2020 Protests megathread

[Badger]

Neither a riot nor violent (yet) but I've been stuck outside my apartment building for almost an hour trying to deescalate a shouting match between 2 of my neighbors over this crap.

Good for you (sincerely).

This, but be careful man.

It's good. Recently lockdown-caused unemployed white ethinc industrial worker in an old glory clad "made in America" shirt apparently got cursed at today at Walmart because his shirt was "racist" and "supports murder". So he decided to come home and yell about the rioters and how we're a laughingstock country and slighty drunk Asian methodist restauranteur didn't agree. So I basically had to chainsmoke for an hr trying to get them to agree to something and then leave. After like the eighth time I reminded them that no one present supports violent rioting or the death of Floyd they finally stopped and left.

Mr. Reactionary: The hero we need, not the one we deserve.

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1268026849231286275?s=19

So bad, poor people worked all their lives, it's a sad site.

Honey, black lives matter didn't trash your store. A bunch of ignorant ass thugs and assholes using the protests as an excuse to score some quick bucks did. There's a big big difference.

[Estrella]

I'm genuinely not sure I trust 2020 to be a free and fair election at this point. Sitting US Senators are calling for the military to be used to put down protests on US soil (and the New York Times is running this fascist drivel for some reason), and the conservative Christian intelligentsia has been ramping up the warmed-over Falangism for at least a year now.

You're expecting integrity from the newspaper that uncritically cited a race scientist in one of their op-eds.

BUt NeW yoRk TimES haS LibErAl bIaS

(or, even more nonsensically, "left-wing bias")

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm genuinely not sure I trust 2020 to be a free and fair election at this point. Sitting US Senators are calling for the military to be used to put down protests on US soil (and the New York Times is running this fascist drivel for some reason), and the conservative Christian intelligentsia has been ramping up the warmed-over Falangism for at least a year now.

You're expecting integrity from the newspaper that uncritically cited a race scientist in one of their op-eds.

BUt NeW yoRk TimES haS LibErAl bIaS

(or, even more nonsensically, "left-wing bias")

It certainly has a Democratic Party bias. If Trump as a Democrat populist in the Brian Schweitzer, they’d be fawning over him. Just google Mika Brzezinski’s touchy feely interview. It said it all.

[Estrella]

Oops. My mistake there. I meant to link this.



The NYTimes staffers are, quite rightly, very unhappy.

And today is the 31st anniversary of the day when, er, "nothing" happened in Tiananmen Square. Why do I feel like Senator Cotton would like a similar "nothing" to happen in the streets of Washington?

[Former President tack50]

I guess the Reagente TL will become a reality sooner than we all thought

[Rover]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1268026849231286275?s=19

So bad, poor people worked all their lives, it's a sad site.

Honey, black lives matter didn't trash your store. A bunch of ignorant ass thugs and assholes sikandar use the protests as an excuse to score some quick bucks did. There's a big big difference yeah.

That's not the point though? We don't know whether it was some bigoted white nationalists trying to sabotage the peaceful protests that did this, or some professional looters, or extreme parts of the Black lives matter movement. And yes there are some extreme elements of BLM, "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon". This lady might be wrong in blaming black lives matter for the damage done to her business, but that's not the point.
You can clearly hear from the tone of the lady's voice some real sadness and frustration rather than anger. I can't imagine how she or her co-workers are feeling after seeing their shop trashed. It took them massive sacrifices to build this business and create a somewhat comfortable life and to see it go within minutes must be soul-crushing, I hope the insurance company does cover her business. I know for a fact those insurance companies are gonna try to play dirty tricks in the book to avoid paying for the damage being done, that's how the insurance industry operates. Our insurance industry is rotten to the core and requires an urgent overhaul and reforms but that's another subject.

[Rover]

Martin Luther King famously said, "I would hope that we can avoid riots because riots are self-defeating and socially destructive.”

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

Martin Luther King famously said, "I would hope that we can avoid riots because riots are self-defeating and socially destructive.”

Rioting just makes you less heard. They are not only doing great damage to their fellow citizen’s lives and property, but also to any cause they claim to be advancing. Really disgusting what I’m watching.

[Person Man]

Martin Luther King famously said, "I would hope that we can avoid riots because riots are self-defeating and socially destructive.”

Whose riots? I don't know what you are talking about.

[Joe Biden 2024]

I watch a lot of his videos and this is the first one I've seen where he's been emotional/pissed off the entire time. You can tell he's really upset by this.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I watch a lot of his videos and this is the first one I've seen where he's been emotional/pissed off the entire time. You can tell he's really upset by this.

The footage from Lafayette Park is still just....shocking.

[Rover]

Martin Luther King famously said, "I would hope that we can avoid riots because riots are self-defeating and socially destructive.”

Whose riots? I don't know what you are talking about.

I don't whether you're trolling or not?
Maybe you should watch a couple of clips/pics from West philly, manhattan midtown, St Louis, etc
In St Louis a retired African American police captain was killed while trying to protect a property being looted.

https://twitter.com/rachelolding/status/1267663717082238976?s=19

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/trekonomics/status/1268353634518982656

Yes, it's real.

