When the looting starts...

[Ted Striker]

You understand that outside of Minneapolis, almost all of the protests (protected Constitutional rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly) were extremely calm and peaceful until to legions of armored riot geared out cops showed up and escalated the situation right? You can read up on countless accounts of it.

Again, contrast it to the Michigan sheriff that took his helmet off and talked to the people, and there were zero issues on either side.

[Elok]

Unsure if true, but irrelevant in any case. Most people aren't following the minute details that closely, and the ones who are have made up their minds already, the same as everything else in American politics. There are riots. Riots make authoritarianism more attractive. Disorder helped Nixon and Reagan, and there's no reason it can't help Trump. Whether it's enough to overcome his enormous flaws is another matter, but the sheer pointless stupidity of all this is so dispiriting.

[Elok]

Watergate brought down Nixon. Also note I'm talking about riots, not protests. Peaceful protest can be effective. Smashing and burning mostly scares people and makes your cause look bad.

[Ted Striker]

There are both protests and riots, and the heavy handed ness only is moving peaceful walks into blatant anger. Anything Trump does to look ‘tough’ will appeal to his shrinking base but it’s not going to move moderates over to his side.

Those anti war protests directly influenced Nixon to move his policies, and without their pressure we don’t know if he would have been so quick to resign.

I will grant you though that the whole current fascist bent of the conservative arm in the US started under his watch after seeing the effect the protests had on crippling Johnson, and after his reign also handicapped Ford.

[Ted Striker]

See the video I just posted today showing unprovoked police attacks

[-Jrabbit]

Lots of evidence of right-wingers, geared up with virtually no (white) skin showing, doing violence against property - breaking windows and setting fires.

Online message boards, forums, and social media strongly suggest this is an opportunistic attempt to shift focus/blame to the black community.

And gee, no one is talking about corona!

[Ted Striker]

Elok you’ve complained about the ‘teams’ pigeon holing discussions but the root cause of your irritation is Facebook. Delete your account and I guarantee you’ll be a lot happier. People that you need to keep in touch with can reach you by other means. It’s a trash platform you’re too smart to be participating in.

[Elok]

I use it primarily for sharing cute stories about my kids and keeping in touch with Lori and a few other ex- or mostly-ex-Polytubbies. And if you're off FB and still spouting much the same stuff I encounter on FB, that undermines your point somewhat.

[Ted Striker]

HAHA! That's what everyone says, they just wanna share photos, but we know you all are secretly loving it. Just get off of there man, they can keep up with you using other means that don't feed some huge data analytics scumbag machine on the backend.

[Docfeelgood]

Elok commented
Today, 05:14

Thank you, we were all looking for the unabashed racist perspective on this matter.


Typical, when faced with the truth it's " racist ".

[Ted Striker]

Or he could also mean that the unjust slavery system itself and the lack of follow up to establish equal rights is the root cause of all the social unrest

[Elok]

True. I assumed otherwise because DFG has a history, sorry.

[giblets]

Being against slavery is racist now, I guess.

[Docfeelgood]

You understand that outside of Minneapolis, almost all of the protests (protected Constitutional rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly) were extremely calm and peaceful until to legions of armored riot geared out cops showed up and escalated the situation right? You can read up on countless accounts of it.

Again, contrast it to the Michigan sheriff that took his helmet off and talked to the people, and there were zero issues on either side.

Also, did you notice it happen in Democratic cities. Wonder what the connection could be?

[Ted Striker]

Last October, Minneapolis Police Union president Bob Kroll appeared at a Trump rally. Clad in his red “Cops for Trump” T-shirt, Kroll (who has been alleged to be affiliated with white supremacists) gloated that the president had unshackled his officers from the restraints imposed by Trump’s predecessor. “The Obama administration and the handcuffing and oppression of police was despicable,” he told the crowd. “The first thing President Trump did when he took office was turn that around, got rid of the Holder-Loretta Lynch regime and decided to start takin— letting the cops do their job, put the handcuffs on the criminals instead of us.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2020/05/trumps-george-floyd-obama-protest-police-violence-kneeling.html#click=https://t.co/KlCxYynLIX

JUST SAYIN

[Ted Striker]

“The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Donald Trump, last week.

What’s your personal opinion docfeelgood on how I should interpret this message?

[giblets]

How many large Republican cities can you name? Fort Worth? That's about it I think.

[Ted Striker]

Here’s a very threatening lady in Dallas walking home and getting hit in the face from fire by the cops. I’m sure she was with some kind of terrorist/rioting group.

I could literally spend the whole next 8 hours posting example after example

[Ted Striker]

You guys using Facebook need to quit that trash platform. It’s literally designed to be a divisive echo chamber and has the worst record with respecting privacy, founded by a guy who used the platform to log on to girls’ accounts without telling them so he could spy on them.

[Docfeelgood]

Ted Striker commented
Today, 20:19
“The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Donald Trump, last week.
What’s your personal opinion docfeelgood on how I should interpret this message?


