Like most of us I think I have been horrified at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer, caught on video, and the aftermath of rioting, looting, and destruction there. The center of the rioting appears to be just a few blocks from where one of my siblings and spouse had their first house and where their kids grew up. I am hearing reports that some of the greatest destruction is being wrought by agents provocateurs, people who don’t live in the neighborhood, and are acting less from outrage over racism and more from a more generalized hatred.
Among the many tragic aspects of the whole matter is that the businesses that are being destroyed in the rioting are ones on which the people who live in the neighborhood depend and which will not soon be rebuilt.
Now I hear that there has been rioting in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles.
There are so many moving parts in these riots. Racism, an us vs. them attitude I have found quite prevalent among police officers in which “us” means police officers and “them” is everybody else. Don’t discount the long lockdowns. It’s like when you remove the cap from a bottle and the bottle explodes.
I’m afraid it will be a long, hot summer.
This is going to devastate cities. The urban revival of the last 30 years is on life support.
Cannot imagine it is good for controlling coronavirus either.
There is something very very screwy about the George Floyd murder. He and Chauvin not only knew each other but worked at the same club for years, he as a security guard, he as a bouncer. And apparently the club might have been a money laundering operation. The lack of concern by the EMS crew is also mystifying. Also the autopsy report. And the over-the-top action over a phony Jackson. Something doesn’t add up at all. Not. At. All.
Be that as it may, the shipment of BLM and ANTIFA thugs cross-country is extremely worrisome. The situation is also too reminiscent of the Alinsky playbook. A tactic that goes on too long becomes a drag. COVID-19 hysteria was no longer getting the clicks and views it once did, time to change the tactic. Maybe I’ve donned a lead foil hat, but the coordination of the riots, within an hour in several places, is also doubleplus ungood.
Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, Oakland, Los Angeles are but a few of the cities being ravaged by Antifa, BLM malcontents. Waltz, though, the governor of MN is blaming white supremacists for the uprising, while Minneapolis major, Jacob Fray is calling for “peace” and for people to remember their “social distancing and to wear masks” as they are busy burning things down. Cuomo, in the meantime, is “standing with the rioters.”
At least when we had the horrific Rodney King riots in LA, in 1992, the comments and explanations behind the riots were not so full of B S and PC malarkey!
Tars, post Ferguson discovery found that Geo. Soros money was funding the BLM activities. It’s not too much of a stretch to think he is behind the current mayhem as well. It seems anywhere there is chaos, caravans storming the border, bankrolling state AG, SOS elections there is a tie to this sinister man. He is a real crusader, bent on disruption and completing the transformation of this country that he has long envisioned.
The preliminary coroners report ruled out stangulation as the cause of death, but it did not offer another cause, just some speculation. It will be hard to convict Chauvin of anything worse than negligent homocide.
Chauvin’s relationship with Floyd is another complicating factor.
Columbus, Ohio, also got a BLM/Antifa riot downtown. The rioters actually got into the state house and vandalized it, but not seriously. The significant feature of these riots in dozens of cities is their obvious coordination. This is not the spontaneous uprisings we had in the 60’s. This is a national, systematic revolt. A long, hot summer, indeed.
We actually had a small riot and convenience store was looted, surprised everybody, we don’t have racial problems here to speak of. I also think people were brought in to throw the first cinder blocks.
People who were unwilling to wait for the autopsy report are no different than an old time lynch mob. Facts are coming out but the narrative controlled by BLM will not change. They want race war no matter the cost in Black lives.
Are you sure, Bob? I’m hearing from the MN governor and CNN that the rioters are Trump supporters, white supremacists, you know. Sounds reasonable.
There is probably more to the whole story, but that man was subdued. Period. There is no exculpatory evidence or explanation.
The vast majority of the rioters are the usual paid (almost certainly Soros) scum for hire. Although I must admit I was so taken back by the video that my first thoughts were to loot a Target store and set a pizza joint on fire……
I have never understood destroying your own neighborhood when you are angry. I guess when you get angry enough you are irrational. It also means that most of the attention will go to the riots and not to the killing of Floyd. I guess the counterargument there is that nothing was going to change anyway without riots.
