There's no excuse for this. None.

Even people on the porches of their own homes, not breaking curfew in any way, are being shot at.

https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1266952661791674370
https://twitter.com/stefanbackstrom/status/1266961295573757953

They were well within their rights to hang out on their own front porch. This is jackboot garbage.

Too many people recognize the provocateurs for who and what they are

for them to get away with their tactics cleanly every time. There are too many cell phone cameras for the provocateurs to operate with impunity.

GOOD.

This is exactly what's going on.

The FBI should be involved. Two good reasons for this, right off the top of my head:

1. A lot of the boogers are crossing state lines to get involved. That's a big no-no.

2. The white supremacy organizations who are planning (and funding) the mayhem and destruction are - straight up - terrorist groups.

The stereotypical narrative that we would be led to believe is that the disaffected poor are looting and then setting things on fire for kicks. Bonus points if you can be convinced it's all black people who are doing this.

There is video after video of white people, mostly men, running around smashing windows to get looting started. There are first hand accounts from witnesses who see trucks running around with OOS plates or no plates, filled with white men who start shit and then blaze off, accounts of witnesses who see people show up with 'incendiary devices' (molotov cocktails) that set things alight very quickly while the perpetrators flee, leaving the protestors and bystanders to take the blame.

I'm not saying no protestors ever get pulled into the looting and burning, but I am saying that I don't think the majority of this mayhem, particularly at night, is perpetrated by protestors.

There are several groups involved here, sometimes overlapping: people who are upset and genuinely out to march to show they want justice and change. They peacefully march and then go home. There are those in that same group who try to peacefully march and get roughed up by police, some plainclothes who pretend to be protestors starting shit (with armbands so the cops know which people to leave alone) and some in uniform. The police BS is old hat. It's planned. It's disgusting.

Then there are the protestors who do occasionally go overboard - for example, flipping and burning a car in reaction to having a dark version of Legolas crash their party, or chasing down the idiot who showed up with a MAGA cap. I'm sure there are other examples, but my point is there seems to be provocation involved.

Finally there are those who show up to purposely destroy as much property as possible, using the protestors as cover. Cointelpro had it down to an art in the sixties, but it isn't Uncle Sam trying to discredit the peaceniks and hippies this time around. Sure, there are some individual psycho-losers here and there who see an opportunity for street theater. But most of it is the well organized, well planned, and completely intentional war strategy of terrorist groups. This is white supremacists who are committing insurrection and fomenting race war.

This isn't something they are trying to do. They've already started the war. It is underway right now. To play into their hands by letting someone sell you the convenient, often racist narrative that is currently developing suits their aims just fine. In fact, they are counting on it.

+1000000

This is no group of 'bad apple' protesters. It's organized, well planned, and likely well funded.

Be careful when the rubber bullets start flying - serious eye injury danger.

Linda Tirado, author and a freelance writer/photographer who sometimes writes for the Guardian has lost her left eye after being hit by what was likely a rubber bullet. Fortunately, given she's a photographer, it wasn't the one she uses for work. Publicly anyway, she is being a complete badass about the whole thing, but I hope her friends and family are going to hold her close for a while.

https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266618525600399361
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266786161143537669
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266849738990784512
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266850151215312897
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266850391775498247
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266854402939400192

She's not the only one who got hit in the eye.

https://twitter.com/shannynsharyse/status/1266631722239766528
https://twitter.com/shannynsharyse/status/1266717639071711233
https://twitter.com/Charlotte7711/status/1266815599004524544
Last link contains video.

It could have been so much worse. Rubber bullets can kill.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/19/rubber-and-plastic-bullets-too-dangerous-for-crowd-control-says-study


Edit: original title included: 'Some police are aiming for the eyes.' There is no proof of that, so I have edited.

This speech always puts a lump in my throat.

We were all robbed, again and again, by the assassins' bullets in the sixties.

I have never seen that amazing monument to MLK and RFK before now. It's quite moving.

Thanks for posting this, Randy.

Incredibly moving.

I've been watching a live feed, concerned about family who live nearby.

Apparently a restaurant near Lenox is on fire and a close by apartment complex might be evacuated. Phipps Plaza has had looting, as well as a nearby Target. It's surreal. The newscasters are making the point that the people involved with the protests earlier and the people looting and setting fires now are not necessarily the same crowd, which impresses me.

The protest started peacefully and stayed that way for some time.

The window breaking, etc. didn't happen for quite a while, which makes it unclear just how it got started and the motivations of those who did it. I wonder whether somebody who doesn't approve of successful peaceful protest didn't show up and take action to change the tone.

Anti-racism activist Jane Elliott leaves white audience speechless

with a brilliant question about race:

https://twitter.com/Rebaone59275709/status/1266448205325238277