I think both parties needs to STFU with this bipartisan, animosity BS. They act like ****ing children rather than leaders.
As for what I think about how you should interpret? That's up to you. What ever your opinion I respect it.

[Docfeelgood]

Elok commented
Today, 18:42
True. I assumed otherwise because DFG has a history, sorry.



I'm a bigot not a racist. I've never felt superior to anyone.
I'm only a bigot t words certain people, not an entire race.
If you cant' handle the truth then go find a safe space to crawl into.

[Docfeelgood]

Here we have two contrasting ways to handle the public.

First we have Minneapolis cops shooting a bunch of young women on their own porch......

I saw that. It really pissed me off.

[-Jrabbit]

So we've got one clearly videotaped murder of a black dude by a white cop. This triggered local protests, which started out peaceful.

After that, the whole country went crazy. There is looting and vandalism, often by non-residents. Police attacking protesters and using military hardware. Far-right racist and/or anti-government militia mobilizing. National Guard called out in many locations. National media and self-motivated social media showing whatever footage they can gather. There is no overview, so people are left to construct their own narrative of WTF is going on.

So what is our national leadership doing? Basically, encouraging the violence and division via tweets attacking "thugs" and "fake news." And nothing else. No televised address promoting calm and unity. Instead, we have veiled threats like tweeting "the military is behind you." The President is - literally - hiding in the White House basement.

Meanwhile, unemployment runs rampant (at least 20%) and over 100,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, with no end in sight.

Trump himself said it best during the Ferguson riots over 5 years ago. In his own tweets:

Our country is totally fractured and, with our weak leadership in Washington, you can expect Ferguson type riots and looting in other places

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2014

Can you imagine what Putin and all of our friends and enemies throughout the world are saying about the U.S. as they watch the Ferguson riot

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2014

As China and the rest of the World continue to rip off the U.S. economically, they laugh at us and our president over the riots in Ferguson!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2014

[Elok]

https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/05/27/open-thread-154-75/#comment-904818

Guy who tagged along in the DC protests to protect a journalist friend. Doesn't seem to have had a dog in the fight. Estimates 95% of people were there to protest at the start, while the remaining 5% were out to hurt people or things. As tempers frayed the number looking for trouble grew. Everything flammable caught fire. Stopping the looters was impractical because they were a couple of blocks away starting **** while the cops were occupied with the protesters. Stopping the troublemakers was impractical because the troublemakers were impossible to visually distinguish from the rest and melted into the crowd. Plus nobody wanted to enforce discipline on their own side. A lot of people hit by friendly fire. Police generally disciplined but it was basically a battlefield that took a long time for the real fighting to start.

[-Jrabbit]

Excellent report. Interesting perspective.

[Ted Striker]

It's a pretty good report especially if you read the comments. There are cases of people doing the right thing though, despite of what she is saying. She's also not going to have a 360 view of all the action all the time:

1) Crowd in DC locates a troublemaker pounding up the curb to create bricks and hands him over to the cops:

https://youtu.be/uRxTA8osj0s

2) Lady copy scolding her peers for being too heavy handed:

https://i.redd.it/l8hg6my9db251.jpg

3) Black guys protecting a cop who got isolated

https://thegrio.com/2020/05/31/louisville-men-police-officer-protest/

[ZEE]

Elok is a nerd.

[Ted Striker]

Here's 16 minutes of police brutality over the past week.

I recommend starting with the two senior citizens at 6:10, including the man with the cane who could barely walk and got bashed to the ground. These guys weren't even protesting or anything.

[Docfeelgood]

Wow! some of that is just wrong! just wrong!
Then again some of it is amusing LOL!


When I was in basic training (many moons ago) I would watch the National Guard train for riots. They told them to show no weakness and be very forceful when confronting protesters. I wonder if the cops have the same training?

[Ted Striker]

Problem (along with half the posters in this thread) they’re confusing peaceful demonstrations (constitutional right and a cornerstone of a healthy democracy) with “riots” and lumping them all together.

Right wing media is programming people to homogenize the situation when 99% of the people there are being peaceful

They’re also attacking the media (another cornerstone of a healthy democracy) unprovoked

[-Jrabbit]

The big question is, who are the outsiders, the agitators, the ones who are instigating riots, breaking windows, setting fires?

Tramp says it's "antifa," which isn't even an organization. It could be white nationalists. It could be opportunistic, angry black looters. It could be anarchists. Clearly, there are people who seem eager for violence - against the protesters, against the police, against the government. Who are they?

Say hello to the Boogaloo Movement.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/

TL/DR: Loosely organized pro-gun, anti-government groups, and their organizing medium is Facebook. Thou shalt know them by their Hawaiian shirts and oversized military gear.

[Ted Striker]

Thanks for the link, I had wondered who these clowns were. They're getting alot of free passes. Everybody wants to play soldier.