Tuesday: By my estimations, and please understand, having only two eyes and a limited capacity to move about in some of the area, given the size of the gatherings that took place, (I could not be everywhere at once), there were more than enough officers available to accomodate the handful of those wishing to stir up the mischief that we saw so sensationally displayed on tube. Many buildings had their own security crews doing the job of law enforcement. Unfortunately many of the security personnel were not put into place until after the destruction began. Poor planning on the part of those who organizied this event allowed the destruction that took place. A few, well placed, wandering patrols could have easily quelled the tendencies of some who obviously felt as though they had a free hand to do as they pleased to the property downtown. I was witness to several cases of vandalism. There were dumpsters being taken and turned on their sides to block streets and alleys. This in my estimation was a minor offense but the ones that got to me were the window smashing incidents. I found one of the items on the ground used to break one store's window, a steel stand made of angle iron. Fortunately the store had double pane glass. It occured to me that someone might just pick it up and try again on the inner pane so I picked it up and threw it in the trash dumpster in the alley. A friend told me later, that if I were caught on tape with that item in my hand that I might have been accused of the deed. That never occured to me. I also chased a couple of the kids after I witnessed their anti-glass campaign and got in their face about it. They ran to the relative safety of their gang of eight or ten and said that I had my methods and that they had their's. I wanted to tell them that my methods included smashing as many of them as I could but I constrained myself. Besides they were ten and I was alone in my confrontation against them at the time. I too saw, from accross the street, the guy who took out the window to the Starbuck's. There were at least fourty people who stood in front of him, as if they weren't actually there but rather watching him on a big screen television. They did nothing to stop him, not one of them. There was even a news crew with one of those huge fuzzy boom microphones filming the whole thing, as if it were some sort of a performance piece. That, at once, made me mad and sad. Are we so used to viewing violent incidents vicariously that we would rather watch them than participate in their prevention? I was too far away at the time to act but they were within right in front of the guy.

Call me paranoid if you like but something is eating at me. Something I overheard that group of window smashers I confronted say to one another. After they turned away from me I heard one say to the other, Where were the cameras?" It didn't register at the time but when I saw the news crew in position in front of the Starbuck's store, waiting for the incident to take place, it made me wonder if these weren't just random acts. Another window smashing event was very acurately recorded and splashed all over the television news the following day as was the Starbuck's store window event. Think about it. Who has the most to gain. The news people get their eye candy sensationalism to air. The mayor and govenor get their excuse to crack down hard the next day when the president is scheduled to arrive. The insurance companies will certainly cover any damage. The demonstrations get a black eye. Who knows what pay off the punk thugs will reap.

Wagging the dog was a really good flick wasn't it?