[Badger]

I'm genuinely not sure I trust 2020 to be a free and fair election at this point. Sitting US Senators are calling for the military to be used to put down protests on US soil (and the New York Times is running this fascist drivel for some reason), and the conservative Christian intelligentsia has been ramping up the warmed-over Falangism for at least a year now.

You're expecting integrity from the newspaper that uncritically cited a race scientist in one of their op-eds.

BUt NeW yoRk TimES haS LibErAl bIaS

(or, even more nonsensically, "left-wing bias")

It certainly has a Democratic Party bias. If Trump as a Democrat populist in the Brian Schweitzer, they’d be fawning over him. Just google Mika Brzezinski’s touchy feely interview. It said it all.

Sir, if Brian Schweitzer ever heard you malign him as being remotely comprable to Donald Trump , he would challenge you to a duel and thrash you soundly.

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1268026849231286275?s=19

So bad, poor people worked all their lives, it's a sad site.

Honey, black lives matter didn't trash your store. A bunch of ignorant ass thugs and assholes sikandar use the protests as an excuse to score some quick bucks did. There's a big big difference yeah.

That's not the point though? We don't know whether it was some bigoted white nationalists trying to sabotage the peaceful protests that did this, or some professional looters, or extreme parts of the Black lives matter movement. And yes there are some extreme elements of BLM, "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon". This lady might be wrong in blaming black lives matter for the damage done to her business, but that's not the point.
You can clearly hear from the tone of the lady's voice some real sadness and frustration rather than anger. I can't imagine how she or her co-workers are feeling after seeing their shop trashed. It took them massive sacrifices to build this business and create a somewhat comfortable life and to see it go within minutes must be soul-crushing, I hope the insurance company does cover her business. I know for a fact those insurance companies are gonna try to play dirty tricks in the book to avoid paying for the damage being done, that's how the insurance industry operates. Our insurance industry is rotten to the core and requires an urgent overhaul and reforms but that's another subject.

Rover, I'm not sure I disagree with a word you said, particularly about the anguish this woman is going through. I'm a small business owner myself, and me and my partner own the office building that are firm plus about 20 other tenants work in. I would be heartbroken if it burned down, notwithstanding having insurance and are files being almost all on the cloud. The one point I have to disagree with is when you say that's not the point. When this poor woman lambaste black lives matters for the destruction of her business oh, no matter how understandable it may be out of her grief, placing blame on a movement opposing police brutality is an accurate or Fair, no matter how heartbroken she is.

This underlies how weird the whole situation is. There is no black lives matter unified organization. Not saying I should be, but my point is the shades between a peaceful protester, a rioter who lets their anger over long simmering police brutality cross the line to axle vandalism and arson, some antifa s***stirrer, or opportunistic criminal trash using the opportunity to steal stuff with any concerns they have about George Floyd and police brutality being decidedly secondary, I'll probably all chanting the phrase black lives matter at some point in their actions. But that doesn't mean we can't or, more importantly, shouldn't distinguish between them. Lord knows Trump isn't, but we need to.

I guess I'm also being infuriated that this woman is being quickly passed around right-wing media I see as the excuse to send in the troops and have the police crack down even harder on protest based on the mistake and fallacies that most protesters are violent thugs rather than peaceful, and it's necessary to "protect" blacks from themselves. It's b******* all around, so I will call out even a disenfranchised business owner wild with grief when she's wrong. I hope they catch the SOB's who did this to her business and put them under a prison cell, FTR.

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

Geezers need excitement. If their lives don't provide them this they incite violence.

Common sense, simple common sense.

[Gass3268]

Another reason DC needs statehood.

https://twitter.com/PaulaReidCBS/status/1268564567610843137?s=20

No way this would be done to a state. The Federal Government's abuses and micromanaging of the District needs to stop. It needs to be a top priority for Democrats if they get complete control next year.

The Federal District can be reduced to this:

[jaymichaud]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1268567645131022338

[Rover]

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1268026849231286275?s=19

So bad, poor people worked all their lives, it's a sad site.

Honey, black lives matter didn't trash your store. A bunch of ignorant ass thugs and assholes sikandar use the protests as an excuse to score some quick bucks did. There's a big big difference yeah.

That's not the point though? We don't know whether it was some bigoted white nationalists trying to sabotage the peaceful protests that did this, or some professional looters, or extreme parts of the Black lives matter movement. And yes there are some extreme elements of BLM, "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon". This lady might be wrong in blaming black lives matter for the damage done to her business, but that's not the point.
You can clearly hear from the tone of the lady's voice some real sadness and frustration rather than anger. I can't imagine how she or her co-workers are feeling after seeing their shop trashed. It took them massive sacrifices to build this business and create a somewhat comfortable life and to see it go within minutes must be soul-crushing, I hope the insurance company does cover her business. I know for a fact those insurance companies are gonna try to play dirty tricks in the book to avoid paying for the damage being done, that's how the insurance industry operates. Our insurance industry is rotten to the core and requires an urgent overhaul and reforms but that's another subject.

