Looting

[chefzombie]

yes, alex, that DID happen in his past. he moved to minneapolis 6 years ago, after he got out of jail, to change his life, and he WAS doing that. there is no proof that he knew he was using a counterfeit bill. i got one from an ATM a couple of years ago, nobody had ME arrested when i tried to spend it, they just told me it was fake and had me take it to the police station, and i paid for my meal with a different bill. the cops thanked me for turning it in, and got the info of which machine it was, etc.. NOTHING happened to me, and it's probably because i'm a tiny old WHITE lady.
   did he have drugs in his system, yes he did. so do i, so does ronny, LOTS of people take drugs for LOTS of different reasons. and NOBODY seems to want to find out if the fentanyl he took was taken legally, which seriously peeves me. he WAS trying to change his life, and that's a big part of the protests in my city.
  and in reference to looters, the quiktrip that was looted here, when you look at the security footage, most of them were young white people. and none of them can be seen in the film from the earlier peaceful protest. the protests here in my city were all peaceful, and there was almost no looting, largely because of the young people who organized the protests doing their own" policing" of the people there. the cops had a few incidents of violence toward them and they have been quick to say that they DON'T think it was by real protesters. and they dealt with it with NO violence on their part.
  sorry, rant over.

[pennywise37]

you can rant all you want i do and so does everyone here,  i was briefly talking to some dude who i am 100% sure is a Trump supporter that said very nicely to give him credit why don't you like him and list 3 reasons i listed a crap load of stuff he's done and said even further why i don't like him than he says those aren't reasons so i listed even more.

he also said that there are no peaceful protests i said yes there are and also put in about those guys protecting that cop and that they don't show it on tv cause that's not high ratings. but it is out there and there are cops who aren't attacking people such as in Nebraska last week they had a dance contest with the protesters i saw footage on Kimmel.

funny thing he never did respond after i listed all the things he's done so far well that i could remember, he said that wasn't tear gas that was used on those people at the photo op i said yes it was the chemicals that were used if they make your eyes tear like that it's it's tear gas. funny thing i never did hear back from him imagine that. did anyone see that White Politican sorry for my bad spelling say oh i don't think we have a problem  with the way blacks are treated

i to myself you son of  a bi**h he's a rich white guy so of course he's not gonna have the same problems have every day

George Floyd was an Ex-Con ? well that i didn't know but than i haven't looked it up either. still he went straight and was making a life for himself and his family.
it's still messed up that he was killed. i listen to a podcast though they haven't had a new episode in i think a year or so called WTF and i miss it actually.

and one of the guys that is on there always talks about having another Civil war and he doesn't mean another war per say like we had way back in the 1800's.

he just means about well things happening now for example. this is like 50 or more years in the making and i think it was going happen eventually.

anyways we went out tonight and bought some Chinese for dinner & than stopped to get some milk & we were the only ones in there who wore a mask that just is disgusting to me.  i knew this was gonna happen, when they start to open more stuff people are gonna be so stupid and think the threat is over now and it's not.

not at all, a friend of mine has the virus now i just learned last night, he works in a nursing home for a living and he ended up getting it there apparently. i hope he can get over it cause he's a good guy

[RCMerchant]

This kind of violence against unarmed blacks has been going on for decades.
I just watched a program about the case of Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment door, and was shot at by 4 police officers 41 times, 19 hitting and killing him.
41 times. All 4 of those officers were aquitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Amadou_Diallo

[pennywise37]

that's just insane my question is why didn't the outrage and all this happen than? and police should go to jail when sh*t like this happens they should not even be still allowed to even have a badge at all they all should be in jail for life

[lester1/2jr]

this video, which is not behind a paywall or wasn't, is pretty instructive

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000007159353/george-floyd-arrest-death-video.html

Basically, it was a nondescript and fairly well justified arrest. The problem started when, after getting him in the car they pull him out the other side and put him on the ground for reasons no one can explain

[Allhallowsday]

I think the character of the victim is irrelevant.  I have not heard nor seen any evidence that warranted these police actions.  Once he was arrested, they killed him.  It looks like murder to me and much of the world. 

