Number 1. You are part of the problem with your ignorance and total sociopathic practices of blaming the wrong people. You ignore the systemic racism and classism of the system. The real criminals evade you. You are possibly a cop. You step over the murdered and shout racist bull shit.

You are stuck and may never wake up. Unless you grow some sense I will ignore any more comments you make.

And so we begin with another comment thread of heated words and rebuttals. Maybe that's the real problem.

@3

Actually, I think the problem might be that police officers around the country seem to be killing a lot of black people who do not appear to pose any immediate threat to anyone.

The people who mainly want to hear their own yelling, or those trying to exploit the outrage to further their largely unrelated ideological agendas, wouldn't have any excuse to spout off if that small underlying problem went away. Until it does, though, we're all going to have to simply endure these boors.

After this Thanksgiving holiday all responsible adults should be thankful for the peerless SPD. They showed remarkable restraint with all these BLM clowns yesterday. If I were in charged I would have deployed the CS and the batons. People have the right to shop without the "hug-a-thug" brigade interfering. Lots of typical left cop hatred on display there as well.

in "charge" obv. iPhone typo.

Bar sure is low for the SPD. They show up and do their actual job and everyone is grateful and amazed.

Yes, buying crap by slave labor overseas is all right with you and being responsible is not part of it. Let’s not bring up the underlying systemic injustice and your racism to burst your shopping bubble. You want a police state. You need to be clear about that. Stepping over the dead is not working. And hiding behind a fake name is cowardly. We’re in your way. I have work to do so I’m finished commenting on your delusions and hate parade today.

@11

See, here's where you're being a bit racist, and failing to check your own self.

You're making quite a presumption that the lives of black people who think global capitalism is preferable to the alternatives (even with its faults, and even in its gaudiest Holiday Shopping manifestation) would be a lot better off if you could only indoctrinate them with your preferred ideology.

Alternately, of course, perhaps you're harboring an unexamined assumption that black people who don't share your economic opinions are too stupid to think about political economy for themselves, or so weak of mind and will that The Establishment can easily brainwash them, unlike strong-willed, strong-minded people like yourself.

Do all black lives matter, or only the ones that are convenient to your own political-economic ideology?

If the competitive shitposting quarterfinals were last week, then we've definitely rolled our way into the semis. Dios mio, mang.

@14

It's not a tournament, it's a lifestyle.

Wow you barely even have to try to troll here

MODS ARE ASLEEP
TIME TO SHITPOST

minor league protesting. you need to do this on enemy territory, like bellevue.

8/robot ghost: People have the right to shop without the "hug-a-thug" brigade interfering.

Earlier this year, eleven anti-police brutality protesters were arrested for blocking traffic on Highway 99 in Seattle.

In the request to have their cases dismissed, the protesters (and their attorneys) and the Seattle City Attorney saw things differently:

“It’s about protecting our First Amendment right to protest and to engage in lawful, civil disobedience in the face of injustice,” said Sheri Pewitt, an attorney for one of the defendants.

Assistant Seattle City Attorney Raymond Lee argued that the right to free speech is not absolute, and that the rights of other citizens must be considered.

Judge Karen Donohue ruled in favor of the protesters so it appears that, in Seattle, protesters do have the right to interfere with the activities of other citizens...at least to some degree.

Sleep tight, mods!

@13:

Um, presuming to know the hearts and minds of Black people for whom you don't actually have license to speak, sounds pretty White-Privilegey...

BLM is just as pointless as the "Occupy" movement. Both are emotionally driven with no clear focus other than to say, "I need attention!" #Stupid

@24

Who needs attention?

Civil rights march 1965: We justifiably want to rid America of actual apartheid.

BlackLiesMatter 2015: We're entitled to behave as thug-animals and if the police try to do the job they're sworn to do we'll sue and throw public tantrums. We might even burn down our own neighborhoods.

That about sums that up.

@23

Yes, it certainly does, doesn't it?

Can we get an IP check on that fool?

