The Wall Street Journal looks at the carnage:
MINNEAPOLIS—Riots took hold of U.S. cities Saturday night, as protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent across the country for a second night in a row.
Protesters lighted cars on fire in New York, Seattle and Philadelphia. In Los Angeles, demonstrators kicked in the windshields of police cars, torched a police outpost in an outdoor shopping mall, and looted Nordstrom and Ray Ban stores. Police shot rubber bullets and swung their batons at demonstrators.
In Minnesota, where protests began this week after the death of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis police custody Monday, Gov. Tim Walz pleaded with residents to obey an 8 p.m. curfew. Mr. Walz said he was fully mobilizing the state’s National Guard after a night of rioting and violence, leaving open the possibility of requesting federal troops; forces from other states had also been readied to deploy to Minnesota.
[…]
Protests also turned violent in Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities.
In New York, videos posted online showed a police car driving into protesters in Brooklyn. New York City Police Department officials said Sunday morning more than 340 people were arrested in protests across the city Saturday. That compares with the department total of 208 people arrested Friday. The officials said 47 police vehicles were vandalized in Saturday’s demonstrations, including a number of vehicles that were set on fire, and 33 NYPD officers were injured.
In Washington, D.C., protesters near the White House hurled items including fireworks at the police, and law enforcement used pepper spray on the crowd. The District of Columbia National Guard was activated to help the U.S. Park Police with the protests, the guard said in a statement on Facebook on Saturday night.
I do not find the notion that three months of lockdowns are irrelevant to the rioting and looting or, indeed, to the police reaction credible. The most modest lesson that should be drawn is that, if you impose a lengthy lockdown, you’ve got to be prepared for civil disorder as the lockdowns are removed. Tensions and boredom build. They will seek an outlet.
Could be, but the videos of 2 unarmed black people murdered with no response from the justice system seems an adequate trigger. Of course this doesnt happen if there was not a long history of problems. If you listen to black people rather than projecting our concerns what I think I am hearing is that worries about the disproportionate numbers of blacks dying from Covid seems to outweigh concerns about the lockdowns. Maybe black leaders in Chicago are voicing different concerns.
Steve
The WSJ couldn’t even get through the first paragraph. Protests? Over Floyd? Try criminal looting and violence. Try because of the opportunity of Floyd.
“Drifting out of the shadows in small groups, dressed in black, carrying shields and wearing knee pads, they head toward the front lines of the protest. Helmets and gas masks protect and obscure their faces, and they carry bottles of milk to counteract tear gas and pepper spray.
Most of them appear to be white. They carry no signs and don’t want to speak to reporters. Trailed by designated “medics” with red crosses taped to their clothes, these groups head straight for the front lines of the conflict.
[…]
The real hard-core guys, this is their job: They’re involved in this struggle,” said Adam Leggat, a former British Army counterterrorism officer who now works as a security consultant specializing in crowd management for the Densus Group. “They need protests on the street to give them cover to move in.†That’s Antifa, folks.
The lockdown element is probably more a reflection of the unemployment it caused than pent up irritation. Boy, that lockdown sure was bright, eh?
What we are seeing is Antifa riots. They have highjacked the Floyd demonstrations for their own revolution. And note that the local Antifa cells are coordinated nationally.
Antifa consists mostly of young, white, middle class and upper middle class radicals. Most have some sort of college affiliation. Antifa appears to be a largely college phenomena. As such they have little or no connection to the black underclass, but they are willing to use the black underclass to promote their radical agenda.
For the first time, America has a European-style leftist street gang, our very own Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe.
The only question now is whether Antifa, with help from BLM, can keep this going. I doubt it.
I think it’s a combination of things:
– The perception, at least, that police haven’t changed
– Lockdowns
– Extreme partisanship
– Social Media
– The lack of wide racial unrest since 1992. Given the previous factors, I’m surprised it took this long.
What seems to be different is the reported involvement of third-party groups and actors. Law enforcement has not been good so far about giving the public information on who these people are. I don’t trust the left-wingers who insist they are white supremacists and I don’t trust the right-wingers who insist they are Antifa. I could actually be both or neither. And a lot of extremist groups don’t fit into the neat right-left divide that partisans like to use to paint the other side with the extremism brush.
I dont think there enough antifa to be causing riots everywhere. The police are arresting people and they arent reporting that they are finding antifa, or white supremacists. When they looked at who was arrested they were mostly local people.