[Jim H]

What gets me though, is it seems that more often than not when these riots occur (and I am not just talking about the US here), the death that inspires the protests quite often appears to be a criminal, and not just someone doing some minor offence either. There were some race riots in the UK about 10 years ago or so after some gang member was killed. I'd have to admit that I don't quite understand why the death of such a person would have such a reaction, compared to the death of a more innocent person. In this latest case, I've been told (haven't fact-checked it myself so I couldn't say for sure), that we have a career criminal whose exploits include breaking into a house and threatening a pregnant woman with a gun.

If that is true it is hardly the kind of person I would say is worthy of this degree of martyrdom, say compared to the guy who was shot just for walking along a street.

By all means, protest about your treatment if you feel society is being brutally unfair, but pick your heroes a bit more carefully and don't make icon's out of bad guys.

Usually these things happen because of simmering anger set off, no one plans it and no one can really control it.  So it's almost happenstance who gets elevated into an icon.  George Floyd happened because we had such an excruciatingly long video of a man dying WITH people telling the police to stop.  Who Floyd was at that point became irrelevant, he became a symbol.

The Ferguson riots here in STL are a similar example - the police department had been handling a multitude of things poorly for like 20 years (essentially fleecing locals for money, the way they did financial enforcement), completely destroying local trust in police.  To the point where people instantly believed a multitude of blatantly false and provably untrue things about the shooting of Michael Brown.  The eyewitness statements are fascinating, often obviously contradicting each other in ways that can't be attributed entirely to bad memories or bad perception, usually to back up early reports of things that make the police officer look as bad as possible.  People are STILL doing the "hand up, don't shoot" thing now at the current Floyd protests - that was part of the early reporting of the shooting of Brown, but it almost certainly didn't happen.  People turned it into the symbol of how they felt the police treated them anyway, so there it stays.

[Alex]

I agree that he did not deserve to be killed the way he was, there was no justification for it, and it is murder. Wither or not he had any drugs in his system I find irrelevant. I understand that the police officer in question has a history of violent conduct (again not something I have fact-checked). However, this is something my brother posted today.

Nicholas Heyward was shot and killed by a police officer while playing cops and robbers with his friends in Gowanus. His last words were "We're playing."
Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a police officer while playing in a Cleveland park. The cop fired less than 2 seconds after arriving on the scene.
Tyre King was shot multiple times and killed by a police officer when they believed he matched the description for a robber in the neighborhood. He was 5ft tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. The robber being investigated had stolen $10.
Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot and killed by a police officer when, while investigating a local shooting, they bust into her home without warning and fired within seconds. She was SLEEPING. She was SEVEN YEARS OLD. And the whole thing was getting filmed for a true crime TV show.
Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer while walking home. The shooter claimed to act in self defense. Martin was holding a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Ice Tea.
Cameron Tillman was shot and killed by a police officer while hanging out with his friends in an abandoned house with the owner's consent. He was alive for at least 45 minutes. The officers offered no medical assistance.
Jordan Edwards was shot and killed by a police officer in the passenger seat of a car while leaving a party. The car was driving AWAY from the cops and the officer fired inside the car under the grounds that the car had backed up towards him "in an aggressive manner."
Kiwane Carrington was shot and killed by a police officer outside a house in broad daylight while the cop was investigating a suspected break in. Carrington was known to the house's owner and welcome there.
Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by a police officer while under investigation for slashing a squad car's tires. He was shot SIXTEEN TIMES while walking AWAY from the officer.
DeAunta Farrow was shot and killed by a police officer while walking in the park. The officer claimed Farrow had a toy gun, while witnesses claimed he was holding a bag of chips.
All children. All unarmed.
#blacklivesmatter

I can understand protesting and rioting for any of these cases.  I understand and agree with people fighting for better treatment but to do it in this guys name compared to the people above seems odd to me.

