Mission Local: Protesters Smash, Paint-Bomb Businesses, Cars

[Patricia M. McBride]

San Francisco took a real hit from the Occupy folks.  This type of destruction has happened in several cities now and coincides with the Occupy May 1st movement, so although they originally said it wasn't their folks in this instance, shortly there after, they took that statement down (as the article says).  I wonder if all those progressives in congress still see this as "grass roots" and support these folks???

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By: Rigoberto Hernandez &  Liz Melchor|April 30, 2012 – 10:03 pm|

A group of protesters vandalized dozens of businesses, cars and any property they came across as they marched through the Mission on Monday night. One person was arrested, according to Sgt. Daryl Fong, but no details about the arrest have yet been made available.

The mile-long trek of vandalism began at 18th and Dolores streets, where a group of more than 100 protesters met as part of an early May Day march. The protesters walked east on 18th Street, turned left on Valencia Street, right on Duboce Avenue, and made a right on Mission Street before being confronted by riot police at 14th and Mission, according to Justin Beck, an independent journalist who followed the protesters.

Police dispersed the crowd in the area of 12^th and Folsom streets, Fong said.

In a statement released early Tuesday morning, Occupy San Francisco said the vandals were not associated with the movement, but the statement was taken down shortly after.

Scott Anansi Rossi, who was at the scene last night, wrote in a blog post that the riots were not planned.

“I believe we were hijacked and it was an utter cluster—. It started out as sort of a ‘pep rally’ type thing at Dolores Park, but maybe 20 minutes after we got there, it turned into a march,” Rossi wrote on his blog.

The vandalism began almost immediately after the group took off from Dolores Park at around 9 p.m. The protesters paint-bombed Tartine Bakery on 18th and Guerrero streets. When they reached Farina, one protester grabbed a chair and attempted to break a window but was not successful, said police officer D. Daza. Several of the protesters, dressed in black clothing and with their faces covered, threw sacks filled with paint at the restaurant’s windows, drew anarchist symbols on them and spraypainted “Yuppies out!”

Police confronted the protesters in front of the restaurant and a small group of them dispersed, but the main crew continued along Valencia Street. They paint-bombed and broke some of the windows at Mission Police Station, according to Daza. By then a group of about 50 had moved to other restaurants north of Valencia Street.

Armed with crowbars, bats and other metal objects, some of the protesters smashed the windows of businesses along a five-block stretch of Valencia Street, from 18th Street to Duboce Avenue.

Read more here and see pictures:  http://missionlocal.org/2012/04/windows-and-cars-damaged-on-valenci...