Hey ‘liberal.’ Clash again with any protesters yet? You can tell them that Laquan McDonald is a fatherless bastard and that they are crybabies for disrupting your…whatever. Get your anger on liberal.
I’ve seen some of the coverage of today’s pathetic protest. Pretty low turnout, although the weather is cold, wet, and windy. Outside of Karen Lewis and Jesse Jackson, it looks like the usual group of rabble-rousers who usually show up to protest the establishment and ‘stick it to the man’
The signs are mostly “Justice for Laquann McDonald” as if they expect the trial to start today. There are also quite a few signs with a web address for a amateur communist party website. Doesn’t look like it is much of a disruption to shopping although regrettably I’m sure people stayed away to avoid potential violence and/or rioting.
OK, these assholes have gone too far, it’s time for handcuffs and paddy wagons. They’re trying to block the entrances of stores and prohibit customers from entering or leaving. The NBC 5 coverage doesn’t show exactly how many businesses are being affected, but even one is too many. Not only are these idiots hurting shopping and sales tax revenue, but I’m sure they’re hurting convention business by giving Chicago even more of a bad reputation.
"16 shots and Rahm covered it up? Not much of a cover up when the mother gets 5 million dollars and the officer is in jail awaiting trial. Plus, I fail to see what the connection is between their silly protest and a Macy’s store.
Disrupting business is the very point of protest. Nobody changes anything until they feel it in their pocketbook. Did you think the Montgomery Bus Boycott boosted profits?
The bus boycott made sense since they had a direct complain against the bus company. The idiots blocking Macy’s, Gap, and Topshop have no complaint against these businesses.
It can be, but it needn’t be.
I’ve changed my mind about things w/o feeling it in my pocketbook. You haven’t?
Do you know what the Montgomery Bus Boycott was about??? Hint: It was about the Montgomery Bus policy of racial segregation. Laquan was not killed by Macy’s security guards.
True, but these protests are the most immediate and effective way of showing anger at the city. Putting the shooting/execution aside, this whole investigation reeks of mismanagement (if not blatant obstruction). Evidence was destroyed, charges were delayed over a year (until the day before the remaining dashcam video was forced into the public), during all this ‘investigation’ time the ‘suspect’ was even being paid by the city.
It’s been over a year! Now is the time to protest. Now is the time to put this issue in the (inter)national psyche. You strike when the iron is hot. BLM has very few chances to get this issue the attention it deserves. Make no mistake, sunshine is the only cure to the criminality shown here.
Of course some people just want this issue to disappear. Nothing to see. No problem at all. You’re all just “giving Chicago even more of a bad reputation.” Shut up, stay home. I’ve got shopping to do.
There are better, more effective ways to protest than making people pissed off at you. That is all.
I understand, but you Americans are having your Thanksgiving’s day shopping, no? An industrious rabble-rouser works with what they got. In a perfect world protesting wouldn’t even be necessary.
Also, if anyone does have good ideas for BLM protesters, please share. However, what’s hilarious is the idea being floated that BLM protesters would be more effective if a) they were less aggressive/annoying, or b) they would shut up.
Your MLK said it best here
[QUOTE=Letter from a Birmingham Jail]
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
[/QUOTE]
I wonder what the reaction would have been if a group of gay rights activists had blocked off access and trapped people inside black churches when the black caucus refused to pass same sex marriage legislation a couple years ago.
Not that I would necessarily agree with targeting a Macy’s, but your point is wrong (unsurprisingly). Montgomery Buses were run by a private company whereas the segregation they enforced was due to laws enacted by the government. When the Supreme Court deemed those laws unconstitional, the company changed their policy. It’s arguably that had no ability to skirt the law by desegregating, so your point that there was a complaint against the bus company is largely baseless.
The “black caucus” cannot pass same sex legislation, and they have nothing to do with black churches. That said, I doubt anyone would particularly complain, least of all white people and people of your ilk. Gay rights groups have done outreach to the Black community, so if they had done sub a protest for awareness sake, I don’t think people would be up in arms.
At least in the Chicagoland area, the black representatives in the Illinois House of Representatives have strong ties to the black church community. The black churches were opposed to same sex marriage.
Wait, the Chicago protesters were not letting people out of the stores? (I tried to google but could not find anything.) That’s all kinds of messed up. Blocking egress from a church would be equally reprehensible.
On the other hand, preventing the entry into churches that actively opposed the protesters agenda (if that is indeed the case) is an on-point demonstration, even if there would be more fruitful targets (since I highly doubt that black churches were a key element in blocking gay marriage.).
Whereas the Chicago black friday protests are not targetting the source of disagreement. I doubt there are very many Chicago stores that are pro-murder (again, if there is evidence for this, I would like to see it.)
I watched the live coverage from WMAQ, NBC in Chicago this afternoon. There were certainly times that protesters were blocking the doors to prevent both entrance and exit. Many of these places use a rotating door entry, so often people are entering and exiting at the same time
An unusual alliance of black churches, Roman Catholic churches, as well as downstate Illinois evangelical churches worked feverishly to delay same sex marriage in Illinois. The black churches were key since they reached the usually liberal black Democrats from Chicago in the Illinois House of Representatives.
Most churches are against gay marriage. Regardless, you were intimating that people would have an issue with a gay group protesting a black church, but there is zero evidence that is/would be the case beyond your speculation.
How about the incident on November 18th at Dartmouth college where BLM stormed the library and kept students from studying?
And I’d like to ask, what would YOU do if you were a college student, working hard in the library when a bunch of protesters come in screaming and DEMAND you stand up and join them?
Well I dont know about BLM in general but for black college students like those at University of Missouri I’d say;
- Go for the most difficult and or best potential income producing degree the college has to offer.
- Get the best grades in their class.
I can’t help but think that certain problems with instutitional racism might make this harder than usual.
Why? Unless their is some rule about blacks being told they cant take engineering physics or something. Most times a student is just a number in a class and the instructors dont know who you are. When an exam is graded and the answer are right, they are right.
So protesters should simply not organize protest, nor take action against the unequal application of policing and justice. My advice would be to give tips on MORE EFFECTIVE methods of protest (give specific past cases, keep it civil, express clear goals/chants, speak with unity, show anger/resolve, show local importance/impact, etc).
Your advice is to ignore the issue entirely.