Altamont!

@1, are you having some kind of brain episode? Seriously. See a doctor.

I hope that cigarette was an American Spirit.

@3, from Wikipedia: "Natural American Spirit is a brand of cigarette and tobacco products manufactured in the United States by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, a wholly owned independent subsidiary of Reynolds American, in turn 42% owned by British American Tobacco. "

Spit Sock!

(Also, LOL @4 - way to pop a guy's balloon! :)

Srsly, I wish the dirtbags would stay away from all the fun going on at Westlake right now... But I also wish I'd find a winning lottery ticket on the floor of the bus, so what do I know....

Several considerations:

1) The fastest way to discredit the entire movement is to allow it to become associated with violence against persons or property. Therefore, those who wish to discredit the movement must be grabbing popcorn and cheering on the crazy bastards that show up and do shit like this.

2) The violently imbalanced tend to seek out groups where loudness and acting out in extreme ways is rewarded rather than scorned. A paranoid schizophrenic or a sociopath wouldn't last very long in a library, where the librarians are more likely to have them removed when they start going off on the other patrons. However, they blend in rather well in environments where behaving like an asshole is applauded, such as talk radio, MMA events, Republican primaries and riots.

3) The General Assembly of Occupy Seattle has at it's core one central weakness. Power is apportioned in an unequal manner according to how much attention the speaker in question can attract and hold from the audience. Therefore, highly charismatic personalities and personalities full of bombast and visceral angst tend to predominate. Quiet, mousey rationalists tend to be ignored or shut out of the discussion. Much like the events described in #2, this tends to attract people prone to extravagant displays of either violence or showmanship.

Therefore, the root problem here lies within the structure of the GA itself. A remedy must be found. The GA has to become calmer, deliberative and more rational. Power has to be distributed evenly, and not apportioned according to personality. Bombast has to be shunned, as do displays of showmanship. Reason has to be held up as the ideal.

Until this is done, the GA itself will draw violent and crazy bastards such as these two the way rotting meat attracts flies and maggots.

I love how people make observations about the GA: Where giant "personalities, bombast and visceral angst tend to predominate"...attracting "people prone to extravagant displays of either violence or showmanship."...

....And then not ALSO see the parallels to how the political right is portrayed by the media (like Stranger).

It is no more fair to characterize the Occupy movement by its the extreme fringes, than it is to characterize conservatism by the fucking wingnuts on which the media chooses to focus. That is, unless someone has an agenda to discredit their opponent, using labels (like "dirty hippies" and "tea-baggers") as cover for a lack of reason and integrity in their political leanings.

@8, nature abhors a vacuum. The reason the violent or crazy step out at events like this is because there's nothing else going on there to crowd them out. They're just dumbly "occupying" but they've run out of things to say.

It seems like the second guy was just some random loon (like they're in short supply at Westlake) who opposed the protesters. Or am I missing something?

While you're giving condolences to everyone who "had to deal with" the blood-spitting nutbag, would it be too much to thank the police officers who actually dealt with him?

I notice some known wackos in regular attendance at Westlake.

I also notice they tend to be on good behavior (relative to their own disorderly/delusional/violent baselines).

Not sure what to make of that.

@14: Robotslave, you're suggesting that we thank people for doing a job they were paid to perform, right?

@16: When I get some food from the dining hall at school, I make sure to thank the people serving me and call them "ma'am" and "sir".
Fuck sake, people.

@17: Understood. I thank bus drivers when I get off the bus. It's just courtesy, though.

Phil M, have you ever left a tip for a good meal or haircut? If that's not thanks for doing a job I don't know what it is? The firefighters, park rangers, and law enforcement personnel who are required to be the thin line between any and all factions and have to see what falls from the sky on both sides of the line to determine what actions they take... I mean could you do that? Are you able to take insults without recourse, assault without response, and exposure to unknown airborne pathogens without fear? Then meet me at Westlake Park on Sunday and I'll introduce you to a day in my life. Hope to see you there!

@18 - Are you suggesting it would be beneath you to even show courtesy to the police?

I'm not saying for a moment that we shouldn't hold the police accountable if they do very bad things, but can we not at least show them "just courtesy" when they deal with citizens who are doing very bad things to people we like?