corrente

This is way beyond "what it is ain't exactly clear." This is, as Lambert noted, getting into Reichstag Fire territory.

The link earlier was to a brief USA Today piece. This is from the local Raleigh News & Observer:

RALEIGH - Vandals attacked the state Republican Party headquarters late Friday leaving behind busted windows, kerosene-soaked rags, vulgar slogans and a charred effigy.

Three protesters were arrested and charged in connection with the damage and attempted arson.

Commotion erupted in two spots on Hillsborough Street shortly after 11 p.m. -- one group of 100 people blocked the road across from the N.C. State University Bell Tower while another 100 gathered at the GOP building.

As officers responded to the illegal demonstration in the street, they passed the group vandalizing the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters at 1506 Hillsborough.

Raleigh police Maj. Dennis Lane said he could not confirm that the two events were related.

When police arrived, both groups scattered in all directions. Many of those who were at the party headquarters fled into the Cameron Park neighborhood.
Police caught none of the protesters in either area. But two neighbors did.

Hearing a commotion, John Robbins and a neighbor captured and detained three protesters until police arrived.

"I found them between the garages taking off their black clothes," Robbins said, adding that one of the female protesters bit him on the shoulder.

"They were saying they didn't hurt anybody, but my thing for going out there was to hold them responsible for the damage they had done," he said. "Doing this sort of thing just isn't right."

UPDATE: Very alert reader gene 214 raises a damn good point about Mr. Robbins: "Perhaps I'm missing something, but this guy Robbins issued this statement to police right after holding a couple of people who "were changing clothes between garages" immediately after they had apparently committed their little act of armed resistance. Unless this guy lives right next door to the Gop office, how the hell did he know about the damage these people caused??"

Good question, gene, let's hope somebody at the Nando thinks to ask it.

To continue with our story...

Vanessa Marie Zuloaga, 24, and Melissa Lynn Brown, 18, both of Columbia, S.C. and David Reuben Hensley, 20, of Raleigh were each charged with one count of causing malicious damage to property by use of an incendiary device, a felony. All three remained in the Wake County jail late Saturday, each being held on the $50,000 bail.

Saturday morning, Robbins discovered a black flag and crowbar in his yard and handed them over to police.

John Denton found all sorts of odd stuff during his morning walk including a duffel bag, a torch, bandannas, gloves, a roll of duct tape and even a discarded drum. He pointed it all out to officers. Denton said he too heard lots of unusual noise Friday night.

Besides the spray-painted slogans "Hang em high" and "No more prez," the vandals scrawled a capital "A" inside a circle, an anarchist symbol, on the blond brick building and on its sign.

Anarchy symbols also appeared on the Bank of America automatic teller machine across from the Bell Tower and on another nearby brick building, both on Hillsborough.

The N.C. Independent Media Center web site published what appeared to be a firsthand account of the vandalism, describing the march preceding it as featuring "anarchist, anti-capitalist and revolutionary" banners carried by demonstrators who "danced to the beat of several drums" and "decorated the streets with graffiti."

Bill Peaslee, state GOP chief of staff, said the party plans to make repairs and move forward.

Asked if he thought the attack was partisan, he said: "They didn't hit down the street," referring to the state Democratic Party headquarters on Hillsborough closer to the Capitol. Police said they are trying to protect that building.

"The thing that is the most disturbing is that these people don't have a better way of expressing themselves," said Peaslee, who was wearing a "W 2004" ballcap Saturday morning. Ever the party leader, he even offered a backhanded compliment to the protesters. "They were very well organized."

The police investigation continued Saturday afternoon, Lane said.

"We're trying to determine if we can identify any additional suspects," he said.

Now let's look this over. I have no links to the anarchist community but just on the face of it I would have trouble believing that they (1) number 200 active, willing-to-show-up-for-a-rave members in Raleigh-friggin'-Durham North Carolina, or that (2) all 200 would agree to engage in this project, or most especially that (3) a group that size would not have as many police infiltrators as actual members, if not more.

The fact that somebody does things they've seen self-proclaimed "anarchists" do on TV, like the spraypainting of "A", does not prove anything except that they watch TV. And why the automatic assumption, not just by the local Head GOoP but the cops and even the newspaper reporter, that these people must be, or be affiliated with, Democrats? Hell, we have enough trouble keeping our own factions marching together, I never once in the course of a long campaign heard of any outreach to the black-beret folks.

And out of 200 people rampaging in the streets the police caught exactly ZERO? Does this not seem just a tad odd to anybody?

And an Indymedia site, yeah the outfit that had a batch of their servers seized by police in a bizarre international effort just before the election, happens to be the one they mention as having a remarkably quick story about this action?

And doesn't the aforementioned Head GOoP, Mr. Peasley, sound remarkably calm about all this? Just barely a tut-tut, followed by a compliment on the organizational skills of a rampaging, property-destroying, raving MOB for chrissakes?

Correntians in the area, or who have contacts there, let us know what the local chatter is. Anybody know these three arrested parties? Previous affiliations of a political nature? What's the neighborhood like, what's the nearest college, etc.

Followup will be conducted here.