Is America burning? (Black Lives Matter protests, civil unrest and riots 2020)

[Treacle Toes]

Sorry for any offence, in no way would I want to de-emphasise the murdering of people.

I am not offended TBH. I am not okay either for obvious reasons. I believe we have to call things as they are. Which is my point and not personally against you.

 

[kalidarkone]

George Floyd killing: journalist arrested while reporting on Minneapolis protest; Trump calls protesters 'thugs' - as it happened

Minnesota governor has called on the national guard and Minneapolis has declared a local emergency

www.theguardian.com

The thing is, the primarily young protesters photographed outside the burning cop station will be put away for a long time, Trump will make sure of it,

I thinks its great they are on the streets overall, but would also like to see them protest about the now many millions unemployed, the gulags, prisons full of young minority men

and women.
Is non white people being murdered by cops not enough atm?

 

[ska invita]

It seems as though a slow taper has been burning for a long time in the US.

400 years

 

[cupid_stunt]

I can’t understand the order to handcuff the black cnn reporter whilst he is standing there reporting live to the nation. Police attacking journalists not unusual but that was something else. They don’t answer when he asks what he’s being arrested for they don’t speak at all. If it’s a message it’s fuck you all we have the President on our side and can do exactly whatever we like?

The Minnesota Governor has apologised, and they have all be released now.

 

[bimble]

The Minnesota Governor has apologised, and they have all be released now.

Did they say it was an easy mistake to make or what?
The message went out loud & clear, live on tv. Belatedly also realise cnn is one of trumps oft repeated enemies.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Did they say it was an easy mistake to make or what?
The message went out loud & clear, live on tv.

This is all I've seen so far:

CNN anchor John Berman told viewers about an hour after the arrest that CNN President Adam Zucker had spoken with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said he “deeply apologizes” and was working to have the crew released immediately.

Reuters | Breaking International News & Views

Find latest news from every corner of the globe at Reuters.com, your online source for breaking international news coverage.

uk.reuters.com

 

[kalidarkone]

I can’t understand the order to handcuff the black cnn reporter whilst he is standing there reporting live to the nation. Police attacking journalists not unusual but that was something else. They don’t answer when he asks what he’s being arrested for they don’t speak at all. If it’s a message it’s fuck you all we have the President on our side and can do exactly whatever we like?

It's a message to the black and non white folk-we will continue to murder you if you do not know your place. And we will just murder you anyway. No reason needed. You are just not white, you are inferior. Black lives DONT matter.

 

[editor]

I didn't say I was outraged by it, you are assuming I did. I don't have an opinion either way because I don't know the in and outs of the cats arse.

Nope, not this nonsense again, and definitely not on this thread. Thread ban and warning.

 

[bimble]

It's a message to the black and non white folk-we will continue to murder you if you do not know your place. And we will just murder you anyway. No reason needed. You are just not white, you are inferior. Black lives DONT matter.

Yeah I don’t think it was a mistake.

 

[Lord Camomile]

 

[Badgers]

BUILD THE WALL

 

[bimble]

That clears it up then.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

BUILD THE WALL

At this rate, they're going to have to build a wall to keep everyone in.

 

[Treacle Toes]

It's a message to the black and non white folk-we will continue to murder you if you do not know your place. And we will just murder you anyway. No reason needed. You are just not white, you are inferior. Black lives DONT matter.

I put something up on FB the other day asking my friends to stop and think about what they were sharing and outlining how traumatising the images they were sharing is...

One part of it, on this point I wrote...


'The fact that we now have phones to record stuff is a blessing in some ways but I am bothered that at the same time we as a people are desensitised and these videos are shared like clips from a reality show. Glorified and debased. George's last moments, his pleas, his gasps for air, his realisation that they were killing him should not be shared without thought. It reminds me that there was once a widespread fashion/culture of sending postcards that were prints of real pictures taken of Black people lynched/hanging from trees. Some things can never be unseen. If you go looking, discretion is advised. Just knowing that is enough. As Billie sung it...Strange Fruit These images were trophies and warnings. The pictures of George are now being shared and celebrated by White Supremacists.

I agree we need to see/deal with the reality of what White Supremacist thinking and state violence means and how it has brutalisated us for centuries, I also carry the collective PTSD. My heart is broken anew every single time.'

