[thechat] What about the economy?

[isaac]

> Current reporting in most mass media alleges that the entire
> demonstration was violent. A few honourable exceptions and most
> eyewitness reports are clear that most of the unprovoked violence
> was on the part of the police on unarmed, non-violent demonstrators.

excerpts from ninemsn (one of the major AU online news sources):

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G8 'assassination' inflames protest anger

...

Clouds of tear gas billowed into the air as riot police and a hard core of
militants who broke away from a peaceful mass march fought running battles
...

Caught between the combatants were thousands of non-violent marchers who
scrambled up stone stairways and ducked into alleys to flee baton-wielding
police - some not quickly enough to escape a clubbing.

The fresh outbreak of violence dismayed those who had hoped to march
peacefully. The violent protesters "were 500 people in a peaceful march of
thousands", said 31-year-old demonstrator Simona Tatarini, nearly weeping
from frustration and the acrid stench of wafting tear gas. "They had clubs
and firebombs - what were we supposed to do to get them out of the march?"

Some of those trying to keep the demonstration peaceful scuffled with the
so-called "black" group of violent protesters, mainly men in their early
20s, hooded or masked, dressed in black, carrying iron bars or wooden clubs
and wearing motorcycle helmets or construction hard hats.

Ugo Nassa, from the Italian city of Bologna, was punched in the face when he
tried to stop a group of youths from setting fire to a trash bin. "These
people are destroying our march," he said, his face swollen from the blow.

Summit leaders, who had earlier issued a joint statement expressing sorrow
over Friday's death and deploring the violence, renewed those sentiments as
the fighting continued.
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