One time in the early 00s, this was many years before I had moved to Stockholm but I was visiting there. I was visiting a pen pal who lived in a fancy neighborhood. He was hours late so I just hung out outside. My clothes were home made but had seen better days. I had a can of uncooked crushed tomatoes to nosh on and maybe some French rolls.
Turns out that completely coincidentally, this day there was supposed to be a big anarchosocialist demo. This was back in the day before the kids turned right wing. It was the first Bush term. Maybe a li’l less than one year after the Gothenburg shitshow in 01. Now, back in my home town, yes, that was absolutely the kind of punks I hung out with on the daily. But I had no idea that this demo was gonna take place. I learned that in the day there, I saw a poster or something. The whole shtick of the demo was the “class journey”, everyone meeting up in another neighborhood then marching to the fancy one. I wasn’t gonna participate. I was just there to meet my pen pal.
Two stories from that day:
An old lady was scared and started talking to a male cop right within earshot of where I was waiting. She was worried that the whole neighborhood was gonna turn to broken glass and teargas, I dunno. Cop turns to me saying that maybe I know something about that. I say no, I’m just waiting for my friend who lives here. Cop instantly yells 3cm from my face at the top of his lungs: “you’re lying!” Then walks away.
Second story: a while later, I overheard two guys, on bikes, in super fancy style. Local. Rich. One of them says to the other “wouldn’t it be awesome if we smashed some stuff and blamed the activists?” His pal didn’t seem on board, didn’t reply, and they both left.
Of course, riot never comes. Later, at home after my visit with my pal was over, back in my home town, I go online and they never even got there, they took another route, demo arrangers trying to come across as if that was the plan all along. Maybe that was just an excuse or maybe that was really the case, I don’t really care. Just a day I’ll never forget, spending one day in the fancy neighborhood and seeing all the living lies and delusions on display there.