Yes, nobody around here thinks it’s safe to resume normal activities yet, at all.
As others have pointed out, Rittenhouse’s self-defense argument basically means that if you shoot someone, and another person/persons tries to attack or disarm you, you are legally entitled to “defend” yourself by shooting them, too.
Which would mean that mass shooters only kill the first person - the rest were self defense. Quite an argument.
Then why did Democrats (including Pelosi) call the federal officers sent in to Portland ‘stormtroopers’?
You want a national response, but you know damned well that if Trump tried any kind of national response he’d be called a fascist who put stormtroopers in the streets of America.
His offer to help various cities has been rejected - by the Democrats running them. At some point, you have to own the decisions being made by members of your party.
If Trump really were the tyrant they are claiming, he wouldn’t have listened to their demands that he withdraw the DHS forces…
The violence that’s going on in various cities is the reaponsibility of the cities first, the state second, and the feds third. If you want the feds involved, you need to accept that the cities and states failed in their duty to protect the citizens, And Democrats run every single one of them.
They weren’t sent to help, they were sent to stir up violence and chaos. The Trump campaign is open about this - they see violence and chaos as beneficial to their campaign (and say so publicly!), so it’s no surprise that they try to use their power to stir up more chaos and violence. And it’s no surprise that the Democrats aren’t terrible inclined to cooperate.
Unlike the rioters and looters, I’ve been practicing social distancing and wearing my mask when it’s necessary for me to shop. With cash. Not with bricks.
It’s a dishonest catch 22. It’s sad that being anti looting and anti rioting is now a partisan activity.
And everyone else pretends that right wing chaos and violence do not exist unless “self defense”.
How revealing that when someone says “national response” you immediately hear “armed intervention.” The response liberals are looking for is a top-down commitment to racial justice, including making police officers more accountable and trying to break the “wolves/sheep/sheepdog” mindset that has many cops treating their own communities like hostile occupied territory.
I would love to hear the details of your national plan that doesn’t involve police actions to stop the riots. Not handwaving about ‘social justice’, but actual proposals that are palatable to the American public and would stop the riots if they passed.
I would think that the American public would like for police officers to cease using excessive force against black citizens.
A majority of the public are in favor of reforms that make police accountable for using excessive force, rather than allowing them to evade punishment through immunity statutes and police union stonewalling. Most people want to see no-knock warrants abolished and for small police departments to stop being outfitted like private armies. Most people (finally) accept that minorities are unfairly singled out by law enforcement and want to see reforms that correct this.
Of course, this kind of change requires more than just signing a bill into law (or, to suit the tastes of our lazy, show-off president, signing an executive order). This is a change that is at least as much a matter of perception and priorities as it is legislation. But legislation is a good place to start, and since you’re looking for specifics, you can start with this.
The way to stop rioting is not to give people a reason to riot. Work to vastly decrease the capricious use of deadly force, and have well-established mechanisms in place for dealing with it on the (hopefully rare) occasions it does occur.
As I clarified later, I meant that COVID-19 is a national problem. In response to @octopus who said the states and cities had to handle it.
I said that? When?
A true national plan to police reform and social justice would stop the riots.
Maybe I misunderstood you. If so, I apologize.
No problem 
Not all on the right are of the theological, anti-science wing. I was just hoping that wasn’t one of my 3 a.m. posts is all.
Here’s the thing though. If the opportunistic riots and looting hadn’t taken place the probability of reform would have been MUCH higher. This is why that behavior is not just illegal and immoral it’s also counterproductive.
Agreed. The Trump campaign’s usage of brutality to spread violence and chaos should be investigated, and all involved prosecuted if it turns out they broke the law.
Nate Silver on betting markets:
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1300212434276409347