Police #2: Burning down the house

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I dont mean to come across as a dick but I have to ask, is this protest really more important than not spreading the disease? These crowds are fucking madness. 

Also, nobody is talking about how Trump has fucked up anymore, and is giving him the opportunity to strut and throw his weight around. 

The racism virus has been around a lot longer here.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

15 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

Feds are claiming this is "antifa like" violence, state and local claiming its white nationalists. Both claim it's out of towners and both sounds like bullshit attempts to delegitimize the protests and create and excuse using even more extreme violence on the protesters. (Not that it's not been incredibly extreme, one person covering it I saw on twitter has lost sight in one of their eyes from being shot with a tracer round)

I think it is right wing groups employing “black bloc” tactics the way some Antifa groups have to do two things:

1. Start riots

2. impugn Antifa.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/protesters-violence-george-floyd

Another article along those lines:

https://www.justsecurity.org/70497/far-right-infiltrators-and-agitators-in-george-floyd-protests-indicators-of-white-supremacists/

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Finally, there were “Boogaloo” advocates throwing things in my former home town Columbia SC yesterday:  

I’d share a photo if I knew how.

[DMC]

The egregiousness of policing in this country is systemic, and the past few days have been demonstrable and undeniable proof of that to a level that probably hasn't been seen since the sixties.  There are alternative arguments - such as the media highlights the most inflammatory images, or the police are only somewhat responsible for the counteracts that routinely happen during any threat they deem worthy of such action.  And I am usually sympathetic to those arguments, to a certain extent. 

Plus the fact that, yeah, when shit goes down certain people just want to loot.  Not for any political motive, or even anarchy, they just want to get shit.  I knew a lot of those people, and for a time was one.  But no.  Just no.  There is no way to justify this, even when taking the pandemic into account.  Which, yes, is something to consider.  But shouldn't that just emphasize how fucked up this situation has gotten that so many DGAF?

[Conflicting Thought]

I dont know, in chile we had riots to like 4 month ago, and i think they are entirely justifiable, when you live in a country that, as, trevor noah said in the video posted, when the social cobtract its just one way, why would you abaid by it?. Further more, i think that capitalism and the consumer society has a lot of blame to when it comes to the looting aspect of it all, in as far as it creates a "necessity" to have things, specially things that you could never get working, and to have dose things, in a society like ours (chile is an ultra neo liberal state) is seen as being a part of that society. 

Like, if people live under constant ideologial and (very) real (state and private sponsored) violence why do we act surpirsed when shit hits the fan?.

I really dont like when people say that looters just want to loot, doesnt it seem like to simple an explanation?. 

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Conflicting Thought said:

I really dont like when people say that looters just want to loot, doesnt it seem like to simple an explanation?. 

I think capitalism, or at least whatever you can call not only the US system but also the World Economy, needs to be completely revoked - not just reformed, yes.  But that still doesn't change the fact that in every city I've been to during uprisings, there are people that just want to steal some shit.

[Conflicting Thought]

25 minutes ago, DMC said:

I think capitalism, or at least whatever you can call not only the US system but also the World Economy, needs to be completely revoked - not just reformed, yes.  But that still doesn't change the fact that in every city I've been to during uprisings, there are people that just want to steal some shit.

But that is my point, that, when you have rioting at this scale, the explanation that people just want to steal shit, is lacking. There are deeper sociological and psychological (and others) factors playing a role in this (an others) uprisings. 

Becouse when you think that all of this (the rioting and looting), is just people taking advantage to steal and cause chaos, you block any other analysis, any other interpretation of why people are reacting in this way. Why would people come to this reaction, what has been happening in the society to allow this type of reaction, this disenfranchisement of the people. When i see people looting tvs and what not, i wonder why, why would you loot that, and i find the answer that they like stealing to be severley lacking and shallow. 

[DMC]

14 minutes ago, Conflicting Thought said:

But that is my point, that, when you have rioting at this scale, the explanation that people just want to steal shit, is lacking.

It wasn't my explanation.  In fact, I went out of my way to not mention "rioting" at all.  I was saying it's a small aspect, after all the other aspects I mentioned.

[DanteGabriel]

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I think it is right wing groups employing “black bloc” tactics the way some Antifa groups have to do two things:

1. Start riots

2. impugn Antifa.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/protesters-violence-george-floyd

Another article along those lines:

https://www.justsecurity.org/70497/far-right-infiltrators-and-agitators-in-george-floyd-protests-indicators-of-white-supremacists/

I've had social media arguments with Trumpkins who completely believe all the bad stuff is solely the fault of "antifa" paid by George Soros. When I asked for evidence that the white people breaking store windows and starting fires were antifa, I got a link to Bill Barr's statement about "far left extremists using antifa-like tactics."

Then there was the other Soros-blamer who posted pages of what purport to be some kind of antifa manual for riots, that read like what a half-bright 4channer would think actual antifascists would say. It was a modern day Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

5 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

I've had social media arguments with Trumpkins who completely believe all the bad stuff is solely the fault of "antifa" paid by George Soros. When I asked for evidence that the white people breaking store windows and starting fires were antifa, I got a link to Bill Barr's statement about "far left extremists using antifa-like tactics."

Then there was the other Soros-blamer who posted pages of what purport to be some kind of antifa manual for riots, that read like what a half-bright 4channer would think actual antifascists would say. It was a modern day Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Trumpanistas do not believe in facts.  Reality is a problem for them.

[Fragile Bird]

I feel like we’re in one of the final episodes this season of Westworld. 

[Fury Resurrected]

Last night I think most of the locals around me, certainly people I know, saw all the out of state plates and cars with no plates at all and stayed on their blocks. There was block by block organization to deter Nazis and arson, I sat out until 2am with the watch on my block. We heard A LOT of gunfire, which was not the case on previous nights. We are in earshot of Pimento (Jamaican restaurant) which has been serving as an aide station and has been a target for white supremacists. We think the shots we heard were there, there were reports of an altercation with white supremacists there. Lots of suspicious vehicles driving crazy fast down lyndale, some national guard vehicles. But, nobody tried to burn the gas station on the corner and my cute neighborhood coffee shop still stands unharmed

[OldGimletEye]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Trumpanistas do not believe in facts.  Reality is a problem for them.

I think my response to Trumpist making these claims would be "So What?". Even if all their allegations were true, it has about 0 relevance to the issues being protested over or the atrocious police conduct with regard to journalist.

It largely smoke and mirrors and an attempt to deflect.

[Fury Resurrected]

A gas semi just plowed into a peaceful demonstration on the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. Reports the driver may have fired when stopped

[KingintheNorth4]

 

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

27 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

 

 

I saw this yesterday.  They can push you onto your property but they do not have the power to force you to remain inside your house.  Your front porch is "inside" for purposes of a curfew.

[Jace, Extat]

4 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I saw this yesterday.  They can push you onto your property but they do not have the power to force you to remain inside your house.  Your front porch is "inside" for purposes of a curfew.

You gonna go explain that to the policemans?

[Fury Resurrected]

6 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I saw this yesterday.  They can push you onto your property but they do not have the power to force you to remain inside your house.  Your front porch is "inside" for purposes of a curfew.

I’m making you represent me in my suit against them if we get shot on the porch with the block watch tonight 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

20 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

I’m making you represent me in my suit against them if we get shot on the porch with the block watch tonight 

I'd love to.  Not licensed in Minnesota.  

[The Mance]

41 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

I’m making you represent me in my suit against them if we get shot on the porch with the block watch tonight 

Apparently they've amended the curfew order to include something to the effect of "if a police officer orders you to go inside you must comply."  So, stay safe.