2020 Protests megathread

[NOVA Green]

I hope anyone committing crimes is prosecuted fully. Many will be facing some serious charges....

Those are your basket of deplorables, no better than the abusive cop.

Totally agree, we have three police officer in Minneapolis yet to be charged with whatever the equivalent of accessory to murder charges are within the State of MN.

I don't believe MN has the death penalty, and even the murderer caught live on multiple videos at max will do 25 in the State Pen, assuming he is convicted.

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

Needs to be said: Thank you to all the police officers who are out there containing the violent thugs, and keeping the rest of us safe.

[lfromnj]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266931911445880833

He is in criitical condition.

Governors and Prosecutors need to announce no penalty for shooting looters even in duty to retreat states now !
All looters are dangerous people who should be assumed as a threat .

[Pyro]

https://twitter.com/shehasbadknees/status/1266922778118115329

https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1266921926905286656

[Dr. Arch]

There are riots again, tonight... in so many major cities.  Where is our Fearless Leader?  Where is our national response from our president, who should be addressing the nation, pleading for peace, uniting all the hurt and broken factions of this burning country? Seriously, where the hell is he? As far as I’m concerned, Joe Biden is already my President.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266931911445880833

He is in criitical condition.

I decided to check this threat because a stream I am watching mentioned this incident and the streamer said he didn't want to share the video because he heard the man had died. I was hoping maybe it was just an internet rumor....evidently not. This, assuming the guy was simply trying to protect businesses, makes me almost as mad as watching what happened to George Floyd. The only reason why it's not the same is because police officers are held to a higher standard than your average dude on the street.

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266931911445880833

He is in criitical condition.

Governors and Prosecutors need to announce no penalty for shooting looters even in duty to retreat states now !

Thank fcuk this was caught on camera and is now viral.

[Reaganfan]

A New York City protester just flashed his ballsack, taint and asshole on Fox News. No seven second delay.

[Beet]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266931911445880833

He is in criitical condition.

Governors and Prosecutors need to announce no penalty for shooting looters even in duty to retreat states now !

Thank fcuk this was caught on camera and is now viral.

https://twitter.com/__itweet__/status/1266932987486183426

I hope this is true.

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

A New York City protester just flashed his ballsack, taint and asshole on Fox News. No seven second delay.

Fox Host was watching on a 7 sec delay and warned viewers, but she couldn’t control the camera.

[Gass3268]

I'm so sick of watching all the evil cops tonight making everything worse. Doesn't matter where you look they are there. There are a few good ones, but few and far between.

[Illiniwek]

What hole did these vile scum looters crawl out of? They are silencing what could have been a nearly universal outcry for justice and progress.

[Gass3268]

What hole did these vile scum looters crawl out of? They are silencing what could have been a nearly universal outcry for justice and progress.

Mix of opportunists, white supremacists, anarchists, and people set off by the evil cops.

[Gass3268]

Evil cops shooting at people on their own front porches:

https://twitter.com/tkerssen/status/1266921821653385225?s=20

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266931911445880833

He is in criitical condition.

Governors and Prosecutors need to announce no penalty for shooting looters even in duty to retreat states now !

Thank fcuk this was caught on camera and is now viral.

https://twitter.com/__itweet__/status/1266932987486183426

I hope this is true.

Assuming this story is true, props to the protesters who did the right thing and helped the guy out.

Haven't seen anything like this yet on Dallas TX news, so....

[NOVA Green]

Night #2 in Portland Oregon is just starting....

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/demonstrations-in-downtown-portland-are-underway/283-d48cc706-ad27-4ac3-8540-51cafddcdcdc

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

Feels like a tale of two perspectives in this thread. Either "Police are shooting/pepper-spraying anyone in their way & making things worse" or "Protesters are violent sadists who are destroying everyone & everything in their path".  No mix of both, you believe in one or the other.  No wonder there's so much conflict & anger.

I'll say that my Twitter & Instagram have been completely in support of the protests. Never seen so much unity on my feeds, especially by folks I thought would've never sided with BLM groups.

And when discussion eventually slows here, I feel I'm gonna be muting all but 5-7 people between this thread & the larger MN one

[Dr. Arch]

Evil cops shooting at people on their own front porches:

https://twitter.com/tkerssen/status/1266921821653385225?s=20

What is this!? Seriously!? We are no longer in any position to criticize China on their treatment of Hong Kong. This is disgusting!!

[pikachu]

I’m sure it’s been mentioned before, but it’s notable that most/all lf the lootimg in LA has been in affluent and gentrifying neighborhoods, not South Central and KTown like in ‘92.

[lfromnj]

I said this before but curfews are unconstitutional and stupid bs.
Society agrees to laws with a sense of moral community. Most believe that going out of your house at a certain time is not immoral and it is impossible to enforce.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

At this point, I'm not even angry any more. I'm just really, really sad. I saw a video of a white man beaten to death in Texas by a mob. I saw a little black girl writhing and screaming because she was pepper sprayed. I can't even look at Twitter.

This is history. This is something that we will be talking about in fifty years.

EDIT: Just saw the man in Texas is *not* dead. That is good to know. I already watched one man die on video this week, and I'd rather not see that again.

[Gass3268]

We really should rename this the evil cops thread:

https://twitter.com/KCJ_Swish/status/1266913464234237954?s=20

[Ferguson97]

God, this is so depressing

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/mukhtaryare/status/1266932254682595331?s=20

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

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

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

I agree. So what is anyone supposed to do about it?

Imitating the racist nationalists and taking up the Second Amendment and doing something very  direct seems like a destructive and counterproductive step too far to me, and I would say to virtually everyone else as well. (Or the news would be saying insurrection instead of riot.) But what, exactly, is the public expected to do when the organization tasked with restoring order is the same as the organization whose blatant and public abuse of force they are protesting? How do you "restore order" by using an institution that provokes disorder with its own flagrant abuses of power?

You mentioned above that "progress is impossible when our cities are burning, businesses are being looted", but there have been decades where there were no fires and no violence, and there didn't seem to be any progress getting made, even as the abuses - not just by the police, but the entire justice system (and the societal system behind it that also increases inequality, in wealth and other ways) - continue or get worse.

Our entire system is a mockery of law and order from the racist crook who squats in the White House and enjoys the profits from a lifetime of white-collar crime because he is wealthy and privileged, down to telling the people of Minnesota that when the organization that just publicly tortured a man to death on a whim tells you to shut up and go home, you need to shut up and go home but we'll take your concerns seriously, really.

The police may not be the only bad actors, but they are bad actors who perpetuate a system that is not making life better for the downtrodden - instead it's stomping harder. And given the long history of infiltration and provocation by police (and those groups who share similar interests), I do not think they are entitled to any benefit of the doubt here.

Actions speak louder than words. And the establishment have been very fond of words, but there's been damned little positive action in the decades since Rodney King. We've advanced technologically, which means the ongoing reality of police abuse is increasingly in the public view. And the only real institution-wide response I've personally noticed from police as a whole is to try and keep their actions from going on the record.

This currently wave of unrest will, pardon the phrase, burn out, or be put out by the heavy boots of police dressed like stormtroopers, possibly along with the military. America needs to get its crap together, and go beyond terms like "fundamental change". We need a new model of policing that ends the adversarial, quasi-military mindset that walks hand-in-hand with abuse of power, and we need new police to implement it. Either such a sea-change in policing is well underway within the next few years, or the failure of law enforcement and the justice system will be part of the social collapse that leads to the end of America as we know it. I'm increasingly thinking I'm foolish to hope for any positive outcome, and that I should start imitating the Germans who left in the early 1930s. 1930s.