Property destruction aimed at the state is not violence

I wanted to point that out because so often, in corporate news accounts of events like yesterday's G20 protests in London, the trashing of banks, government offices, multinational corporate locations or other capitalist redoubts is referred to as "violence." It is not. Breaking a window at a bank, spraypainting a police station or smashing up a McDonald's is not violence. Rather, violence emanates from these places.

Banks are the current hotspots of violence. How many people are unemployed, how many people have lost their houses or are on the verge of doing so because of investment bankers gone wild? You know about some of the debacles here, but the economy is global. Nothing that happens in America stays in America. Example:

RBS [The Royal Bank of Scotland] has been the focus of particular anger because it was bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. Still, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin — age 50 — managed to walk off with an annual pension of 703,000 pounds ($1.2 million) even as unemployment in Britain rises from some 2 million.

It has been often reported that the arm of AIG [American International Group] most responsible for their unpleasant financial state is based out of London. Those people are thumbing their noses and waving their pounds at America, refusing to return their bonuses.

When you cannot pay your rent, when your house has been foreclosed upon, when you try to find a job but there are none to be had, that is a direct result of violence.

"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."

Someone, or rather, a group of people, have done violence to you. How can I say that? Think about it. One of the definitions of violence is "an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws." Being unwillingly thrown into this economy, the least they can do is guarantee us a right to a job. And we certainly have a right to housing. It's enough that we work for you. The least you can do is give us a place to go at night. But these things are being taken away through deliberate means. They are being taken away because these capitalists are using their power to do so. The people running these institutions don't give a FUCK about those below them or how their actions affect the world. Money money money.

And the police, come on. They are violence incarnate. The only way they have any power is due to their monopoly on legal violence. When a cop tells you to move, you do it. Why? If not, you'll get shoved, hit, pepper sprayed or tasered. Violence. I do not believe that most people obey police out of respect. It's fear. Fear of violence.

Their physical violence, that's only the first step. Then they haul you off to jail, coerce you into paying bail money, extort court fees and fines and forcibly retain you in a prison. That's violence. If someone who were not a representative of the government ran you through a similar process, it would be felony kidnapping.

Property destruction can be violent though, but really only the other way around. When the police come in and trash your house, when they bust up your means to earn a living, that is violence. Most people don't have a way to easily replace those things. When banks that make billions a year and throw their executives seven figure bonuses take your house from you and leave you with nothing, that is violent. They send the police in to make sure you leave.

A window in Starbucks though, fuck. I do not have a way to quantify the financial insignificance of that. That company pulled in $10.4 billion last year. A broken window is far, far less than the equivalent of a penny to me. For fuck's sake, their insurance covers it anyway. And McDonald's? It drips with violence - against the planet, animals, and workers forced to take their shitty fucking jobs for no money out of desperation.