2020 Protests megathread

[Coastal Elitist]

Ok, I get the Canada one now, but this doesn't make any sense. Clearly people are just looking for reasons to go outside:
https://twitter.com/TheLondonHughes/status/1266797613069688838

[lfromnj]

Pyro I got a simple idea for you edgy LARPING revolutionary tankie(you can claim to be libertarian left or whatever that bs is)
Go tell sprouts RN his house being burnt is necessary for the greater good of reform or condemn the looting or don't post in this thread again.

[Horus]

Ive been saying since we locked down in April that I wasn’t scared of the virus, but rather the civil unrest that would be the end result.

Well well well....

This was all so predictable.

I'm still way more scared of the virus.

Why. You are 29 years old. Do you have asthma or diabetes? Or are you scared for others?

I have two loved ones who are very prone to infection from COVID, no loved ones who are cops or protesters, so yeah.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

We cannot let our cities become the playthings of radical hoodlums. Order must be restored.
I'm so glad the national guard is in the field right now.

They already are. The radical hoodlums in question are called 'police'. (And sometimes, like in Michigan, white nationalists.) That is why there are protests in the first place. These nationwide protests that are going out of control are a giant flaming sign that American policing has failed as an institution.

"police hoodlums are the only major ones directly doing damage to our cities" is just as broken of a take as "the police everywhere are only focused solely on stopping violence".
There are without a doubt extreme nihilistic anti-cop radicals out there who have no intention of working in a manner that, whether they know it or not, promotes civic peace. They must be called out for who they are. And there are looters who attack private property and ought to be given the full force of the law. They helped create conditions that led to the vandalism of the Hall of Fame in Atlanta, among other things. There are all sorts of opportunists, lest they be extremists on the left, extremists on the right, those focused on just looting, bad faith actors from the cops trying to make the protestors look bad, others who defy easy categorization...all of which get more of their pettily narrow goals advanced by sowing disorder.

Progress is impossible when our cities are burning, businesses are being looted, and the main thing on the agenda at this exact moment is restoring order to our cities. We cannot let such mockery of law and order stand. Cop-caused or non-cop-caused, the disorder has to stop and healing has to begin. We can only use the levers of power to better life for the downtrodden once the fires go silent and the window-breaking stops and the stealing ends. I  agree the cops shoulder a big chunk of the blame and I absolutely agree that American policing has failed big-time and needs wholesale reform. But I don't agree that you can just label just the cops hoodlums. The cops aren't the only ones whose behavior has helped feed  chaos, damage, and disorder at this moment. And it is absolutely possible to go too far when showing anger towards police brutality. Moreover, the symbiosis between the most radical groups that hate the police, and the cops themselves, is so impeccable, it is scary. The former make excellent boogeyman for the cops and the latter help fuel anger which in turn empowers those who are most stridently insist on violence against the cops. When these two groups gain, the rest of us lose.

Groups such as BLM have always stood first and foremost against violence and against violations of the liberties embedded in our Constitution. It is groups like BLM, when working with well-inclinded people in government, which will make the most progress in helping black America progress and be treated with true, full equality sometime in the future, if that day ever comes. Sure, burning down a business gets you attention, but fundamentally it is bad publicity and it hurts the cause and it harms the cause of police accountability. Groups like these are not true allies; they just happen to be fanatics with something in the modicum of a shared program but radically different modus operandi.

[Brittain33]

Columbus police pepper sprayed Rep. Joyce Beatty during a protest.

[NOVA Green]

MSNBC's Ali Velshi just reported being fired at by cops with tear gas & bullets unprovoked in MN.

He was coughing from tear gas inhalation from MN SP.

[Calthrina950]

Columbus police pepper sprayed Rep. Joyce Beatty during a protest.

Awful. Doesn't anyone get the sense that, with impeachment, coronavirus, and these riots, that 2020 seems like a redux of 1968? That year, we had Vietnam, assassinations, and race riots/anti-war protests.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Columbus police pepper sprayed Rep. Joyce Beatty during a protest.

Disgusting.
This wanton disrespect of our elected officials should not be tolerated.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

CNN's Ali Velshi just reported being fired at by cops with tear gas & bullets unprovoked in MN.

He was coughing from tear gas inhalation from MN SP.

He's MSNBC.

[Xing]

Things got a bit nasty in Seattle as well, and we’re under curfew today and tomorrow.

[NOVA Green]

CNN's Ali Velshi just reported being fired at by cops with tear gas & bullets unprovoked in MN.

He was coughing from tear gas inhalation from MN SP.

He's MSNBC.

Got you, was typing it while watching.... sounds like he might have gotten hit by a rubber bullet in the knee or leg as well

[Fuzzy Bear]

Ive been saying since we locked down in April that I wasn’t scared of the virus, but rather the civil unrest that would be the end result.

Well well well....

This was all so predictable.

Why don’t other countries which enacted even stricter lockdowns have so much civil unrest?

They have societal and structural glue that prevent such matters; either a combination of a strong civil society, stronger interpersonal connections, a welfare state, greater accountability in the government and/or workplace, and other obligations and contractual stuff that maintain society in a stable fashion when it’s under pressure. That’s evident in New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, Cuba, and Vietnam. Meanwhile countries like Iran, Brazil, and the United States have often contradicted or nonexistant social contracts between the elite and the masses in varying degrees.

You had my attention until the underlined part.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Columbus police pepper sprayed Rep. Joyce Beatty during a protest.

That's pretty f**ked up.

