In Omaha there was a news report that “protester” shot and killed by a bar owner a couple nights ago. My first thought was that an understandably upset but overzealous shop owner shot a protester who came too close to his building.
Fortunately for the bar owner, cameraphones saved him. I didn’t watch the video because it’s too depressing. The prosecutor held a press conference and played the video so everyone could see what really happened. Apparently after trying to get them to leave his business alone, he was backing up and trying to get away. One of the looters grabbed him and put him in a chokehold. He actually fired over his shoulder and killed the guy who was choking him.
It’s just a bad situation overall. But if it had been what I assumed things would have escalated tremendously in Omaha. As awful as it is that they showed the video, I think they had to because otherwise everyone would say the police were just covering for a white business owner.
As I said several pages ago, I see good and bad actors on both sides. I think if the police weren’t teargassing and attacking peaceful protesters at 8:01 after an 8:00 curfew was missed there is a good chance that the situation would not have escalated to the point that this attack happened.
Obviously putting a retreating business owner in a chokehold is not defensible, regardless of the circumstances. But personally I’m pretty disappointed in the way Omaha Police Department is conducting themselves. They are not focusing on the bad actors. They are too busy gassing the peaceful protestors. The leadership of OPD bears some responsibility for this.
Mostly I’m just relaying this story because I don’t know if it will get picked up on national news and frankly this board is my outlet some days. Another day goes by that I am depressed about the state of our country.
Didn’t say the arrestee was a protester (as opposed to a looter). But the look was bad regardless, even if the details are less incriminating. People make quick judgement (here and elsewhere), so it is not surprising that this can inflame.
I have not read this thread yet and most likely won’t after reading some people’s opinions but where I work on Naperville they closed the entire downtown and told employees to go home at noon. Think they were boarding up businesses
Our office is not far from downtown Naperville but we live in Chicago but my wife canceled her day seeing patients. We go through downtown (yes we can go around) Naperville and so do lots of our patients. We just thought is was the right thing to do
I will see the patients on Thursday and Saturday as I am out of town.
Where I live in West Lakeview (Wrigleyville area) they are planning some protest by the Belmont El Station. This is not good. Tons of shops there
They will destroy this area then the rioters will leak into the neighborhoods. Already reports last night of people doing damage. Getting closer to where people live. My daughter went to the protest in Chicago 2 days ago. No issues. It was organized/peaceful from 2-5 pm. Then she and her friends left (I actually picked them up when they walked a few miles away, long story). Then a few hours later the rioters started. This has to stop. It’s a free for all. I am for protesting and trying to solve social injustice problems, I lived through the Detroit Riots etc. This is organized chaos.
I just don’t support throwing bricks, M80s, fireworks at officers and buildings etc. That is not protesting that is war.
Protesters are about to shut down an interstate highway in St. Louis. Nothing to loot there, so they really are protesters. But they may not be helping their cause.
I am driving halfway across the country in a few days to collect my very elderly parents, and I’ve been worried about COVID. Now I have to consider running into riots. Ugh. Was not looking forward to this drive (2,000 miles round trip) and now I am really not.
I too cannot believe what our country has become, and cannot wait for 2020 to be over.
IMO there were going to be riots at some point anyway, but much less about race and much more about ALL the people whose lives are being decimated as we speak. There is going to be massive unrest as more people are left resourceless in a leaderless country with no comprehensive social safety net. I don’t know that anyone should expect a return to normal.
I’m pleasantly surprised at our city. Our demographics are roughly equal black/white. Historically, race relations have not been good. The police department has been trying over the last few years, but changing public perception is hard. Anyhow, we have had 2 small peaceful protests, no looting or destruction. I was a bit worried this afternoon since they closed City Hall early and had the police all prepped with riot gear. But so far nothing, and the paper reported the police chief marched with the protesters and hugged the main organizer after her speech. (Probably not a good social distancing measure, but still)
Looters are opportunists. They are not there because of police brutality any more than they are there because they are sports fans or weather junkies. They tend to come out at protests because they are a large gathering of people and they can sneak about in the margins doing their dirty work.
It’s the same when there’s a sports championship and the crowd gets unruly. Look at the fringes and you’ll likely find vandalism and looting. Are those people sports fans? Do we blame the sport?
Do we blame the weather if there’s looting after a power outage or natural disaster? We should only blame the people doing the looting. In this case, people stealing designer handbags seems well orchestrated to take advantage of the grief and dismay that others are feeling about a police killing. It is cold and greedy. I liked Gov Cuomo’s words about it today.