[grasshopperpurp]

>Meanwhile in US/Western Europe riots are for some reason seem to be directed not at government and police but at uninvolved car/store owners.

Makes it seem like those rioters have different - maybe opposite - motivations than the protesters.

[pydry]

This is pretty common:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebec-police-admit-they-went...

"However, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence."

"Police came under fire Tuesday, when a video surfaced on YouTube that appeared to show three plainclothes police officers at the protest with bandanas across their faces. One of the men was carrying a rock."

"In the video, protest organizers in suits order the men to put the rock down, call them police instigators and try unsuccessfully to unmask them."

These events are not commonly believed when there isn't clear cut video evidence, though. Property destruction will be, by default, blamed on the protestors rather than police instigators. In this case the police were easily identified simply because they were sloppy and forgot to not wear police issue boots. Had the video not proved that and that they intended to commit violence, this would have been a wild conspiracy theory.

I don't quite understand why this practice isn't extremely illegal in every country that has pretenses towards democracy. It's a form of fraud.

[nickff]

The government and the police permit themselves to commit fraud, as it is often a convenient means by which to achieve their objectives (i.e. the police can lie to you, but you cannot lie to the police).