Occupy Movement must keep Black Bloc OUT

                               Black bloc

          A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarves, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing items.The clothing is used to avoid being identified, and to, theoretically, appear as one large mass, promoting solidarity.

The tactic was developed in the 1980s by autonomists protesting squatter evictions, nuclear power and restrictions on abortion among other things. Black blocs gained broader media attention outside Europe during the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations, when a black bloc damaged property of GAP, Starbucks, Old Navy, and other multinational retail locations in downtown Seattle.
"The Black Bloc" is sometimes incorrectly reported as being the name of a specific anarchist group. It is, rather, a tactic that may be adopted by groups of various motivations and methods.

       What began as a peaceful protest with reggae music and colorful rainbow peace signs in support of the global Occupy movement ended in what can only be described as total anarchy and urban warfare on the cobbled streets of Rome. Less than an hour into the organized demonstrations, which started at La Sapienza University with students legitimately protesting education cuts and their bleak future, a single car exploded on the Via Cavour not far from Rome’s historic Colosseum. From that moment on, chaos reigned and the Italian capital turned into a battleground.

       A group of G20 protesters roamed Toronto’s streets Saturday, lighting police cars on fire and laying waste to city blocks, and much of the destruction could be blamed on a protest tactic known as Black Bloc. The Black Bloc strategy is simple: show up at demonstrations and attack symbols of capitalism. The hope is that police will react, while the protesters shed their black clothes and melt into the crowd.  The Black Bloc has been present at almost every world event, smashing, breaking and destroying stores, vehicles and anything else they come upon. In Seattle, it was McDonald’s and Nike. In Vancouver, Black Bloc members smashed windows at Olympic sponsor HBC’s downtown store displaying Games merchandise and spray-painted the anarchist circle-A symbol on at least one bus and city vehicle.

       As Occupy Oakland's after-dark chaos overshadowed the daytime calm in headlines, many in the movement have started to fear their message is getting drowned out by those bent on little more than destruction. Until it degenerated into chaos late at night one of the defining characteristics of Wednesday's Oakland protest was the noticeable absence of uniformed police amid the peaceful march. But as a small minority of black-masked anarchists known as the Black Bloc vandalized stores and later set fires and stormed buildings, many activists on Twitter bemoaned the fact that those incidents, not the large-scale protest, would dominate headlines. And they did.