Protest rant

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Protesting about something in a rally may look good on TV, but gets nothing accomplished. In fact, such rallies are often "hijacked" by extremists / anarchists who are just looking for excuses to destroy something.

When "outraged" Oakland residents rallied to protest death of Oscar Grant III, the man shot to death by a BART police officer, some anarchists use the event to vandalize downtown Oakland. Dozens of businesses were vandalized, front windows broken, and many were looted.

And Oakland Police are NOT EVEN RELATED to BART Police except they have a bit of overlap in jurisdiction in Oakland.

And the protesters are NOT DONE. They are planning more and more rallies, forcing Oakland Police Department to deploy ever more police officers to head off any such violent confrontations. While nobody rampaged through downtown the last few attempts, several police cars were damaged, leaving the department short on patrol vehicles.

Enforcement and patrols in other neighborhoods are curtailed as more officers were moved to monitor the protests, leading to a rise in crimes.

Overtime costs for Oakland Police has already exceeded this year's "contingency funds".

And what has been done so far? Nothing beyond the usual. BART board decided to have an external law firm to conduct the investigation, and that's about it.

Another video has surfaced, this time depicting ANOTHER officer may have been beating Oscar Grant III just before the fatal shooting. The video was judged to be genuine, and more of these "civil activists" are calling for charging this other officer as accessory to murder, among other crimes.

It doesn't help that the victim is black, and the shooting officer(s) are white.

But what has the protests accomplished? Absolutely ZILCH, in my opinion, and may have contributed to spending millions of dollars in tax money, which comes from taxpayers like you and me.

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Pre-Valentine Rant

Image via Wikipedia

So Valentine's Day is supposed to be between two sweethearts... so why is it so heavily commercialized? There's bazillion candies, flowers, valentine cards, bears, and so on. You can find a WHOLE AISLE of stuff in most pharmacies for them. Argh!

Up to one BILLION cards are sent for Valentine's Day, 2nd most after Christmas.

Valentine's Day was NOT associated with love until Geoffrey Chaucer added the association. Before Chaucer, Valentine's Day were named after two Christian Martyrs of the same name.

And Belarus have a bit grimmer tale... Sait Valentine, after learning rejection of his love, cut out his beating heart and have it sent to her. Now people send heart-shaped cards and candy to atone for hurting the ones you love.