This thread is about riots and damage. Not lawful protests.
There’s no damage where we live yet, and I honestly don’t expect there to be much, if any.
Sadly, the protesting has ended and rioting has taken its place. Now “protests” provide cover for rioters to gain ground and instigate unrest.
Some posters seem to link the current protests and/or riots with SAH/SIP orders. Where are the evidences?
Our mayor said that of the 90 people arrested in last night’s riots, “the vast majority” are not Dallas residents.
D2 has packed an overnight bag in the event that things get scary her way. She and her bf will come stay with us or with his parents if it gets bad.
Sick that people have to have an emergency bag packed because of this.
Emergency bags are a good idea even when there aren’t riots.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. That statement was directed towards the POTUS who purposefully called the killing a “tragedy” and a certain media station downplaying the killing as “suspect died while in police custody”. It’s a not so subtle attempt to deflect the real cause of death which would alienate their base and viewers, respectfully.
Another wasted leadership opportunity to bring our nation together.
There was a march and protest in New Orleans but no damage.
IMO the police culture here has changed. We are still under a federal consent decree and people high up are concerned that things go well and they don’t tolerate nonsense in the ranks. There were recent firings when a certain task force was found to be cooking evidence. Last year, officers involved in a forbidden high speed chase were fired. Someone died in that chase when one of the cars crashed into an occupied building. A year before that some rookies beat up a trans man and were promptly fired. They are also good at dealing with rowdy crowds. No riot shield and rubber bullets needed. Geez, no firing rubber bullets at journalists!
On the task force firings the chief said this:
Then again, we’re just lucky that the boogaloo bois and other yahoos aren’t interested in coming here with their Hawaiian shirts and AR-15s. I’m sorry for Michigan and other places that they’ve chosed for trouble. So sorry!
How is this not a political post? I think the nation is in full agreement that it is a tragedy and inexcusable- a murder by a horrible person. I haven’t seen much otherwise. I don’t think the President implied anything different or in any way encouraged more divisiveness due to this OR the rioting/looting.
I’m not scared. I’m disgusted. We’ve become a Banana Republic. The whole world isn’t even just laughing at us anymore, instead they pity us now. And we are pitiful.
Philly area - just a mess. One protester said it best - “This is about humanity, not black or white or whatever. The rioters are destroying the message”.
A video on the news actually showed looters looting looters.
Unfortunately, the message from the leadership sprayed accelerant into the fire with a phase used by infamous segregationists in the 1960s (one of whom was a police chief who also said “we don’t mind being accused of police brutality”).
Also, the looting in our area is made much worse by the retailers being closed.
Police related deaths are about 100 unarmed people a year.
Total deaths to LEO activities in a Guardian 2015 study below.
The Guardian’s statistics include deaths after the police use of a Taser, deaths caused by police vehicles and deaths following altercations in police custody, as well as those killed when officers open fire. They reveal that
29% of those killed by police, or 135 people, were black.
Sixty-seven, or 14%, were Hispanic/Latino, and
234, or 50%, were white.
In total, 102 people who died during encounters with law enforcement in 2015 were unarmed.
In general it’s about that number each year.
Totals the past few years.
2017. 2018. 2019 2020*
White 457 399. 370 42
Black 223 209 230 31
Hispanic 174 148 158 13
Other 44 36 39 3
In my mind, making excuses dressed up as reasons for mob violence does condone it. I don’t condone killing by police but this mayhem is inexcusable.
In this town, back many years ago, the black businesses were destroyed, by fire and vandalism during the protests. They have never reopened. Just sporadic black owned businesses these days, and the unemployment rate among blacks is higher than ever.
The riots and closures, were only partly to blame. The mainstay occupations for a lot of the black population are now going to other groups, mainly immigrants, both legal and not. There was a mass exodus from this town to neighboring areas so that the schools here are now disproportionately black and poor. Ranked very low by every measure. The drop out rates and violent incidents at these schools rival those of major cities in their worst area.
I notice that there is a cluster of demonstrators in town, holding signs, peacefully assembling. A mix of races. Mostly young people. No physical damage as of yet here, people or property.
I think the COVID19 shutdown is what has inflicted the most damage in last few months in this already compromised area. Online education not doing well, few at hone/virtual jobs. Businesses are shuttered. Many were barely hanging in there as it was. It doesn’t look like the Floyd demonstrations are going to ramp up here.
The federal officer in Oakland that was killed last night was a black man with a family. How does that make sense?
the initial murder by officer chauvin of mr George is a horrible crime. And he needs to pay.
@Leaper12 I don’t think my post was clear enough.
My core belief is that systematic racism at its core is seen most by economic inequality. Manifest in poverty.
Education disparities and loss of opportunity spring from this fact. Poverty inherent in the inner cities, primarily in communities of color without hope for many lead to other options.
That’s the big issue. Bring hope and opportunity to all communities.
The current issue around the relatively few incidents of pure racist police murder can be solved by stiff penalties like all crime. But the bigger thing would be to help minority owned businesses in these communities thrive. Burning them down and looting them is the absolute worst thing to do.
I’d like to see a inner city new deal come about in Congress. Works projects. Parks. Affordable housing. Jobs. Factories. New schools. Minority owned and led. That’s the change I think that would bring about real change in trajectory
Article on infiltration of protests by those seeking to increase violence for other purposes: https://www.justsecurity.org/70497/far-right-infiltrators-and-agitators-in-george-floyd-protests-indicators-of-white-supremacists/
Includes link to this video where a suspicious disguised person, apparently unconnected to the protest, uses a hammer to smash the windows of a store (the video page has other links and commentary):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-O4rnUToU
On the other hand, there are race-targeted measures such as resegregation of schools ( https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text ) or attempts to make it more difficult to vote ( https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article238870598.html ) or use gerrymandering or other measures to reduce the effect of voting by those of minority races.
Current government policy is the opposite, which is to increase the share of economic growth to those at the top of the wealth and income scale and big business, with only a few crumbs going to the rest. Consider the recent income tax cuts, for example (or the first version of the CARES act that reduced or eliminated the benefit for the poorest Americans).
However, lethal excessive force by police is just the top of the iceberg of excessive force by police, which has been documented to occur more frequently against black (and Hispanic) people, controlling for the circumstances of each incident. Since non-lethal police encounters are far more common, racial disparities in the use of force by police can lead many people in the disfavored group to have a negative view of police, due to personal encounters or encounters by those they know. This obviously makes things worse all around, and leads to pent up anger when the occasional lethal use of excessive force, or other well publicized incident, occurs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-O4rnUToU suggests that the vandalism is not necessarily the work of those protesting the Derek Chauvins among police officers.
In our state, there have been a very few folks with signs but no property damage or harm to people. There haven’t been many claims of police brutality in our state and as far as I know relations are ok.
NYC Protesters are at Time Square now. It worries me because there are a lot of stores there. I hope the police will be able to prevent riot/looting tonight.