When does a riot become a "protest?" Depends who's doing the rioting...

[BurtWorm]

http://www.canonist.com/?p=666

“Protest” Vs. “Riot” in Brooklyn

We’ve all heard of the Crown Heights race riots. So, what does this episode in Brooklyn sound like to you?

Hundreds of Borough Park residents rushed the 66th precinct station house chanting “No justice, no peace” to protest what witnesses say was the rough treatment of a…business-owner by police.
Two garbage fires were set during the melee, which stretched for several blocks and closed numerous streets. Police, however, were able to contain the crowd by 9:30 p.m. and no injuries were reported.
Police sources say the protest was sparked after officers approached 75-year-old…who was talking on his cell phone while double-parked in front of his family-owned bakery on 16th Avenue at around 6:30 p.m.
When police attempted to handcuff Schick, two other…men tried to step in. A crowd then formed, and the scene quickly grew unruly.
Protesters threw garbage and hundreds of residents blocked the street around…Bakery.

Sounds like a riot to me. But I removed words in the above indicating it’s about a Hasidic man who got arrested and Hasidim leading the action; if they’re Jews, it’s a protest and not a riot, seemingly.
Who else calls it a protest? The New York Times, with a lede describing “a protest last night by hundreds of Orthodox Jews, who surrounded a police station house, chanted ‘No justice no peace,’ lighted bonfires and set a police car afire.”
The New York Daily News also called it a protest, though they did call the Hasidim “angry mobs.”

...



<I found this thanks to a link at Talking Points Memo.>

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[BurtWorm]

2. Again with the kick.

[TomInTib]

3. Burning a police car is "protest"?

When I read this in my NY Times this morning, I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if that old guy was black or brown (or Caucasian, for that matter) and the same crowd actions had taken place.

[tatertop]

4. The terror alert would have gone to red!

[Midnight Rambler]

5. MSNBC described it as a riot

At least it did when it was breaking

[McCamy Taylor]

6. "No justice, no peace" clued me in that it was a protest, sorry.

Rioters are too busy taking stuff to chant in unison. Also the fact that he was 75 years old seemed justification for a protest. There is never a reason for handcuffing a 75 year old man whose only crime is being double parked and talking on a cell phone ( despite the McKinney case).

Is someone's nose out of joint because they think that jewish people get special treatment in NY papers?

Or maybe they think that religious people get special treatment over more secular people?

[BurtWorm]

7. So they were just peacefully burning that cop car.

:patriot: