that effects the permanent climate of the world. Peace is not a suicide pact. In their present situation, the soldiers lgoically should ignore all conventions and kill by any means necessary. I say this in reference to the soldiers on both sides. Those in power who are ordering our soldiers to fight a battle that is neither righteous nor necessary for the sake of their business interests are not justified. They are criminals, and regardless of who is dictating our perception of these laws in order to serve "personal interests inimical" to humanity, they should (and in an ideal world would) be dealt with as such.
The feeling of futility IS not actually the latest newfound naivete. It is the oldest trick in the book. Only when people learn to see themselves as the only authority worth adhering to will anything of any substance be done to better the world. Regardless of personal politics, these protests are a part of that. They will not stop this war. However, they will effect the long term climate if people keep up with it. Regardless of not stopping the short term war on Iraq, they will stop the permanent war against terrorism. Like any good soldier, I would be willing to die for my country (and for my world), and be it a literal "revolutionary suicide" or merely a temporary imprisonment for this or any cause, I will consider my actions to be noble if I can actually do something. Like Bush said, you are either with us or you are against us. You are on the side of humanity, or you are on the side of the global corporate socialism that rules over the earth. There is no neutrality, and like with legal crimes, ignorance will not be a valid defense against your conscience.
Original: No, The Police Were Not Provoked.