A Kid that Tells on Another Kid is a Dead Kid

It is the 30th Anniversary of the "greatest teen rebellion movie of all time", Over the Edge. The movie only lasted two weeks in the theater before it was pulled in fear it would incite riots. It stars a 14 year old Matt Dillon who, with his teen friends, attacks the confines of the planned suburban community, including police, teachers, their school, and of course, snitches. The film was loosely based on accounts from a town outside of San Francisco, where the youth rebelled against the bourgeois mediocrity and boredom they were facing.

Check out this Vice article interviewing many involved in the making of the film.

The Shoe Thrower Speaks Out

Muntazer al-Zaidi, otherwise know as the "shoe thrower" is out of prison and speaking out, unrepentant.

The opportunity came, and I took it.

I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.

I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

May this hero serve as an example, and may what he did and the reasons he did it never be forgotten.

Van Jones on rioting

The right-wing politicos have been having strokes over this Obama appointed 'green jobs' adviser for his alleged participation in Rodney King protests and riots in San Francisco. A Fox news smear piece on Jones quotes him on the riots:

"Our moment had finally come! We were righteous, fired up, weren't takin' no more!" Jones wrote. "We were one thousand strong on Market Street, with the Bay Bridge shut down in rush hour traffic and the grounds around the state building swarming with angry mobs! Our rallying cry was for justice; our demand was that the System be changed!"

Jones continued, "Yes, the Great Revolutionary Moment had at long last come. And the time, clearly, was ours! So we stole stuff. Y'know, stole stuff. Radios, tennis shoes. Well, not everybody, of course."

Jones go on to make some valid points on the place of riots, that is, amongst a larger organized movement for social justice.

In his 2007 reflection on the aftermath of King's beating, Jones said he was among those who chanted "no justice, no peace" during the "understandable, unavoidable, even necessary" riots.

"These riots were not revolution; without revolutionary values and revolutionary organization, they were merely sharp outcroppings of the systemic chaos that social injustice breeds," Jones wrote. "But flashpoints of rage can never substitute for radical social vision or grassroots coordination."

I am happy to see a man like this in our government, let there be a 1000 more like him.

Riot Fun

Anti-Pollution Riots In China

The Cost of Capitalism...

"Up to 10,000 Chinese villagers have clashed with police in eastern China in the latest incident in a wave of social unrest caused by fears over industrial pollution.

The riot in the eastern coastal province of Fujian comes a week after two high-profile cases of lead poisoning involving more than 2,100 children raised public concerns over the environmental cost of China's headlong rush for economic growth.

Read more, and still more

Riot Art

Riot - Stelios Faitakis



Riots Work! artist unknown



After the Riot - JJ Hines

Prison Riots Should Come As No Surprise

Severe prison overcrowding, and general horrid conditions (such as locking human beings in cages for 20 hours a day) produces anti-social behavior, of course. Riots historically have been then only tactic to shed light on these conditions and produce change.

Prison riots in the last week include:

Chino, California

Mexico City, Mexico

Ashwell, England

Also see Riots to Rebellions past post on Prison Riots and Attica!