I predict that there will be a major effort to blame this on outside groups. It has the benefit of letting local officials off of the hook and lets both tribes point fingers at the extremists dont like. Most importantly it means that we wont have to address the underlying problems in our justice system. So Watts, 1965, Rodney King 1992 and Floyd 2020. For those of around, lets get prepared for the riots of 2048.
Nice piece by Jabbar.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-05-30/dont-understand-the-protests-what-youre-seeing-is-people-pushed-to-the-edge
Steve
steve,
That makes more sense. I was taking the claims of outside interference at face value albeit skeptically since I haven’t seen any actual arrest data yet. The motivations and incentives of local officials does make perfect sense.
Also, people like Jabbar pretty much destroy the “dumb jock” stereotype.
‘For the first time, America has a European-style leftist street gang, our very own Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe.’
We had them before. They were called the Weathermen and the SDS. And members of those gangs are now celebrated elder statesmen, like Bill Ayres.
The Weathermen were especially B-M-G size. ANTIFA both philosophically and numbers-wise is more on the level of the German leftist street gangs of the late Weimar Republic, who battled each other for supremacy before Rohm knocked some heads together and consolidated the SA out of some of them.
Andy- To be clear, I wont be surprised if some antifa and white supremacists take advantage of this for their own purposes as well as other political groups. I think outright criminals with no interest in politics or concerns about Floyd will take advantage and loot. That doesn’t mean that there arent a lot of people truly angry with some good cause and I think it more likely that is mostly what we are seeing. To be clear, there is no reason to loot and commit violence. Besides being wrong it undercuts the protests.
Steve
Good people truly angry with a good cause are not inclined to inflict pain and mayhem on other good people, having nothing to do with their cause. It’s bad people, sensing opportunities to get away with criminal behavior in the wake of a sensational event, who are attracted to and involve themselves in these riots. There are also professional “spotters,†aka political operatives, who are out there looking for, organizing, and then encouraging these rage-filled acts of community violence. Consequently, these are not simply spontaneous events arising from the ashes of a wrongdoing, but rather well planned, precisely executed, and coordinated with an egregious event, one which provides symbolic cover to disrupt, loot, burn, shoot, vandalize, manhandle and hurt innocent people.
Furthermore, when the dust settles, photos are analyzed, the perpetrators are, more often than not, far left fringe, Communist, and well funded Antifa and BLM groups – not white supremists, democrats like to give top billing to – who are the ones pouring fuel on and igniting riots in major cities everywhere.
“Furthermore, when the dust settles, photos are analyzed, the perpetrators are, more often than not, far left fringe, Communist, and well funded Antifa and BLM groups ”
Examples please.
A thought that came to my mind.
Just as with coronavirus — which states and governors will be able to stabilize their cities first?
The “battlefield†is now a little over a mile away from where I’m sitting. Local TV footage is showing lots of BLM signage, blacks wearing hoodies with large backpacks looting stores, trying to crash thru an REI store, a Vans store emptied, a resident guarding a store being threatened with a gun. It’s surreal. National guards are in the street. It’s tragic Steve, something hard to footnote, let alone rationalize as being anything but criminal behavior, at it’s worst.
I was born here, and have never seen this kind of civil unrest and societal disassociation. The curfew is now 4 pm.
The “battlefield†is now a little over a mile away from where I’m sitting. Local TV footage is showing lots of BLM signage, blacks wearing hoodies with large backpacks looting stores, trying to crash thru an REI store, a Vans store emptied, a resident guarding a store being threatened with a gun. It’s surreal. National guards are in the street. It’s tragic Steve, something hard to footnote, let alone rationalize as being anything but criminal behavior, at it’s worst.
I was born here, and have never seen this kind of civil unrest and societal disassociation. The curfew is now 4 pm.
Last night BLM posted on social media they were coming into Santa Monica @ 11 am. The police Dept here confidently said they could take care of it, declining other police depts offers to provide assistance. Well, they were here by noon, and the police were overpowered, numerous stores looted, graffitied, damaged. Just got a call from a local friend that Antifa has now posted a new meme on social media, saying they were coming tonight into the residential areas. Is this an empty threat or a real one? I will admit that I’m uneasy.
Also, Steve, so far white supremists have not been part of the FU crowd creating mayhem where I live.
“I do not find the notion that three months of lockdowns are irrelevant to the rioting and looting or, indeed, to the police reaction credible. The most modest lesson that should be drawn is that, if you impose a lengthy lockdown, you’ve got to be prepared for civil disorder…”
Cost / benefit. How’s that ratio looking now, Dr. Fauci?
“Also, Steve, so far white supremists have not been part of the FU crowd creating mayhem where I live.”
Antifa?