Could the riots be a conspiracy? Aside from the fact that everything is a conspiracy for conservatives, it cant be ruled out, but it seems just as likely some people are actually angry. These videos are hard to ignore. Ordinarily police can just shoot people and make up a story if they are at fault. Now we have multiple videos in temporal proximity, and the response to the shootings has been slow.
As to Soros, rather than demonizing him we should be finding some way to clone him. He has the energy to plan every liberal conspiracy and the money to fund all of them too. We need more highly energetic, wealth creating people.
As an aside, it looks like in the videos that 2 other police were sitting on Floyd. That could severely restrict respiratory efforts. Could have lead to death even without complete occlusion of the trachea (strangulation). As a corpsman we restrained dozens of psychotic pts. It would never have occurred to us to do what those police did. The guy had cuffs on too. It really looked like they were teaching him a lesson, well beyond just making an arrest.
Steve
WTF were the police allowing videoing of a perp takedown? Why the over-the-top response and restraint of the perp? Why the lack of interest by the EMS crew? Yeah, I know some drugs like Angel Dust can turn men into Hercules, but it’s the Eric Garner thing all over again. A guy gets killed over a stupid-ass relatively trivial offense.
Yeah, a lot of people are angry. But there are a lot of losers at loose ends eager for the revolution so they can be top dog and avenge all the insults and slights they’ve suffered and get all the bling. And the leaders of the cities would rather see the taxpayers’ money and property go up and smoke than risk offending the Industrial Grievance Industry.
Something doesn’t smell right. At all. About this situation. From top to bottom.
Frank Rizzo, where are you, you corrupt but America-loving SOB? At least you defended your turf, unlike your surficial diversity-happy successors more interested in putting in time for a pension than doing their job.
Dave, I see things are getting very hot your way. Hope you and your wife and everybody you care about in your neighborhood are safe.
This has long ceased to be about Floyd. It’s now just about fomenting social unrest and opportunistic criminality.
I just spent the last hour watching feeds from multiple cities and multiple national and local networks. If you have two eyes you can see who the rioters are. They come, basically, in three flavors. Opportunistic looters. Obviously professional rioters; The Antifa crowd notoriously funded by Soros. And third are the curious or zealous, mostly young, getting caught up in the mob mentality.
It seems that a meme has started that there are white supremicists. Heh. Didn’t see any of those.
And I kid you not. Both the CNN and MSNBC broadcasters were wringing their hands about lack of social distancing as the mob looted and torched property.
You couldnt make this shit up if you tried.
“And the leaders of the cities would rather see the taxpayers’ money and property go up and smoke than risk offending the Industrial Grievance Industry.â€
How many of the mayors of these cities are Democrats? They are in the debt of the IGI.
As I pointed out a week ago, and as curious did to start this thread, the cities are going to take a huge hit. And down here in the SE the floodgates are open from Chicago and the NÉ. Wide open.
I make this prediction; while there are decision makers in office who have a personal recollection of this week; the US will never lockdown for a plague even if it were smallpox.
I live in Minneapolis and have been following observations by friends on social media. There are first hand accounts of unmarked trucks parked or driving in the hotspot areas yesterday. As darkness fell, white men in unmarked trucks, many with Three Percenters or neo-Nazi markings, attempted to set fires or cause other mayhem in minority neighborhoods, business districts and organizations. Business owners, neighbors, coordinated groups and supportive strangers stood guard protecting businesses and homes from danger. Businesses had been boarded up and lights were on. People were on watch, some with guns, some with hockey sticks. (Does not sound very Minnesota nice to me…) Some fires were started but were doused with garden hoses. Apparently the anarchist’s goal was not to kill people but to burn and damage buildings or neighborhoods. Last night their efforts were thwarted by police, the national guard and the community. Who knows about tonight or future nights.