What is happening in Atlanta is inexcusable. In the midst of those who wanted a

[mfcorey1]

Last edited Sat May 30, 2020, 06:57 AM - Edit history (1)

peaceful demonstration are those who were bent on destruction and it is out of control. This does nothing for the pain the family of George Floyd's parents are suffering. Those who are looting and entering buildings for destruction are not interested in peaceful protest. Yes, I said it and I am not taking it back.

***********************************************************************************************************

UPDATE: Organizers are beginning to look at footage that clearly shows anarchists starting violent actions in each of these protests. No one understood initially why so many white young people were, in some instances dominating the crowds, and being the first to break out windows. Then they encourage youth of color to join them. I just viewed a clip from San Jose where people were being attacked in their cars and many of the perpetrators were anarchist type. There are clips of anarchists breaking windows, picking up teargas canisters, and then stepping back and watching things escalate. Yes,t here were some sincere people there but there were a whole lot of agitators. Were they paid? What is their motive?

[msongs]

1. the bad actors come out in the darkness and hide in the protestors nt

[crickets]

4. This is very likely what's happening. The protest was quite peaceful for a while. nt

[Alex4Martinez]

14. I think that is a common phenomenon.

I'm seeing it in the San Jose actions now, the peaceful organized folks are fewer, some skateboarding mauraders have moved in to steal the show and kick up a mess.

[Skittles]

2. protesting violence with violence does seem counter-productive

yup

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

3. You don't know that.

If I get killed by a racist cop who sat with his knee lodged in my neck as if he were posing for the cover of a Nazi periodical, I want you all to let your rage sweep through every city who's ever had a racist incident. That includes all of them.

Floyd could feel the same way.

[mfcorey1]

6. Why burn and loot? I agree to a nationwide protest

but violence that will affect underserved communities with food desserts serves no purpose.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

9. ...because taking a knee...

...and other forms of peaceful protest give us a dead Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Arbery, and George Floyd.

Also, please forgive me when I say this because you are probably a VERY good person, but I consider a discussion about "underserved communities and food desserts" a bit of a deflection. I mean, that would have been a primary focus of your agenda and in your discussions long before the people started rebelling because the Black people were murdered.

[mfcorey1]

11. You have misread my intent.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

12. If I have,

...I apologize.

[Ex Lurker]

25. Not everyone is enraged

Some of them seemed to be having a good time. I'm talking in particular about the selfie-taking white hipsters.

[RhodeIslandOne]

39. They can Instagram their COVID ventilation n/m

[Tipperary]

46. People of all races celebrating and taking selfies.

Check out the video of the Target looting, the Sephora looting...they were all having a grand old time.

[totodeinhere]

34. I understand the anger but violence will not accomplish what you want. Violence just plays right

into the hands of the right wing. It won't be long until we see Trump campaign commercials featuring footage of the riots. And if you really want to energize Trump's base, keep rioting.

[stillcool]

5. it has nothing to do with the pain of George Floyd's parents..

none of it does. It has to do with police across this country killing black men. I have no idea who's doing what where, but at least I do know that I don't know. Inexcusable? Whatever.

[mfcorey1]

8. We differ and that is okay. However I will not condone looting and

vandalism. I am sure many can make an intellectual argument about it and I stand firm. Tomorrow, some one who is struggling to make ends meet will have no job to go to because it burned down. The neighborhood store is gone. What are their circumstances? Collateral damage? George Floyd was murdered but those who would take advantage of his death for their own malicious behavior is useless. The sad part is that the powerful statement that could have been made is now ...............

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

26. I would like your suggestion...

...for what could be done as a result of Floyd's, Taylor's, and Arbery's murders that hasn't been done already? Your concern for those struggling to make ends meet seems to sound like a deflection when there are terrorists killing US citizens.

[blitzen]

7. I don't necessarily disagree. But perhaps resistance needs a least a credible threat of violence...

As someone who grew up in the 60s, I can't believe the downward slide toward the shithole that our country has taken--not just now but since the 80s. I think one reason--by no means the primary reason--is that young people can no longer be drafted into the military. The possibility of being forced to fight in Vietnam galvanized youth protest and ramped it up to the point that those in power actually feared something approaching a violent popular uprising. And so they gave up some ground to advocates of actual democracy. Since the 80s, they haven't feared shit.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. You're right, wrecking buildings is not peaceful protest.