@27:

Glad you agree. Perhaps next time you'll be compelled to think first before you claim to be the Spokesperson for All Black People Everywhere.

@26:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure your ilk felt the same way 50 years ago...

@31 COMTE, Although I only met you once, briefly at the T Skerritt Slog event I didn't peg you as dildo. Maybe a tad rude but not a complete dildo. The short and bald should've given that away.

@27

What?

Where on earth did you think I was referring to all black people? Or are you simply arguing in bad faith? I was describing black people who do not conveniently fit into the anti-capitalist agenda of so many Black Friday protestors.

Perhaps we should examine the dubious morality, or even ingrained racism, of trying to argue your way around the existence of black people who do very much exist, and are not at all anti-capitalist in their worldviews?

That's @30, of course, though I do try to examine my own thoughts for racist assumptions as well.

@32:

I take it you have some experience with dildos, so I defer to your obvious expertise these matters.

@33:

Your comment @13 as well as your follow-up, makes an awful lot of assumptions about what YOU think Black people prefer, as well as the nature of their philosophical, cultural, and economic imperatives, so it's not a very big step from there to infer you feel you have some special insight. But, for all you know Black people who express a preference for Capitalist economic systems may be equally adverse to that same system when it exploits, demeans, and otherwise treats them like second or third-class citizens, regardless of their personal aspirations and achievements. As we've seen on numerous occasions, being a successful Black person doesn't mean squat; the cops will still throw them to the ground on the flimsiest of pretexts - or no pretext at all - and this system you suggest they might actually prefer isn't doing a thing to change that. So on what basis do you presume to know they don't side with their brothers and sisters shouting in the streets?

@36

The only assumption that I am making, which you of course realize but are ignoring because you are not arguing in good faith, is that black people have a range of poltical-economic beliefs, just like any other population.

This assumption comes not only from actually talking to people in the real world outside my social bubbles, but also from the available academic evidence on the variance in black people's views on things like gay rights, religiosity, women's rights, and income inequality and other aspects of political-economic outlook.

It's not only rich black people who believe in capitalist systems, as I suspect you know perfectly well. And you don't have to look very hard to find a poor black person who is entirely aware that he or she has not been done any favors by capitalist systems, yet still believes society should be structured largely according to capitalist principles.

Since you are arguing in bad faith, you are also pretending that the organizers of the Black Friday protests are only protesting police violence against black people, when you know perfectly well that the protests are also planned and organized to advance anti-capitalist ideologies.

There is at best an irreconcilable conflict of interest in that, and at worst a repugnant appropriation of the outrage over police killings of black people for the purpose of anti-capitalist propaganda.

There really are black people who enjoy holiday shopping. It's part of their very real lives. Does that aspect of their black lives matter? Or must it be made invisible, silenced in service of anti-capitalist political ideology?

What you are doing is old and all too recognizable: you are praising "the good negro" while rhetorically marginalizing or even rejecting the experiences of black people who do, think, or say things that you find morally disagreeable.

@39

BLM is largely the product of the fact that a lot of policemen around the country seem to be killing a lot of black people who do not appear to pose any immediate threat to anyone.

Wow robotslave! That's some quality jiu jitsu rhetorical stylings there.

But the stuff about "this is all a scheme to bring about communist revolution" is a bit far fetched.

Robotslave the civil rights movement and the issues of economic and social justice have been mixing for decades. Does MLK's Poor Peoples march ring a bell?

Your rhetorical styling amusing as they are, is just you squirming on a hook of your own making. You don't want to be inconvenienced while shopping by the realities of racial and economical injustice but you don't want to appear "racists". I get that and I've no problem accepting the fact that you aren't, at least not in forced segregation sense of the word, racist. But inventing a pro-capitalist Randian black strawman to hide behind is a stupid way to do it.

By all means keep it up keep squirming on that hook you shoved in your own back. Although it is beyond me why you shoved it in there.

