People rising up in righteous anger & rage in face of oppression should not be dismissed as a "riot"

[kpete]

Over-Simplified Talk of “Riots”

According to media outlets and some residents, there’s been rioting in Ferguson since the killing of unarmed teenager Mike Brown. There have been reports of peaceful protests turning less than peaceful, with people confronting cops, throwing things at them, etc. I don’t know if the stories of rioting are true. Most of the video I’ve seen of Ferguson shows the protesters themselves gathered or marching relatively calmly. Angry sometimes, sure. But anger is a perfectly normal response to your unarmed teenage neighbor being gunned down in the street by police (police who have now showed up at your peaceful protest with attack dogs and riot gear).

But let’s get something straight: a community pushing back against a murderous police force that is terrorizing them is not a “riot”. It’s an uprising. It’s a rebellion. It’s a community saying We can’t take this anymore. We won’t take it. It’s people who have been dehumanized to the point of rightful rage. And it happens all over the world. Uprisings and rebellions are necessary and inevitable, locally and globally. This is not to say that actual riots don’t happen. White folks riot at sporting events, for example. Riots happen. But people rising up in righteous anger and rage in the face of oppression should not be dismissed as simply a “riot”.

Don’t be distracted by terms like “rioting”. Whether you’re for or against uprising and rebellion (side-eye if you’re against it, though), it’s a tool, not the issue itself. The issue is yet another Black teenager murdered by police. His name was Mike Brown.

More here:
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/08/things-stop-distracted-black-person-gets-murdered-police/

[Iggo]

1. It's an uprising.

[Warpy]

2. A riot is not people marching down the street and shouting.

A riot is when they dig up the street and start throwing it.

[randome]

3. Until people unite and demand specific changes...

...it will be easy for their opponents to paint them as part of a riot. Organize and speak with a clear voice. That's the way to get people to listen.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A ton of bricks, a ton of feathers, it's still gonna hurt.[/center][/font][hr]

[AverageJoe90]

4. Indeed so.

A protest doesn't become a riot until people are actively throwing stuff and trashing shit. But even when that did happen, there were people in Ferguson who actually came together and tried to shoo the instigators away, and even repair the damage caused to homes, businesses, etc.

Unfortunately, our headlines-obsessed mainstream media was too cowardly, or perhaps too blinded by ratings, or both, to give us the full picture. And the bigots and other assholes at FOX and other right-wing organizations were, and still are, actively cheering on the crooked cops of Ferguson shitting on the people there.

[pampango]

5. That is not a "riot" in Ferguson, Montgomery, Damascus, Kiev or Cairo.

And the right-wing tactic of blaming uprisings on outsiders is bankrupt as well.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[albino65]

7. If...

"It’s an uprising. It’s a rebellion. It’s a community saying We can’t take this anymore. We won’t take it."

This needs to transfer to the whole country. We need an American Spring. To hell with protesting in public and national venues. This needs to be taken from their neighborhoods to the neighborhoods of Nixon, the politicians, the tea baggers, the Koch brothers, the industrialists. They think they love their open carry. Wait until the progressives take the 1st and 2nd amendments to their logical conclusion with righteous indignation. We will wipe the smarmy grins off the faces of Perry, Cruz and McConnell.

Or...we'll wring our hands and pontificate about how justified and righteous we are. We'll shake our heads and go hug our children, go to sleep and pray we never need to explain to them how we blew it.

[tooeyeten]

8. Language of the media

Calling it a riot, racial unrest, and the like.

And while the media generally piles on, on Monday night a 90 year old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, was one of those rioters cresting racial unrest by getting arrested in Ferguson for protesting.

[L0oniX]

9. If it's white people ...it's folks getting together, but if it's ...well you know.

[tooeyeten]

10. Of course

And they don't even realize it, and if they do it's because of their demographic. (Do you realize you have a bug in your post, I tried smosh it but was too fast for me. )

[L0oniX]

11. That bug has destroyed many monitors.