2020 Protests megathread

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

Most
Cops
Are
Bastards



not all of them (see Chattanooga TN etc), but jesus christ theres a lot of em

[fluffypanther19]

holy moly, its crazy all over america. im having a hard time keeping up with every update

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

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

this isn't true. Some people have mixed views. Such as me and at least some other people.

[NOVA Green]

Washington State--- Seattle 5/30/20 Update

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle-orders-5-pm-curfew-amid-violent-downtown-protests-after-george-floyd-rally/281-61becb1d-f808-4d32-9971-36fe27d57785

[Estrella]

I put this in the MN thread, but this is probably a more appropriate place

NYPD cars plowing into protesters:

https://twitter.com/pgarapon/status/1266885414016688134

An improvised lone wolf terrorist attack vs this. Spot the difference.

I, for one, can't.

[Gass3268]

More press attacked by evil cops:

https://twitter.com/MichaelAdams317/status/1266945268567678976?s=20

[NOVA Green]

Tacoma Washington 5/30/20:

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article243128071.html


Vancouver, Canada 5/30/20:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/george-floyd-protest-vancouver-1.5592178

[Rover]

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.

I think that's so unfair to claim only a few cops are good ones. Yes, there are a lot of bad cops out there, yes police brutality exists, and there are a lot of racist nasty cops out there.
The whole criminal justice system needs dramatic review and reform top to bottom from police officers on the streets, to prisons, and the courts.
I know a lot of good cops out there. Sadly, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. It's never smart or wise to generalize.

[NOVA Green]

Per my older brother's Insta story, lots of fires in downtown Indianapolis

Got my nose broken at an anti KKK demo in Indy back in the early '90s (and not by a White Supremacist)....

Rough Midwest Town in a place where the Klan used to march around opening with their hoods and masks as recently as the early '70s.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2020/05/30/indianapolis-police-protests-live-updates-saturday-george-floyd-dreasjon-reed/5295442002/

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/AlecMacGillis/status/1266946808888078336?s=20

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

I honestly don't know what to say. This country is literally ablaze. Everything that has happened in the past week has been horrifying.

[Gass3268]

30% - some kind of violence between police and protestors
50% - National Guard deployed

Might be missing some states, this is just what I've caught in my feeds:

You can add Iowa

https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1266955191817048066?s=20

[Estrella]

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.

I think that's so unfair to claim only a few cops are good ones. Yes, there are a lot of bad cops out there, yes police brutality exists, and there are a lot of racist cops out there.
The whole criminal justice system needs dramatic review and reform top to down from police officers in the streets, to prison, and the courts.
I know a lot of good cops out there, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. It's never smart or wise to generalize.

This might or might not be true, but regardless of how many good cops there are, they need to stand up to the bad ones and change the system. If good cops are the majority, they have the responsibility to push for reform - and they clearly aren't doing that because if they were, murders like this wouldn't be such a common occurence. If they are a minority, that would make Gass right.

(As an aside, on one single issue I'm turning into a Reaganite: the ideal outcome of all of this would be the police unions being blown into smithereens, like what Ronald did to air trafic controllers in 1981. That obviously isn't gonna happen, but one can dream.)

[MaxQue]

I honestly don't know what to say. This country is literally ablaze. Everything that has happened in the past week has been horrifying.

Well, you brought that on yourself as a country. You had decades to reform police and you didn't.

[Calthrina950]

You can add Iowa

I had the feed from Des Moine up just as I posted that and could tell that it was about to boil over.

A few other updates:

It's amazing how quickly this spiraled out of control. As I've said before, we are witnessing the decline of the United States in real time.

[NOVA Green]

Portland, Oregon Update:

Looking like possibly a relatively quite night?

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/05/as-curfew-nears-protesters-back-in-downtown-portland-by-thous.html

[NOVA Green]

Bay Area, California Update--- 5/30/20

Still early Tonight on the West Coast....

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/destroyed-property-multiple-arrests-after-george-floyd-protests-in-the-bay-area/2299778/

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

This thread SURE brought out the ugly in some of the people here and exposed their deep felt beliefs and I got to say it isn't pretty.

[NOVA Green]

San Diego Update--- 5/30/20:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLwMPiYnDSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFX5zbG-dpQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xny4iWsldwM

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Now we've got police officers demanding people stay inside and shooting them on their own front porches when there's no martial law declared, and macing/shooting people who are not posing a threat and are actively complying with police orders.


Yeah, the police are out of control. This is going to be a very bad year.

[Reaganfan]

I honestly don't know what to say. This country is literally ablaze. Everything that has happened in the past week has been horrifying.

This stuff was happening in 2015 and 2016, too. Even before Trump. It's not Obama's fault or Trump's fault.

It's a mixture of so many other factors.

[Rover]

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.

I think that's so unfair to claim only a few cops are good ones. Yes, there are a lot of bad cops out there, yes police brutality exists, and there are a lot of racist cops out there.
The whole criminal justice system needs dramatic review and reform top to down from police officers in the streets, to prison, and the courts.
I know a lot of good cops out there, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. It's never smart or wise to generalize.

This might or might not be true, but regardless of how many good cops there are, they need to stand up to the bad ones and change the system. If good cops are the majority, they have the responsibility to push for reform - and they clearly aren't doing that because if they were, murders like this wouldn't be such a common occurence. If they are a minority, that would make Gass right.

(As an aside, on one single issue I'm turning into a Reaganite: the ideal outcome of all of this would be the police unions being blown into smithereens, like what Ronald did to air trafic controllers in 1981. That obviously isn't gonna happen, but one can dream.)

That's the job of politicians. The problem has always been there, the difference now it's being filmed on cameras.
My uncle used to work as a police officer at a prison, he always used to talk about how ill-equipped and underfunded the prisons were, and not enough help provided to rehabilitate prisoners, this problem was known since the 70s. But wasn't taken seriously.
Today in America released prisoners are more likely to rearrested than any other country in the western world. You can blame law enforcement all you want and they do deserve a lot of blame but why didn't our elected politicians do something about it?
Reform, review, and properly fund the system. You cant fund the system on the cheap. And yes Republican administrations are more guilty of gutting law enforcement funding. I personally trust Democrats more when it comes to law enforcement reform.
It's easy to sit back and talk sh!t about cops and many deserve it, but this anti-cop rhetoric will have dangerous ramifications that are already being felt. The drop in police officers applicant particular among minorities is a perfect example.

[Estrella]

https://twitter.com/Gingersonfire/status/1266884385854255104

+1 for dedication - people whose ideology involves turning back the clock to Middle Ages rarely go as far as to use weapons from those times.

Also, attorney general Barr apparently wants to prosecute the protesters using the Anti-Riot Act, which forbids crossing state lines and using interstate facilities to participate in violent riots.

Oh, by the way, the law was a part of the 1968 Civil Rights Act. Irony isn't in short supply these days.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

I honestly don't know what to say. This country is literally ablaze. Everything that has happened in the past week has been horrifying.

Well, you brought that on yourself as a country. You had decades to reform police and you didn't.

I brought what on myself? I'm a young Black man in America. This was brought on me not the other way around.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is the first time I've ever watched the news with a glass of alcohol in hand in my life. Good going, 2020.