Greenpeace should choose its targets more wisely

National Review, March 14, 2005

* Greenpeace should choose its targets more wisely. When 35 protesters invaded London's International Petroleum Exchange--where open-cry trading in the rough-and-tumble pits is practiced--sounding fog horns, setting off alarms, and blowing whistles to signal their disenchantment with the oil business and capitalism and stuff, they were not greeted with the polite, bourgeois response they receive in more respectable quarters.

Instead, dozens of young traders, refreshed by several lunchtime drinks, tackled the protesters and gave them a good kicking--all the way out the door and onto the sidewalk. Several protesters claimed that their foes had tried to push heavy filing cabinets onto them. "We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow-boy spivs. Total thugs," complained one nice, middle-class Greenpeacer nursing a bruised skull. "I've never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view." Call us persnickety, but didn't Greenpeace pick on them by trespassing and disturbing their business?