The Berkeley rioters undoubtedly centered around Black Bloc Anarchists. They have been around for years and their tactics are well-known or should be. I call them by the name they use. The adjectives set them apart as violent, criminal anarchists. They are advocates of street vandalism and riots. In their rhetoric, they are anti-capitalist. Banks and businesses are often their targets. They believe in what is called “direct action”.
On January 17, 2017, Breitbart ran a piece about these Black Bloc Anarchists in order to prevent disruption at the inauguration. The group retaliated at Berkeley by preventing an appearance by a Breitbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos.
Trump should not identify “students” in general or UC Berkeley as the culprits. He should focus on this particular organization and/or people who choose to dress in black, coalesce around these vandals and engage in the riots.
Police have their work cut out for them in identifying the riot organizers and leaders.
Peaceful and peace-loving anarchists of all stripes and anarcho-capitalists reject in no uncertain terms the Black Bloc Anarchists and their violent tactics.
It is coincidence that I wrote a blog recently arguing that inciting a riot is a well-defined crime. I have again and again over the years stated my position that no individual is entitled or has a right to take the law into his own hands because he conceives that he has a grievance or thinks the system is unjust. It is another coincidence that I also recently wrote a blog on the limits on violence regarding stolen property. A group of black-garbed rioters similarly has no right to riot. There are right and wrong ways to deal with injustices and grievances. Rioting is a wrong way. It’s indiscriminate. It doesn’t identify grievances or their causes. It doesn’t communicate with the accused or allow the accused to respond. In the case of preventing a speaker on a campus, the riots do not even bear any relation to the man involved in the sense of his having caused the rioters to have a grievance.
3:44 pm on February 2, 2017
