2020 Protests megathread

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https://twitter.com/webradius/status/1266908364145131521

They are trying to avoid this:

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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1267227396341669889
Shades of Nixon '68. Get ready, folks!

Trump is the last person to be calling for 'law & order', especially since he thinks the law doesn't apply to him or his family.  

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There’s no doubt Trump has solidified his standing in history as one of America’s worst presidents. I take some comfort in knowing that the history books will remember him appropriately.

It depends on who writes them. 

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Even George W. Bush would have done a better job responding to...well...pretty much everything that has happened since this year began. 

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HOLY COW

https://twitter.com/ppollingnumbers/status/1267941135521067011?s=21

That's quite a contrast to the reactions of the country in the wake of civil rights protests and riots in the late 1960s.  We've come a long way indeed over the past fifty years....

https://www.crmvet.org/docs/60s_crm_public-opinion.pdf  

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https://twitter.com/MatthewBorgard/status/1267297260251025408

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So one of the questions which has been recently posited from Bill Maher and others, is in the event that Trump were to lose the Presidential Election of 2020, would he invoke the US Military to retain power regardless?

We are currently seeing a test case of what was previously a hypothetical where we are seeing current and former Senior Military & DoD officials speaking out against what they view as "overreach" when it comes to deployment of active duty military service members against primarily peaceful and unarmed demonstrators.

It seems to me to be transparently clear that regardless of how the current protest movement plays out, that not only would this be met with massive street protests, but additionally with major defections from even Senior Members of the US Military, not even to speak of how what are increasingly Black & Brown members of the active duty service members, not to mention White & Asian-American Millennials, that this should now be considered not an option, even in the event that we get to something like a 2000 result, where essentially a bunch of Republican inspired Cuban-Americans effectively by storming the Miami-Dade Election HQ delivered that election to Bush Jr.

I have often fantasized that if Trump were to declare martial law, and order the U.S. military to fire on protesters, that they would follow the example of the Gardes Françaises in July 1789 when instead of suppressing the growing revolt against King Louis XVI, they defected and joined the revolutionaries.  

You're saying that this is in fact a distinct possibility?  

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Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to remind the police that even though they are sworn to uphold the law, they are not above it:

House Judiciary panel to hold police brutality hearing next week

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Using tear gas to subdue protesters may help spread the coronavirus, experts warn

Spraying people with tear gas causes them to cough, shout and scream — and that will send infectious droplets from an infected person to others, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at UC San Francisco.

Tear gas may cause people who are wearing masks to take them off, and prompt them to rub their eyes, nose and mouth, Chin-Hong said. Even worse, respiratory irritants inflame the inside of the nose and mouth and the lining of lung tissues, making the body more susceptible to infection, he said.

Chin-Hong was one of more than 1,000 people — among them infectious disease and public health experts — who have signed a petition asking local and state governments to stop using tear gas, smoke and other respiratory irritants that increase the risk for coronavirus transmission by inducing coughing. The petition was inspired by a group from the University of Washington, and Chin-Hong said he was contacted to edit the letter.

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Here is a preview of policing reforms we could see happen next year if Democrats were to win control of both Congress and the White House this November:

Congress crafts police reform legislation in response to police violence

In widespread protests across the country following the police killing of George Floyd, demonstrators are demanding that Congress take action to make police departments more accountable and to curb racial violence. Federal lawmakers are beginning to craft their legislative response. Congress is so far considering around a dozen proposals.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that a new initiative would be introduced next week to end racial profiling and excessive use of force by police officers. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is leading the effort to put forward measures on police reform and will be introducing a package on Monday.

Congresswoman Karen Bass, the chairwoman of the CBC, told CBS News' Major Garrett that police accountability was the "number one issue" with policing. She said that she expected the final package to incorporate several reforms, including a bill proposed by Representative Hakeem Jeffries that would ban police chokeholds. Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus, introduced the legislation in 2015, after the killing of Eric Garner who, like Floyd, said, "I can't breathe" as he was placed in a chokehold.

"I'm inclined to push the envelope as far as we can because we have a moment now," Bass said.

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Now he looks like on the outside what he always looked like on the inside. 

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Here is a preview of policing reforms we could see happen next year if Democrats were to win control of both Congress and the White House this November:

Congress crafts police reform legislation in response to police violence

In widespread protests across the country following the police killing of George Floyd, demonstrators are demanding that Congress take action to make police departments more accountable and to curb racial violence. Federal lawmakers are beginning to craft their legislative response. Congress is so far considering around a dozen proposals.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that a new initiative would be introduced next week to end racial profiling and excessive use of force by police officers. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is leading the effort to put forward measures on police reform and will be introducing a package on Monday.

Congresswoman Karen Bass, the chairwoman of the CBC, told CBS News' Major Garrett that police accountability was the "number one issue" with policing. She said that she expected the final package to incorporate several reforms, including a bill proposed by Representative Hakeem Jeffries that would ban police chokeholds. Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus, introduced the legislation in 2015, after the killing of Eric Garner who, like Floyd, said, "I can't breathe" as he was placed in a chokehold.

"I'm inclined to push the envelope as far as we can because we have a moment now," Bass said.

Kind of sad that you need the Democrats to win control of both Congress and the White House in the first place to solve obvious problems that tens of thousands or people are protesting in the streets.

We certainly can't rely on the Republican Party.  Hell, we're still struggling to get the anti-lynching bill (a no-brainer, one would think) out of Congress and onto the President's desk after over a century of dithering and delay, thanks to a single Republican senator who, I presume, is relying on the racism and apathy of his Kentucky constituents to protect him electorally.  If Republicans can't rally against lynching, what hope is there that they will support common-sense policing reforms? 

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White House wanted 10k active duty troops to quell protesters

The White House wanted to have 10,000 active duty troops on the streets of Washington and other cities earlier this week to quell protesters, but Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint of Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley pushed back at the use of any active duty troops, according to a senior defense official.

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[New York] Attorney General calls for NYPD shake-up in wake of police protest response
"Too many New Yorkers no longer trust the police to do their jobs effectively and fairly," the report states.

New York Attorney General Letitia James released a preliminary report regarding her office’s ongoing investigation into the NYPD’s response to last month’s protests, highlighting disparities between its treatment of White people and communities of color, and calling for a change-up of the department’s command structure, more diversity among leadership and the “redesign” of police’s role in society.

https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1280944097734397954
James released her office’s “Preliminary Report in Ongoing Investigation into NYPD Response to Recent Protests,” in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, writing, “it is impossible to deny that many New Yorkers have lost faith in law enforcement.”

The report states that the office’s investigation is still ongoing, but "it is clear that too many New Yorkers no longer trust the police to do their jobs effectively and fairly."

In the 57-page document, the office calls for the creation of an "entirely new accountability structure" guided in part by a commission of public and elected officials, including the mayor, members of the City Council and the city comptroller.