But if peaceful protest doesn't work to stop state or hegemonic violence, property damage is likely going to be the next step.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

15. Why is there such a focus on "peaceful" protest?

A human being was killed. He was killed by a man who was masquerading around in "Make Whites Great Again" hat. Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a man who is a certified member of the Klan. Breonna Taylor was killed while she was asleep in her bed.

How is peaceful protest the focus of the discussion when terrorists are killing US citizens?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. I'm saying.

[totodeinhere]

35. I understand but riots will not make these senseless racist killings stop.

If anything it will give license to sick perverted racists to continue killing and they will use the riots as justification.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

41. Taking a knee...

...and peacefully protesting has also giving license to sick perverted racists to continue killing. Maybe the power to stop all this doesn't lie in the hands of the people rebelling right now. Maybe white liberals who are connected with power and who have historically aligned with things that are right can go even farther and get their hands dirty this time.

I know some of us still have our marching boots from Kent State and Woodstock and Stonewall. Maybe a mixture of economic pressure and visible protests against police brutality by our crowd can change things.

[totodeinhere]

43. Not only white liberals but liberals of all colors and people of all political leanings need to

Last edited Sat May 30, 2020, 04:42 PM - Edit history (1)

stand up and demand the comprehensive rooting out of systemic racism in all its forms. But rioting and destruction of property is not the way forward. It will only make things worse.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

44. No, I meant white liberals

That is the group in the United States with the most economic power and who are the most closely connected to money.

People who say rioting and destruction of property make things worse a) apparently are ignoring the history of the founding of the United States and b)never have a solution that hasn't already been tried.

[totodeinhere]

45. So are you advocating destruction of property? Do you realize that a lot of the

rioters and looters are actually outside provocateurs whose aim is to sew dissent and hurt the cause of civil rights for all? And many of them are white supremacists.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

47. Are you advocating the continued murdering of Black Lives?

Regardless of who is doing the marching (white supremacists, antifa, Black Lives Matter, etc) the fact still remains that Black folks are still being murdered.

We saw this coming. We saw the Circle Game. We watched them march through a college campus saying, "Jews will not replace us," we have empirical evidence that many of the cops are members of the KKK. We did nothing but sat back and shook our heads.

Now that we are made uncomfortable, we are concerned about "the destruction of property" and "white supremacists marching"...everything but about tax paying American citizens being hunted down and killed by terrorists.

[totodeinhere]

49. No I am not. n/t

[Lulu KC]

37. +1 n/t

[onecaliberal]

13. They have tried to be peaceful. How many of them have to die before they have permission

To be enraged?

[gulliver]

17. Yep, it's dumb. It risks putting more Republicans in power to cause more deaths in the future.

A little more of this and Trump will be reelected. Worse cops will be hired.

The killer cop in this case should be thought of in the same vein as a mass shooter. No matter what you do, there's nothing that can stop the laws of probability. There is going to be a murderous, outlier son of a bitch or two. When the killing happens you shouldn't tolerate it, of course, but you shouldn't throw gas on yourself and pull out a lighter either.

Everybody saw what happened. No one but a segment of Republicans is anything but angry. Let the system work.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

19. No.

Not this time. We let the system work, and Trayvon's killer went free. Tamir Rice's killer went free. Sandra Bland's killer went free. Freddie Grey's killer went free, etc...

Once the system doesn't work for you, you'll understand why we already know that the system just doesn't work.

That murderer would not have even been arrested if those kids hadn't raised hell in Minneapolis.

Maybe sitting this one out is not an option, perhaps? Maybe a gas mask and a pair of combat boots would look cute on you. You don't know.

[gulliver]

21. Donald Trump is a piece of shit.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

22. Agreed

Agreed. Just as much as I'm protesting against Black murder, I will be campaigning for the DEMS in November.

