Greek protests

The protests in Greece over the shooting of a teenager by police have spread:

Demonstrations against the killing were seen in cities across the continent with left-wing radicals and other sympathisers taking to the streets.

In Spain, 11 protesters were arrested and several police officers injured when clashes took place in Madrid and Barcelona.

In Copenhagen, 32 people were arrested when their protest in support of the Greek protests turned violent.

In neighbouring Turkey, about a dozen left-wing protesters daubed red paint over the front of the Greek consulate in Istanbul.

Around 150 people belonging to a Danish underground movement took to the streets, throwing bottles and paint bombs at buildings, police cars and officers. In Moscow and Rome, protesters threw petrol bombs at Greece's embassies.

Journalists came under attack for the first time in the riots, with a Russian news crew assaulted by a mob of about 50 youths, some of them reportedly drunk.

At first this may seem like a bit of a head-scratcher -- a kid gets shot in Athens and riots break out all over Europe? There's a simple explanation for all of this: leftists love to protest. It doesn't matter the issue, they just love to take to the streets with fists raised in the air in righteous indignation. Or flash the peace sign like this guy:


My real disdain for these people isn't the fact that they disagree with something, it's the method. If you want to express your anger over something we already have plenty of outlets such as letter writing to political officials (believe me, they get read) and media campaigns. I can also understand the occasional peaceful demonstration. But for so many of these people what they are really looking for is action and to cause a ruckus -- the issue they are protesting is incidental. I suspect that many of them actually hope to get arrested so they can brag later about how they earned their battle stripes.