[Blue3]

Police car running over protesters
https://twitter.com/pgarapon/status/1266885414016688134

Police destroying water
https://twitter.com/nataliealund/status/1266877181164089349

https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1266878695555231747

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Tear gas is being deployed in Fargo right now.

[Pyro]

What a queen!

The mayor of Atlanta goes off on TV, full-on yelling into the camera at the rioters and looters while supporting the peaceful protestors.

How completely useless. More time scolding people for property destruction than instructing the police to stop instigating violence. These mayors aren't on the sidelines, they are in positions of power and should be held just as accountable to the deaths as the police.

She had Killer Mike up there with her backing up every word she said. I guess Killer Mike is pro cop too now? Please be quiet. Harming private businesses would be especially counterproductive here in Atlanta because (As mayor Bottoms so eloquently put it) so many are black owned.

Don't put words in my mouth. The mayor doing too little to address police violence does not equate to being "pro-cop," it equates to doing too little. Her focusing on fires instead of systematic change demonstrates a refusal to accept a functional solution. Black people have been denied justice in Atlanta, and in cities throughout the country, and it's the responsibility of people like Mayor Bottoms to hold the police accountable. If she intended on introducing criminal justice reform, she would have done that instead of speaking down to communities so desperate to breathe that they're out in the streets during a fking pandemic. The only solution I've seen from her is to vote, and that's just not going to cut it, here.

As a black person myself, I am absolutely outraged over what happened to George Floyd, and I can understand why these people are out on the streets, as they are. Real and systematic change needs to take place in the country. However, that does not excuse violence and rioting of the scale we've seen here. And you seem not to acknowledge that many of these people are destroying their own communities, their own businesses, and ruining the livelihoods of their own neighbors. Violence should not be met with more violence.

I've never condoned violence. I think peaceful demonstration, whenever possible, is a far more productive means to achieve progressive goals. I'm not blind to the outrage and frustration felt by these brutalized communities, either, nor the decades of oppression that have led us to this point where some have resorted to destruction.

[Brittain33]

Here's the Rep. Joyce Beatty story:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/30/joyce-beatty-pepper-sprayed-racism-protests-290931

[lfromnj]

F the Cops for being idiots and violent bullies trying to escalate the protests by randomly firing with their guns against the more peaceful protestors.

[NOVA Green]

Tear gas is being deployed in Fargo right now.

Damn.... there have been likely hundreds of demonstrations throughout the US over the past few days, the overwhelming majority peaceful, and now we are witnessing scenes like this from Fargo, North Dakota???

https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Fargo-police-say-protestors-throwing-rocks-at-officers-tear-gas-deployed-570899471.html?ref=471

[Pyro]

Police car running over protesters
https://twitter.com/pgarapon/status/1266885414016688134

Absolutely shameful.
Transparent inspiration from Charlottesville.

https://twitter.com/zzelladonatella/status/1266883979342417926

This as well.

[Calthrina950]

Police car running over protesters
https://twitter.com/pgarapon/status/1266885414016688134

Police destroying water
https://twitter.com/nataliealund/status/1266877181164089349

https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1266878695555231747

The police are definitely overreacting to this, just as the rioters are taking advantage of the situation. In this instance, it truly is "both sides" who are culpable.

What a queen!

The mayor of Atlanta goes off on TV, full-on yelling into the camera at the rioters and looters while supporting the peaceful protestors.

How completely useless. More time scolding people for property destruction than instructing the police to stop instigating violence. These mayors aren't on the sidelines, they are in positions of power and should be held just as accountable to the deaths as the police.

She had Killer Mike up there with her backing up every word she said. I guess Killer Mike is pro cop too now? Please be quiet. Harming private businesses would be especially counterproductive here in Atlanta because (As mayor Bottoms so eloquently put it) so many are black owned.

Don't put words in my mouth. The mayor doing too little to address police violence does not equate to being "pro-cop," it equates to doing too little. Her focusing on fires instead of systematic change demonstrates a refusal to accept a functional solution. Black people have been denied justice in Atlanta, and in cities throughout the country, and it's the responsibility of people like Mayor Bottoms to hold the police accountable. If she intended on introducing criminal justice reform, she would have done that instead of speaking down to communities so desperate to breathe that they're out in the streets during a fking pandemic. The only solution I've seen from her is to vote, and that's just not going to cut it, here.

As a black person myself, I am absolutely outraged over what happened to George Floyd, and I can understand why these people are out on the streets, as they are. Real and systematic change needs to take place in the country. However, that does not excuse violence and rioting of the scale we've seen here. And you seem not to acknowledge that many of these people are destroying their own communities, their own businesses, and ruining the livelihoods of their own neighbors. Violence should not be met with more violence.

I've never condoned violence. I think peaceful demonstration, whenever possible, is a far more productive means to achieve progressive goals. I'm not blind to the outrage and frustration felt by these brutalized communities, either, nor the decades of oppression that have led us to this point where some have resorted to destruction.

Given the actions which police have been taking in response to many of these protests, I can understand the positions that you take-though I hold firm to mines. This entire situation is depressing and frustrating.

[Dr. Arch]

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

There are riots in freaking Fargo now?!

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

Anyone who supports the thugs needs to watch this black man from the LA Riots of 1992. Powerful.

https://youtu.be/KeACASJViT8

[Calthrina950]

I saw reports that Las Vegas and Salt Lake City were also hit with protests, so Nevada and Utah should be colored red as well. Pennsylvania as well, since both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have been hit. By next week, I think every state in the Union will have been hit with protests.