I made it public so people could share.

 

[Lord Camomile]

That clears it up then.

I know it's obvious to most here, but I'm hoping stuff like this, and the George Floyd murder, and that thing in Central Park with the white woman calling the police, all make people think about what would happen if there weren't cameras around, and what does when there aren't.

 

[BassJunkie]

It's a message to the black and non white folk-we will continue to murder you if you do not know your place. And we will just murder you anyway. No reason needed. You are just not white, you are inferior. Black lives DONT matter.

This appears to be borne out by the fact that CNN's white reporter wasn't arrested.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

I thought this was an excellent piece of reporting from an Aus reporter for channel 9, live from the street..

The on the ground reporter says he has received news that the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd won't be charged. Is there any confirmation of that?

Louis MacNeice

 

[kalidarkone]

I couldn't watch the footage of George being murdered.

 

[Treacle Toes]

I couldn't watch the footage of George being murdered.

Me neither, it just keep flashing up and autoplaying everywhere though. and the stills of him. I had enough. Have a look at my TL, what I wrote is much longer and more rounded. I'm leaving it up and public.

 

[ice-is-forming]

The on the ground reporter says he has received news that the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd won't be charged. Is there any confirmation of that?

Louis MacNeice

Sorry, I can't find any. That footage was from around 12 hours ago.

 

[existentialist]

I know what the real story is, and it's fucking disgusting, and no wonder people are rioting.

More than happy with them burning down police stations, as they are, and attacking the cops, but not with attacking members of the public, especially someone in a wheelchair.

Anyone thinking that brutal attack is acceptable needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

But, you see, this is why governments are supposed to preserve order. We KNOW that, when outrageous and egregious things happen, people will boil over. And we KNOW that, when that happens, and mob rule sets in, other outrageous and egregious things will happen. There is no point fulminating against "lawlessness", or threatening to kill rioters - the problem that needs solving is the system and behaviour that engenders these behaviours. And there's any amount of psychological research to show that, when things happen to the point that substantial numbers of people become outraged enough to take to the streets, you are no longer dealing with individuals making cold, rational decisions to do particular things - groupthink and "the mob" has taken over.

So all of this stuff aimed at painting an oppressed group of people who have finally had enough, and stepped outside the acceptable norms of behaviour is bullshit: what really matters is that it happened because, on uncountable occasions, police have acted in violent, brutal, and murderous ways towards a group of people in a way which is hard to excuse as anything other than racist. Solve that problem, and then the likes of cyril_smear don't need to start bitching about the way rioters/protestors behave.

But, of course, pointing the finger at rioters, and using that behaviour to justify even nastier, more oppressive actions against them, and people like them, is de rigeur for reactionaries, despots, and power-hungry home secretaries the world over.

 

[existentialist]

the OP asked for news and views. We all know the underlying reasons for these riots starting, and I woulodn't be able to relate them as articualetly as many others probably already have.

So you thought you'd take the other line, and stir up a bit of mud instead?

Yeah, I can see how that might have worked. In your head

 

[existentialist]

Like you I know my history, when its over, the big shops pull out, investment disappears, etc.

I think we're talking about a problem here that's just a teensy bit less parochial that the distribution of retail premises in towns, TBH...

 

[existentialist]

I'm out.

You say this a fair bit. You do it rather less.

 

[Pickman's model]

You say this a fair bit. You do it rather less.

the best thing we could hear from the miserable cyril_smear would be the sound of silence.

 

[Pickman's model]

this feels like it has the potential to spread and worsen nationwide. the situation with Covid, where 40 million people (which is what? 20% of the working population? More) have lost their jobs in two months, not to mention the death-count and toll the medical bills will be taking on so many families, the anger and the frustration are at boiling point. oh, and there are guns everywhere. recipe for disaster. all the culture wars lead to this, talk of civil war, etc. this is going to get very ugly

one problem may turn out to be that there aren't guns everywhere, that they are disproportionately held by one section of the population.

 

[existentialist]

WTAF??? And the tragedy is that loads of people will choose to believe that...

 

[existentialist]

the best thing we could hear from the miserable cyril_smear would be the sound of silence.

That appears to have been achieved, courtesy of editor.

 

[Treacle Toes]

 

[existentialist]

*tries to remember where he's heard the phrase "just following orders" before...