[RCMerchant]

^ Perhaps it's just the straw that broke the camel's back....again....

[Rev. Powell]

I agree that he did not deserve to be killed the way he was, there was no justification for it, and it is murder. Wither or not he had any drugs in his system I find irrelevant. I understand that the police officer in question has a history of violent conduct (again not something I have fact-checked). However, this is something my brother posted today.

Nicholas Heyward was shot and killed by a police officer while playing cops and robbers with his friends in Gowanus. His last words were "We're playing."
Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a police officer while playing in a Cleveland park. The cop fired less than 2 seconds after arriving on the scene.
Tyre King was shot multiple times and killed by a police officer when they believed he matched the description for a robber in the neighborhood. He was 5ft tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. The robber being investigated had stolen $10.
Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot and killed by a police officer when, while investigating a local shooting, they bust into her home without warning and fired within seconds. She was SLEEPING. She was SEVEN YEARS OLD. And the whole thing was getting filmed for a true crime TV show.
Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer while walking home. The shooter claimed to act in self defense. Martin was holding a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Ice Tea.
Cameron Tillman was shot and killed by a police officer while hanging out with his friends in an abandoned house with the owner's consent. He was alive for at least 45 minutes. The officers offered no medical assistance.
Jordan Edwards was shot and killed by a police officer in the passenger seat of a car while leaving a party. The car was driving AWAY from the cops and the officer fired inside the car under the grounds that the car had backed up towards him "in an aggressive manner."
Kiwane Carrington was shot and killed by a police officer outside a house in broad daylight while the cop was investigating a suspected break in. Carrington was known to the house's owner and welcome there.
Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by a police officer while under investigation for slashing a squad car's tires. He was shot SIXTEEN TIMES while walking AWAY from the officer.
DeAunta Farrow was shot and killed by a police officer while walking in the park. The officer claimed Farrow had a toy gun, while witnesses claimed he was holding a bag of chips.
All children. All unarmed.
#blacklivesmatter

I can understand protesting and rioting for any of these cases.  I understand and agree with people fighting for better treatment but to do it in this guys name compared to the people above seems odd to me.

This one was caught on video. In many of the other cases, pro-police people had ambiguity to argue that the cops were probably within their rights, or may have made bad decisions under stress but weren't evil or motivated by racial animosity. We had a guy on this forum arguing that it was perfectly reasonable to shoot Trayvon Martin, for example. This case was unambiguously and unquestionably horrifying, and even the police's biggest defenders had to admit that it was inexcusable.

[Rev. Powell]

And to add to the above: the evidence was so overwhelming in this case that large numbers of white protestors joined the black ones, which didn't happen in previous protests. (Believe me, every one of those cases Alex listed sparked protests, just not this large).

[pennywise37]

are they all black? ya know apparently these protesting isn't getting the cops to listen at all cause they are killing people left and right and some cops can go their entire career without firing their gun at all i wonder how many have had to break that rule?

did you see Biden give that speech? ya know what ? say what you will by the guy he actually did a heartfelt speech and didn't mess up at all and he was right too

[chefzombie]

i fully expect a huge amount of violence in tulsa next friday. and i expect it will NOT be started by protesters either.
penny, i hope your friend gets better and has no bad effects down the line!

[Alex]

It is strange times indeed when a statue of Winston Churchill is being "protected" by people doing Hitler salutes. I wonder if they know what Churchill did and who he was?

Meanwhile, a statue of Robert the Bruce has been vandalised in Scotland with claims that he was a racist king and BLM hashtags.

[RCMerchant]

It is strange times indeed when a statue of Winston Churchill is being "protected" by people doing Hitler salutes. I wonder if they know what Churchill did and who he was?

What? What morons!