When black people riot, do Al Sharpton et al, say, "Hey those aren't real black people?"  No. To the best of my recollection act like the leaders they imagine themselves to be and call on people to calm the hell down.

Currently, black hat and coat wearing people are behaving very badly in Bet Shemesh, and Agudah has issued a response via press release, as follows:

Reports of recent events in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh are deeply disturbing.

Violence of any sort, whether physical or verbal, by self-appointed “guardians” of modesty is reprehensible. Such conduct is beyond the bounds of decent, moral - Jewish! - behavior. We condemn these acts unconditionally.

Those who have taken pains to note that the small group of misguided individuals who have engaged in this conduct are not representative of the larger charedi community are to be commended. It is disturbing, though, that some Israeli politicians and secularists have been less responsible, portraying the actions of a very few as indicative of the feelings of the many. Quite the contrary, the extremist element is odious to, and rejected by, the vast majority of charedi Jews.

Lost in all the animus and ill will, unfortunately, is the concept ostensibly at the core of the controversy: the exalted nature of tzenius, or Jewish modesty.

Judaism considers human desires to constitute a sublime and important force, but one whose potential for harm is commensurate with its potential for holiness.

In a society like our own, where the mantra of many is, in effect, “anything goes,” many charedi Jews, men and women alike, see a need to take special steps - in their own lives and without seeking to coerce others - to counterbalance the pervasive atmosphere of licentiousness, so as to avoid the degradation of humanity to which it leads.

It would be tragic were the acts of violence to lead Jews to, G-d forbid, reject the culture of tzenius that has always been the hallmark of the Jewish nation, to regard Jewish modesty as something connected to violence and anger, rather than to refinement and holiness.

As you can see, rather than accepting the mantle of leadership, Agudah is denying all responsibility and, in doing so, confessing the impotence and insignificance of their supposedly all powerful supposedly universally revered gedolim. Worse, while condmening the violence, Agudah is agreeing with the opinions and perspectives that make the violence inevitable.

As the end of the press release confirms, the world IS a sucky, dangerous, soul destroying, place. What the zealots want IS right and IS worth fighting for. Women should NOT walk or sit anywhere they please. They MUST organize their lives to keep us from having erections and dirty thoughts. Only <<shrug/shrug>> what can you do? We may be able to marshal our forces and denounce Avi Weiss in one mighty roar, but when women are being physically injured, me crazy crazy people with whom we agree completely but for whom we take no responsibility maybe shouldn't have behaved violently. And if the media hadn't identified them with us, really, we wouldn't care. But because were being lumped together with people who think and act like we do 99.99 percent of the time, we would really like to point out, that as usual secularists and newspapers are the real villians here.