What's the Damage in your City?

[BunsenBurner]

Oh wow. The protest moved downtown past a group of folks with impressive looking guns who said they were there to support the protesters but were watching out out for looters. Cops and -!!! - those residents with guns took a knee together with the demonstrators. Then a bunch of people went and stretched out on the grass in the park. Masks worn by 90% of those in the photos on Twitter.

So far, so good. The police are not letting their guard down. The hospital apparently received some threats, and some business owners are boarding up.

[camathmom]

@OneMoreToGo2021

Shades of 1968. Get ready for a new round of “white flight.” 1970s all over again. The more things change the more they stay the same.

It is horrible just as it was in 1967 and 1968, I agree with that. But I do not think that we live in the same world now. Our young people are much more aware of racism, and even if white, are not afraid of taking action against it. And fortunately, we have a much larger black middle class.

[roethlisburger]

@greenwitch

@greenwitch
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?

You must be going to different sporting events than I’ve witnessed. In all my years of going to numerous NFL and MLB games, not once have I witnessed a single instance of vandalism or looting.

[Mwfan1921]

@camathmom

@OneMoreToGo2021

Shades of 1968. Get ready for a new round of “white flight.” 1970s all over again. The more things change the more they stay the same.

It is horrible just as it was in 1967 and 1968, I agree with that. But I do not think that we live in the same world now. Our young people are much more aware of racism, and even if white, are not afraid of taking action against it.

Don’t know about race, but realtors in our suburban area say home sales are really picking up with people wanting to move out of the city (Chicago).

[Leigh22]

@ucbalumnus the look was bad? Please. And the point is that jumping to conclusions and making quick assumptions based on edited clips on social media is just stupid.

[Nrdsb4]

@greenwitch

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.

Yes. Like this little sociopath:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/politics/illinois-minneapolis-charges/index.html

[88jm19]

@roycroftmom

Please keep your war in your neighborhood, @massmomm. The rest of us are just trying to peacefully coexist.

Food for thought:

• Some equate peace with the status quo which benefits some, but not others.
• Some equate silence with complicity.
• Using “your” suggests you might think you’re above the fray. However, I think the ripple effect of the protests will/has touched all of us. We are all Americans.

I will repeat that I don’t condone looting. We know someone whose business was destroyed. The shock, the pain, the disillusionment is jarring.

But In this moment we are all suffering to varying degrees. I just choose to focus my energy on listening…really listening, as a non-black person to the protesters.

Let’s seek a viable course of action to heal our nation and perhaps make it stronger and better. We may not be a member of the black community but stand with them in seeking justice and systemic change.

Choosing to let the looters hijack the message is under our control. Black lives matter.

[TatinG]

People hate arson and looting now just as in 1968. And lots of people here are frustrated at the weak or absent police response. The looters are put back on the street in a few minutes if they are even arrested.

[MomofWildChild]

@roethlisburger

@greenwitch

@greenwitch
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?

You must be going to different sporting events than I’ve witnessed. In all my years of going to numerous NFL and MLB games, not once have I witnessed a single instance of vandalism or looting.

You must be kidding! Whenever Kentucky wins a championship (or loses, for that matter) sofas are lit on fire, glass is smashed and cars are overturned. Same has happened with professional sports and other college teams.

[Groundwork2022]

Just think… we’ll all have to relive this again when the verdicts come down.

[anomander]

@roethlisburger

@greenwitch

@greenwitch
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?

You must be going to different sporting events than I’ve witnessed. In all my years of going to numerous NFL and MLB games, not once have I witnessed a single instance of vandalism or looting.

Sports fans riot all the time. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of a riot as an NFL and MLB fan.

https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/gallery/notable-sports-riots-gallery-040212

https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/05/here-are-five-american-cities-which-rioted-after-sporting-success-and-defeat-7289493/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_riot

[roycroftmom]

On a positive note, the most ethnically diverse city in the country, Houston, expects another fairly peaceful night and a solid turnout for the official march tomorrow, led by our 60ish African American mayor, our 20something Latina county executive, and our all-star police chief with his officers. We have had very little looting or vandalism, and a lot of discussion and prayers today. It gives one hope.