[gulliver]

24. Putin is also a piece of shit. All of his wealth should be confiscated.

And he should be arrested on sight in any country he visits.

[misanthrope]

32. Yes, but how else are you supposed to galvanize your opposition

and squander the sympathies of many who were initially outraged at George Floyd's murder?

[ibegurpard]

18. You said it yourself

The looters and rioters are taking advantage of the protests. So why turn the focus on them?

[BigMin28]

20. When people protest peacefully

They are ignored or called weak for things such as kneeling. Sometimes to affect change, you have to afflict the comfortable to comfort the afflicted. Dear God how many more have to die?

George Floyd was my brother. All those murdered before him were my brothers and sisters. I will remember their names.

[Hekate]

23. Why attack the CNN building? There were a lot of rocks flying. There was a 20-something who...

...weaponized his skateboard and kept returning to bash the windows -- smug look, white, curly blond hair, in case it makes a difference.

What the hell did CNN do?

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

28. Stories like this don't make me sympathize with CNN at all.

Link to tweet

[Hekate]

36. You know, they've had their crew in Minn. for days. Omar got arrested on live camera for reporting

...his whole camera crew did as well. They kept saying they were from CNN and that this interaction was being sent out live -- too bad, they got cuffed and stuffed into a police van. There's a woman CNN reporter who's getting tear-gassed and all that fun stuff.

Don Lemon is on a righteous roll, there in the CNN home office (or his home office, wherever).

Do you remember how it was CNN that brought the nation the first on-the-ground news from New Orleans after Katrina? When everybody was told nobody could get in there? And CNN went into that hellhole anyway and showed the world what it was and demanded to know where the government response was.

I'm not an uncritical fan of theirs, but when they do right, I am not afraid to say so. So tell me again why they "deserve" to have their bulding trashed.

[Lock him up.]

40. Maybe because they always talk about the orange shitgibbon most recent distraction instead of...

... maybe focussing on the people who suffer, young and old, black and white and yellow and red and...

Because 40 million people lost their job, often don't have more than a rent left to pay, after that, they had $100/week for 12 weeks, after that, it's Food Banks, then homelessness, then...

All the while, the criminal cabal in the WH and the Senate don't give a flying F about them. They're only interested in nominating incompetent, undeserving RW judges. Loot the Treasury for themselves and their donoRs. Screw the people who suffer and are scared of the immediate future. They can go eat cake...

Link to tweet

Regimes like that had their heads cut out, the Boston Tea Party started for less than that...

[Hoyt]

27. Don't think violence will help, but can't say it's wrong considering where we are.

Hopefully no one will get hurt.

I trust the Mayor, but KKKemp concerns me, not to mention the ignorant, gun-loving white wingers.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

29. How can we say violence doesn't help?

I'm NOT violent at all. I will never be violent, but all of our country's heroes were violent men who enslaved Black people and who spread disease to native Americans. We can say violence doesn't help when it doesn't benefit us, but don't believe for once that it doesn't work. This country was built on violence.

Every group who has ever received any kind of right or privilege in the United States has had to resort to violence.

[Hoyt]

30. Like I said, "can't say it's wrong." But, I'm not endorsing it.

I trust Mayor Bottoms.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

31. Same

Same

[EarlG]

33. This is an expression of rage

Peaceful protests haven’t worked. This is the inevitable next step. Those in authority have had more than enough time to address the failures in the system, and little has been done.

Don’t try to rationalize the protesters in terms of “why can’t they just think about their actions.” Think of them more as a force of nature. Like how the pandemic could have been prevented, or climate change could have been prevented, these riots could have been prevented if the powers that be had made smarter choices. But they didn’t, and this is the result.

I’m pretty sure the people out protesting tonight don’t actually want to be going around burning down police stations. I’d think they’d rather just have opportunity, justice, and security in their lives, instead of oppression, racism, and fear. They shouldn’t be denied that wish, not if America is what it claims to be.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

42. I agree...

...this is true.

[Sunsky]

38. You are entitled to your opinion and others are entitled to theirs. Nt

[Hekate]

48. Powerful statement from the Mayor of Atlanta at this link

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213509420