hell yeah it is...so much easier to control a single large mass than tons of smaller groups roaming around a city...once a few years ago at an anti-IMF demo I saw the D.C. cops execute it to perfection...just hemmed everyone from the big main (planned, permitted) march in at the beginning, pressed them up agianst a row of buildings & arrested everyone en masse...like 800 ppl, charged them all with disorderly just to get bodies off the streets...
on the other hand think of something like Seattle, all these small groups going around unchecked...I mean this sounds silly but it's like guerrilla warfare, you're never going to be able to stand up to the cops in an open fight, or rush a well-defended barricade...makes so much more sense to hit & run...swim in the sea of non-protestors...I reckon that business about dressing up as cops was a bit too clever for its own good...
anyway I'm quite skeptical about these big protest summits & have been for some time...whether you go to chuck a brick or to hold a placard it's equally symbolic...I guess as John Eden says people love their symbolic confrontations, make the whole thing into a big Spectacle...I guess the economic nuts & bolts stuff is much less exciting...
*EDIT* but nonetheless best of luck to Crackerjack & anyone else out on the streets...
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