December 27, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - A video is circulating of a group of men, apparently anti-regime protesters, destroying the taxi of a man they allegedly beat unconscious nearby. There is clearly more to the story - as the video begins only after the driver was beat. Some accounts claim the taxi driver simply argued with the group of men, others claim he threw an explosive device or attempted to run over the men with his car to break a roadblock.
Whatever the story, the reaction by this group of men was brutal and unacceptable. Not only did they use excessive force to subdue the taxi driver (if they even had justification to do so in the first place), they then went about destroying his property, which clearly posed no threat. It was as vindictive as it was wrong.
Doing the Thaksin Regime's Work for Them
Anti-regime protest leaders would be wise to quickly condemn this act and both find and turn in the men responsible. Protesters themselves would be equally wise not to defend the actions of these men. All the regime needs to know is that protesters will irrationally defend open acts of criminality before they deploy agent provocateurs to commit more acts of violence. The protesters themselves will then assist the regime in destroying their own credibility.
This movement is non-violent. No matter what provocations it is faced with, it must remain so. If confronted by vitriol in the streets, protesters must help each other keep their emotions in check and remain above the violence and abuse typically the hallmarks of Thaksin Shinawatra's "red shirt" mobs. When intelligent debate is impossible, there is no shame in walking away. Let the silent majority see who is the problem, and who represents the solution. Protesters that see property being destroyed or people being attacked must intervene and break up the violence.
Were those men protesters, and the taxi driver guilty of some act of violence, he should have been detained as humanely as possible until police or soldiers came to resolve the incident. His property should have been protected, not destroyed. If this is what the movement ends up becoming, it is not a movement the millions of people who currently support it will want to be a part of - because it will have become precisely what it started out fighting in the first place.
To be right means admitting when one is wrong. This was wrong, and it should not happen again. For now it is an isolated incident - but if we fail to condemn it, it will become a weakness, not a strength, and a weakness the regime and its foreign supporters will be more than happy to exploit.
Whatever the story, the reaction by this group of men was brutal and unacceptable. Not only did they use excessive force to subdue the taxi driver (if they even had justification to do so in the first place), they then went about destroying his property, which clearly posed no threat. It was as vindictive as it was wrong.
Doing the Thaksin Regime's Work for Them
Anti-regime protest leaders would be wise to quickly condemn this act and both find and turn in the men responsible. Protesters themselves would be equally wise not to defend the actions of these men. All the regime needs to know is that protesters will irrationally defend open acts of criminality before they deploy agent provocateurs to commit more acts of violence. The protesters themselves will then assist the regime in destroying their own credibility.
This movement is non-violent. No matter what provocations it is faced with, it must remain so. If confronted by vitriol in the streets, protesters must help each other keep their emotions in check and remain above the violence and abuse typically the hallmarks of Thaksin Shinawatra's "red shirt" mobs. When intelligent debate is impossible, there is no shame in walking away. Let the silent majority see who is the problem, and who represents the solution. Protesters that see property being destroyed or people being attacked must intervene and break up the violence.
Were those men protesters, and the taxi driver guilty of some act of violence, he should have been detained as humanely as possible until police or soldiers came to resolve the incident. His property should have been protected, not destroyed. If this is what the movement ends up becoming, it is not a movement the millions of people who currently support it will want to be a part of - because it will have become precisely what it started out fighting in the first place.
To be right means admitting when one is wrong. This was wrong, and it should not happen again. For now it is an isolated incident - but if we fail to condemn it, it will become a weakness, not a strength, and a weakness the regime and its foreign supporters will be more than happy to exploit.
