Well, shit. Since you put it that way, I guess the whole cops/black people tensions that have been on-going for, I don’t know, a couple of hundred years, have been solved, because those 4 cops got fired.
You are right, I guess the rest of the country has no reason to protest anymore and should just go home!
I doubt anyone supporting Floyd or BLM also support looting and violence.
There are people who will take advantage of social upheaval. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what it is about. They simply see an opportunity to loot an take it.
Others are agents provocateurs and just want to stir the pot.
Most of the people protesting, by a vast majority, want to do so peacefully.
The OP’s premise is flawed.
The way you support the victims of police violence without either supporting protestor violence or supporting violence against protestors is to get your employees in check.
The police in far too many jurisdictions are acting like organized gangs, like crime families. Sure, they provide peace of a sort for those under their control; but the cost is that they demand obedience and superiority, and if they don’t get it, they feel justified in committing violence against those who challenge them.
I watched a feed last night of a peaceful protest in my town. Hundreds of people gathered in a square, nonviolent but furious. The police stood impassive in their riot gear–until someone set off a huge firework in the middle of the crowd. The cops immediately started unloading the tear gas canisters into the crowd. A half-dozen white assholes were throwing water bottles at the cops, and the cops responded with canister after canister after canister, gassing hundreds of nonviolent protestors.
But later that night, a bunch of cops took a knee along with the protestors, and my city put out a self-congratulatory press release talking about how great the rapport was between the protestors and the police.
The worst thing is that their actions might not even have been criminal.
What we need to do if we want the riots to end is to end police violence against civilians. Campaign Zero has some excellent, evidence-based suggestions for doing so, and they need support.
I’m surprised to see no mention there of ending Qualified Immunity (or, at least, weakening it some). It has been in the news a lot recently since several cases are before the US Supreme Court. So far they have rejected several of the cases but a few more are up for consideration.
While the SCOTUS has been the prime mover in setting up the nearly impenetrable qualified immunity we have today I have seen it speculated that even they think it has gotten out of hand and may be looking to loosen it up a bit.
That would allow some measure of accountability for the police departments…hopefully.
My guess is the SCOTUS will barely loosen it and see what happens but we can hope for more.
If I were to riot, it would exactly be against those that hold the power to effect change. Not the followers, they just follow what they think their masters want.
Mobs instinctively know the puppet masters.
Dont move the Goalposts or change the subject. :rolleyes:
I asked “which police are responsible”?
and you said " *the cops who stood around watching as Floyd got murdered", *and after having looked that up, the ones right there were all fired, several have been indicted. The others were two blocks away.
So, the responsible police are all being punished- which is the right thing to do.
Perhaps the protesters don’t feel as you do that “being fired” is adequate punishment for watching their colleague murder a guy?
Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The other three officers, who stood by and did nothing for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while their colleague was killing an unarmed man, have not been charged with any crime.
Of course, that may turn out to be nothing beyond administrative leave (aka paid vacation). It seems the police union is already lining up behind these guys.
Protection from other officers who won’t rat you out, protection from your union, protection from the DA, protection from the mayor…I wish my job had so much protection. All that despite this cop starting worldwide protests and rioting.
I saw a meme going around earlier today that noted you’ve never heard a song with lyrics that said, “Fuck the fire department.”
If this guy gets acquitted Minneapolis is in trouble that day.
If he gets acquitted, the trouble is going to spread much farther than Minneapolis.
People are protesting this is Lagos, Nigeria…I’m not sure what it is - maybe the fact that instead of being a split-second decision, this was a long, drawn out execution - but this one looks like it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Why dont you write to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and suggest criminal charges for them, then?
He is working on it. Charges are best when not filed in haste.
Thankfully only card carrying members of Black Block can buy those uniforms, at the only place they can be acquired, the Black Block Big Box Store.
CMC fnord!
I said that is what he *looks like. *They are pros and come prepared. He could be anyone, and as I said " So far, no one knows who he is." Anarchist groups have been shown to be at the riots. However, white supremacist groups have been posting on twitter as antifa, trying to stir up violence.
So you attack me for saying " So far, no one knows who he is. " and you are just fine with septimus saying "
*There is now evidence that the looting started when a WHITE policeman from St. Paul, *" when so far- there is no such evidence.
I wouldn’t advocate violence at all even though the frustration and aggravation is understandable. The problem is that mob violence is not easily constrained. There are factions in the world that are very opportunistic and they’ll hijack a movement to further their own aims. Solving police brutality is a very difficult task but I think you can be against police brutality and other forms of extrajudicial violence and not be for rioting, arson, and looting.
Who is “going after stores or businesses”? Not protesters. Looters. Looters aren’t protesters, they’re looters.
Pretty sure there is evidence that the guy is white. I mean, there is video and everything.
Maybe you think a black guy put white makeup around his eyes first and then went out and started busting windows?
The story is that it’s a specific cop. The MPD unequivocally denies the story, claiming that they’ve verified that cop was on-duty in a different location at the time.
Well, if there is one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that cops should be trusted 100% in everything they say.
Definitely not. But this doesn’t sound to me like the kind of lie that law enforcement tends to tell. The bizarre conspiracy it’d require for him to be able to keep up the charade without anyone saying, “Hey, waitaminute” is so extreme.
This theory just doesn’t ring true to me, especially given the hordes of white dudes ready and willing to fuck shit up in order to further their own ideological agenda, no matter how many black people they endanger in the process.
So we shouldn’t send a saboteur we can’t quite clock to a pestilential prison with a life-long lock just because some shops were smashed in with a short, sharp shock by a cheap and chippy shopper from the big Black Block?