Reply #9: Not disagreeing with any particular point, but...

[Barrett808]

...I think the Seattle police could have shut down the "Black Block's" smash-and-don't-grab spree, if they'd had an ounce of will to do so.

Police infiltration of anarchist groups is well documented and goes back for over a century. See, for example, Frank Donner's Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America (http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-Privilege-Squads-Repression-America/dp/0520080351/sr=8-1/qid=1168286088/ref=sr_1_1/103-9899561-6473453?ie=UTF8&s=books). I'd be very surprised if the US political police chose to sit this one out.