[OneMoreToGo2021]

@roycroftmom

On a positive note, the most ethnically diverse city in the country, Houston, expects another fairly peaceful night and a solid turnout for the official march tomorrow, led by our 60ish African American mayor, our 20something Latina county executive, and our all-star police chief with his officers. We have had very little looting or vandalism, and a lot of discussion and prayers today. It gives one hope.

So far, things seem reasonably orderly in most of Florida too. Anecdotally, it appears that the “blue” states have a bigger problem on their hands.

[roethlisburger]

@MomofWildChild

@roethlisburger

@greenwitch

@greenwitch
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?

You must be going to different sporting events than I’ve witnessed. In all my years of going to numerous NFL and MLB games, not once have I witnessed a single instance of vandalism or looting.

You must be kidding! Whenever Kentucky wins a championship (or loses, for that matter) sofas are lit on fire, glass is smashed and cars are overturned. Same has happened with professional sports and other college teams.

I wouldn’t agree there’s much if any looting, when Kentucky wins a championship. There is vandalism, but it’s mostly confined to State Street, the Greek row of off campus housing, where all the frats live.

[Leigh22]

Philly update - neighborhood folks are taking defending their property in their own hands. Last night in South Philly, neighbors defended the Target.
Today “old time Fishtowners” were in the streets with hammers and bats telling protesters to stay away.

[privatebanker]

We don’t need the federal government to fix this problem.

They’ve had plenty of time, like the 50 years of my life. What have they done with the previous opportunities?

They won’t be able legislate true tolerance and respect. It’s not just about legal rights. It’s how we look and feel about each other in a real sense.

No, it’s about time we address the underlying issues as a people.

They work for us.

Human agency has a bearing on the matter.

Individual decision making is not absolved and human decency is exempted because of inept federal officials.

The person who points the gun, presses the knee or lights a fuse is powerless in this passion play?

We have been given inalienable rights by a higher power and it’s about time we remember who is in charge here. It’s not the elected officials that’s for sure.

I don’t think racial injustice knows administrations or parties.

Strawman arguments and easy political targets keep us from really getting to the answers.

Tough questions need to be asked. At home. Not in Congress.

Mirrors have to be gazed into quietly and privately.

Personal behavior and ingrained thought systems need to be contemplated.

Friends need to have a talk with another friend. Perhaps a tough one but with love and not venom. Get them to another place maybe. One by one. And this crosses racial lines.

Finger pointing prevents reflection and causes defensiveness in humans. Let’s knock it off.

It’s sad that these terrible issues are leveraged by the media and others on both sides of the political divide to drive partisan views versus the real issue at hand.

Racism is not a political issue. It’s really not. Or it would have been solved by one group or the other by now.

It’s really an “all of us” issue.

In the end, we can’t literally despise half of the country, (or publicly act like we do) regardless of which half you are in, and then ask the other to join you to find answers leading to mutual respect and peace.

It just won’t work. You can’t hate your way to love and tolerance.

You can force people to bury it at the surface but it will come back and perhaps worse.

Ive come to believe the answers to our big problems don’t lay out there somewhere in the marble halls of power, it’s in our own backyards.

That’s our very American way to really get this done once and for all.

It should be us against the world (metaphorically). Not against each other. It’s such a waste of our time here.

[emilybee]

Not surprising in the least.

‘White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter’

“Other misinformation and misleading claims spread across Twitter on Sunday night and into Monday related to the protests.”

June 1, 2020, 7:03 PM EDT / Updated June 1, 2020, 8:57 PM EDT

“A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national “antifa” organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the account violated the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.

As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” with a brown raised fist emoji and “Tonight we say…The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods… and we take what’s ours …”

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/twitter-takes-down-washington-protest-disinformation-bot-behavior-n1221456

[taverngirl]

@Hoggirl

Anyone who watched the Gilmore Girls would be familiar with Birkin bags.

Or Sex and the City, lol.

[Boxcar101]

There’s a predictable backlash that comes from these sorts of things.

Elderly people see frightening images of violence on their screen and run to the polls to vote for law-and-order. The media knows this, but their entire business model is based on rage-baiting for ad share, so they can’t pass on the opportunity.

See: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/05/new-study-shows-riots-make-america-conservative.html

If you live in an echo chamber you may not feel it coming, but I can see a lot of my neighbor’s opinion starting to harden on this.

[Knowsstuff]

@TatinG

Stay out of the cities.

Kinda hard if you live in the cities.