The majority seemed to be white, but no Hawaiian shirts in evidence–I think they were sincere. The CHP was fairly disciplined, but man, they sure loved their flashbangs. People on the high wall beside the freeway, and on an overpass, were throwing water bottles, and the cops kept firing back with flashbangs.

I wonder if it’ll be quiet Monday? Normally you’d expect people would have to go back to work after their weekend fun, but with so many people furloughed by the virus, who knows?

No, I didn’t see any Hawaiian shirts.

Here in Sacramento the reports say consistently that the cops resorted to violence first, unleashing their entire arsenal of “nonlethal” weapons. They sent one kid to the hospital with severe head wounds, firing rubber bullets at eye-level, apparently in a deliberate effort to blind people. Tear gas, pepper spray, beanbag and pepper rounds, and the traditional club, were on full display.

I walked through Capitol Park and around the Capitol this morning. Lots of graffiti on benches and monuments. There were groups of white people scrubbing off the “BLM” and George Floyd slogans, which I interpreted as an attempt to erase the speech of the Black protestors. I had mixed feelings about that, since Capitol Park is ten acres of manicured lawn and trees, chock full of monuments to firefighters and soldiers killed in action, warships named “California”, but also a “World Peace Rose Garden”…bu nowhere are there monuments to the victims of police brutality. I think adhoc memorials like those deserve a little more respect (though they ultimate must be cleaned off, but not so brutally fast).

The Capitol building was fenced off along the street. Cops in twos and threes in black combat gear clustered in the shadows under the trees, staring back at us gawkers with blank hostility, ready to resume rioting at the slightest provocation. At the southern boundary, two Black guys were inside the fence picking up trash next to a group of cops. A jogger ran by and yelled “you’re on the wrong side of the fence, bros!”. Couldn’t help myself, flashed a thumbs-up. The janitors looked embarrassed, and I wondered if they were prisoners dragooned into cleanup.

And so it goes. Back in 1965 my Dad loaded the family into the car and drove to Watts the day after the riots ended. Cops with rifles stood on the streets, watching the white gawkers drive the perimeter, while angry young Black men stood on the sidewalks, resentful at being gawked at like animals in cages.

America just hasn’t changed all that much in half a century.

Maybe its a Latin thing, but I didn’t notice this sort of political taxonomy during my time in the US student political troubles of the 1960s. We always knew which side everybody was on, whether town or gown, hardhat or hippie, redneck or revolutionary. Maybe this new century is different.

Bonche is a corruption of the English “Bunch”. There where bonches on both sides of every political debate, particularly at the University of Havana, but they were able to cross over to the other side when it helped their cause, or to embarrass that of their opponents. Their major goal was not to bring victory to their faction, but to just keep the unrest escalating. They feared peace more than they did defeat. Fidel Castro was a well-known bonchista during his student days. Although he never publicly declared himself a socialist (until AFTER he rose to power) those who knew him personally were aware of his left-leaning views. I had an uncle who knew him.

The white supremacists WANT racial conflict, because they believe that because of superior organization and numbers the whites are more likely to prevail. It could be argued that there are black provocateurs that feel the same way and embrace the same tactics, but they know they don’t have the numbers or the resources to win an all-out racial conflict. It would not be in their interest to start one.

In either case, I don’t think outside agitators are playing much of a role in this unrest. However, blaming unrest on outsiders has always been a tactic of the status quo. Again, the hidden message is; “There really isn’t anything wrong, its just those outsiders causing trouble.”