Yes, even after soccer games there's often enough troublemakers to require large scale police operations. Regardless of what any protest is about there are always so called "violence tourists" who specifically go somewhere to participate in riots, even (and sometimes especially) if it's another city than theirs or even another country. Thanks to open borders, you can pretty much walk around from one Schengen country to the next without ever needing to show any ID. Even if only a small percentage of protesters turn violent, that's usually enough to bind a massive amount of police resources. The worst offenders don't even seem to care about what they are protesting, this is just a venue for them to go crazy and light up some cars, release pent-up stress, fight boredom and have a good chance to get away with impunity - even if they get arrested, European cuddly justice is generally way too lenient so there's no real deterrent. Not that there's any place in the world I'd know of where the justice system is just right, it seems we have countries which are ridiculously cruel with super long prison sentences for harmless offenses and countries which are laughably too lenient and the offenders get more protection than the victims.

They are mostly peaceful here as well. The problem is that protests don't get any worldwide medial coverage if they are peaceful. Me for example didn't know that there is lot of peaceful protests in the USA. I only see the violent ones.

*winning

Fair enough. Media likes to sensationalize all over the world, I suppose.

As far as peaceful protests in the US - in every major capitol or big metropolitan area I think there's about a protest a month. Just IME, there's probably data on it somewhere? Usually they're too small to notice outside the immediate area.

The Occupy Wallstreet protests were all very peaceful except in a few cities, and even when the protestors set up tent cities people just grumbled and worked around them. Even most of the Ferguson protests have been fairly peaceful - there's protests on most nights in that area but usually not much violence - and that area's a powder keg if there ever was one.

Oh good, more violent hooligans demanding an infinite supply of other people's money.

At least other countries riot over crooked monetary policy, we freak the fuck out over children's games.

In fairness Canada has gotten pretty good at it too, though I think they're just trying to impress us. :P

Yeah but Canada has the excuse of decent beer.

Meh.

I think people need to understand part of the context surrounding Frankfurt in particular. It's one of the most violent cities in Germany (in fact, I believe it was statistically proven to be the most violent city?), yet it's also Germany's banking centre and is also home to some of the most stupidly rich bankers in Germany. It has one of the biggest clufts between rich and poor in Europe. The city itself is basically one big symbol of corporate greed in this country. Unfortunately peaceful protest hasn't proven to be an effective solution either. The way the corporate elite basically just shrug off protest as meaningless shows that eventually, more direct action has to be taken.

I'm no fan of violence, don't get me wrong, but things have to change, and Europe needs to start seeing more decisive action. It's plagued by corporate corruption. Germany, France and the UK are all in danger of being overrun by the extreme right and the extreme left.

Democracy has failed. Capitalism has failed. The rule of law has failed. I'm not sure what else people can do except express themselves through violence.

You are talking about the bankers, right? ;)

How about shitty weed? I'd be mad too.

Of course! Emmanuel Goldstein and the rest of the evil, faceless bankers. Come, let us all do our daily hate-filled ablutions.

haven't really followed this very much, just catched a bit on the radio. I can sort of understand your reasoning, but:
attacking the fire department? public transport? an asylum center ?!?
sorry, but that sort of violence is inexcusable. No matter how angry you are about the status quo.