The time of the digital photography / video recording and social media.

Not a single rock was thrown that day

Cameras and mobile phones are now more powerful than baton rounds and truncheons.

I question whether this was actually peaceful. Although there was no physical violence, there was the intimidation and threat of the crowds potential for overwhelming violence from the large number of people through their movement and actions. So just because it wasn't violent does not mean it was peaceful in perhaps the true sense of the word. What do you think?

#4 There is a distinction between being violent and being forceful. We absolutely need forcefulness. We need to stand and fight for what we believe in, especially if our lives are being destroyed so the few may make the extra buck and advance policies that only benefit special interests and corporations.
Violence, like throwing rocks to the police, however is just wrong, dumb and very much counterproductive.
This was aggressive. Not violent. And right now, we need this kind of forcefulness by the people so we don't get screwed even further.
And Iceland is a great example that it can work. No wonder you don't hear about that on the news.

@ol1v33r
It is hard to give a definite answer to your question since you are going after the definition of the word "violence". Yours is more of a philosophical question than an actual outcome of whether there was physical injuries or not.

The reason why this looks so much like a victory from a democratic point of view is because if the government is able to maintain a protest in order; they will feel like they can overpower civilians and ignore their messages. On the other hand, if civilians overpower what so called "order", government will feel the pressure and will know that the only way to prevent possible violence is by listening their civilians.

Fools ! all of you... This is a backward play. Actually the cops arrived and pushed their way forward. The beginning is the end. They're Spanish for goodness sakes, have you forgotten the Armada.?

Peaceful? Yeah... right. In a mob of that size it doesn't take much at all to trigger a "reaction". Just takes one guy on either side and the entire mob would go ballistic. That's how it works. Of course if something would have happened we wouldn't have seen it on snotr but on the news. Big difference indeed!

Arguments of the definitions of "violence" and "forcefulness" aside... this definitely is not "peaceful."

what no behead signs?

Que bella! Ole!

#2 You will see @0:40 mark there is something thrown

The worst thing for illuminati is awakened people to get together and reject the system.

That's the differece between european and american police officers - be shure, in the USA one of them would have shot and started a bloodbath.

The State reserves the exclusive right to use coercive force to enforce the law. That's reasonable provided that the State behaves justly.

In the case of Spain and the other countries affected by the European Banking debt crisis, the State is NOT acting justly. It still expects private citizens to repay their own debts, whilst bailing out the banks and absolving them from THEIR debts. And it expects the same indebted citizens to repay the bailout money given to the banks! Meanwhile bankers are now dictating to governments how they should legislate, which services they should cut and which new laws and taxation systems they should enact. Bankers are still paying themselves bonuses for good performance. The nerve of it is breathtaking.

We, the citizens, know we are being rooked and we are starting to demonstrate. So we should, it is our right. And the State will try every dirty tactic in the book to thwart those demonstrations, including deliberately provoking violence via over-aggressive riot police and planting agents provocateurs in the crowd to get the ordinary demonstrators a bad name.

Luckily people are aware of some of the tactics likely to be employed. Filming and YouTubing is a powerful counter-weapon in the battle between justice and tyranny.

0:34 @2 really? well that's because they didn't find rocks good municipal work

BTW when you see this much cheers against the police force some must realize that there is something wrong

no matter what caused this, still the title is not correct. its not peaceful, its force. but given the situation, people over there can't react peaceful.

#17 Besides there is no "over there" anymore! Everybody will be involved sooner or later and that is a good thing.

what the f. were they thinking, going in a crowd like that without shields and helmets at least.

police was outnumberd. they retriet for there own savety.
this looks like a win for the protesters but where is the movie when the police came back in ten fold? the police in spain isnt really the nicest on the planet