Rover, I'm not sure I disagree with a word you said, particularly about the anguish this woman is going through. I'm a small business owner myself, and me and my partner own the office building that are firm plus about 20 other tenants work in. I would be heartbroken if it burned down, notwithstanding having insurance and are files being almost all on the cloud. The one point I have to disagree with is when you say that's not the point. When this poor woman lambaste black lives matters for the destruction of her business oh, no matter how understandable it may be out of her grief, placing blame on a movement opposing police brutality is an accurate or Fair, no matter how heartbroken she is.

This underlies how weird the whole situation is. There is no black lives matter unified organization. Not saying I should be, but my point is the shades between a peaceful protester, a rioter who lets their anger over long simmering police brutality cross the line to axle vandalism and arson, some antifa s***stirrer, or opportunistic criminal trash using the opportunity to steal stuff with any concerns they have about George Floyd and police brutality being decidedly secondary, I'll probably all chanting the phrase black lives matter at some point in their actions. But that doesn't mean we can't or, more importantly, shouldn't distinguish between them. Lord knows Trump isn't, but we need to.

I guess I'm also being infuriated that this woman is being quickly passed around right-wing media I see as the excuse to send in the troops and have the police crack down even harder on protest based on the mistake and fallacies that most protesters are violent thugs rather than peaceful, and it's necessary to "protect" blacks from themselves. It's b******* all around, so I will call out even a disenfranchised business owner wild with grief when she's wrong. I hope they catch the SOB's who did this to her business and put them under a prison cell, FTR.

I don't disagree with anything you've just said. I think it's human nature to blame anyone you perceive the culprit, in this case, the lady perceives the BLM as the culprit. I don't agree with her because I simply don't know who are the culprits and what were their motives.

I mostly view the past week in two prisms. The first, which is the majority, basically peacefully protests seeking justice after the appalling murder of George Floyd. The second, which is the minority lawless criminals trying to hijack and sabotage the protest by looting and rioting.

I strongly agree with the principles of BLM, all of them actually. I don't see anything wrong with their aims. I didn't like the kneeling to the flag as someone who served in the military, but hey this is a free country, you can do whatever you like.

What I find most disturbing and irritating is the constant generalization of cops as "they're all bad and evil", which firstly not true and makes the person making this argument fall under the category of generalization, that's not a good look.
Law enforcement needs a massive overhaul. Anyone that loves the police and law enforcement and wants them to succeed can see that.
The conduct of a large minority of cops is disgraceful and unforgivable and in many cases, they've been given an easy pass for things average Americans can't get away with.
We can just look at what happened in Ferguson a few years ago, the entire situation was sad. I felt at the time it was a huge missed opportunity to reform law enforcement. President Obama was too conservative in his reaction, he didn't want to upset law enforcement leaders. The roots of the problem were very clear, yet sidelined. From that moment it was pretty apparent to any fair-minded observer, that if this happened again, there will be a bigger backlash.
Anti-police rhetoric has become mainstream among a significant chunk of the population. And this is bad, because how can you reform with good faith an institution you hate. One of the first symptoms of the anti-cop rhetoric is the decline of young African Americans joining law enforcement. In many parts of the US, police academies are finding it challenging to recruit young African Americans and it's becoming ever more difficult. How can you solve law enforcement racism, if you don't have enough African Americans among your ranks leading the reforms?

Regarding the last point, you will always find rightwing hacks and left-wing hacks using stories, videos, and events to make a point. In this case, it's far-right hacks. Their talking points are mostly wrong and incoherent, they shouldn't be taken seriously.

[lfromnj]

Military Dictatorship:

There are plenty of sh**tty pictures and videos and you pick this one?
Unarmed soldiers defensively protecting a memorial of Lincoln?
There is nothing bad about this besides the fact it got vandalized and we need people to protect it. Maybe one can see a memorial as worth less than other forms of property and thats a valid claim but overall this picture is mostly disturbing because it shows the general state of America.

[Intell]

https://twitter.com/erinmdurkin/status/1268568010836652034

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2020/06/04/bexar-county-gop-chair-claims-george-floyds-killing-was-a-staged-event-to-hurt-trump

 San Antonio political observers are accustomed to Bexar County Republican Chairwoman Cynthia Brehm spinning conspiracy webs. After all, just last month she claimed the coronavirus was a Democratic hoax and has long maintained that county officials engage in widespread voter fraud.

This time, though, Brehm appears to have outdone herself.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, the local GOP leader theorized that the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody might be a "staged event" meant to undermine President Donald Trump's chances with black voters.

[lfromnj]

Just post this in the regular thread just like we have posts about Russian insurgents as part of the riots.
Both are stupid nutcase conspiracy theories.

[DrScholl]

Everything is a conspiracy to hurt Trump!