#44, kinda like strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree. This movement is and should be a part of the greater movement. Once again though, it's black lives leading the way. It's a pity people can't see the whittling away of our rights and freedom. This isn't something which affect only black lives. It affects all of us. We have militarized our police force. We are ceding our basic amendment rights away. Maybe people feel comfortable because it appears to affect certain groups like the poor, blacks, "illegals", uppity types, or whatever right, left, and center groups you think you will never belong to and therefore, safe. The thing is you aren't, unless you are part of that very small group who are accorded respect and clemency by virtue of great wealth, political power, and VIP status, which many of you posting here obviously are.

When a 12 yo boy cannot play in the park with a fake gun without the risk of being shot to death, then adults should stop complaining ad nauseum about how kids spend too much time on violent computer games instead of playing outside. If we let anyone call in vague and threatening sounding 911 calls to the police which later can be used to excuse deadly force instead of thepolice first checking out the situation for real instead of hearsay threat, then you better make nice with all your neighbors. Don't invite people who don't fit in into your neighborhood, apartment complex, or shops. Don't be pulling out your cell phone camera to record. Don't ask why you are being stopped. Don't resist the beating or public humiliation when you are cussed at or watch your loved ones being humiliated or roughed up even when there's a mistaken ID.

A mistaken arrest is ok even when that arrest stay on your record and you will have to explain it away every time you apply for a job, housing, security clearance, or a loan. And of course, people will always believe your version of the arrest when you are being compared next to an applicant without an arrest record. Of course, tax dollars payout for these instances of unjustifiable use of force is the answer. It balances things out nicely, no? Chicago has paid out $521 million in the last 10 years. Worth it I'm sure.

I realize how brainwashed I am when I'm calling a toy gun, a "fake" gun now. Good job American media.

@42

I am referring specifically to the Black Friday protests; other BLM protests do not seem to suffer nearly as much from the appropriation of outrage over police killings in the service of anti-capitalist propaganda.

The anti-capitalists themselves appear to be a mixed bag, perhaps with more anarchists amongst them than your "communists," it's kinda hard to say. For all I know the majority might be a sort of radical leftist agnostic, wanting to bring down The Establishment and not terribly concerned about what to replace it with.

@43

Fighting poverty isn't quite the same thing as opposing all capitalist systems of social organization, is it? Unless you're a radical leftist ideologue, I suppose, and refuse to recognize the distinction.

MLK knew that keeping a campaign focussed was not only good politics, but also much more likely to achieve specific, tangible results. But MLK's organizational methods and protest tactics are explicitly rejected by a lot of present-day radical leftists, if the rhetoric in this paper around May Day is anything to go by.

@50 "Fighting poverty isn't quite the same thing as opposing all capitalist systems of social organization, is it?" No it isn't. However the only people I hear talking about over throwing "all capitalist systems" are right wing nut jobs desperately trying to re-frame the discussion with regards to systemic police brutality largely focused on people of color.

Don't want to twist on that hook pull it out of your back, you stuck it there completely on your own.

As for anarchist, meh, completely inconsequential. A minor annoyance, yeah they maybe gloaming onto BLM in Seattle, but elsewhere nah, meaningless noise. Nobody takes them seriously except for right wing cranks who toss em up like so many straw men.

Robotslave, you seem to have an answer for everything. It seems you have not been inconvenienced by this economic system. Lost your home due to bankers crimes that were allowed? Made homeless due to loss of jobs sent overseas? Made homeless because you can’t get help for your mental illness or addiction? Can’t afford shelter? Won’t rent to you because you are black? Had loved ones die because of insufficient help because they didn’t have the money?? Not to mention countless other abuses. You are ok with that behavior but are offended when people fight back or complain. Come out of the shadows and give us your real name. This economic system is failing and there are better answers - not countless prisons and wars. You can’t stop stepping over the dead bodies. But you are happy with the status quo even if it is at many others expense.

Robotslave, you seem to have an answer for everything. It seems you have not been inconvenienced by this economic system. Lost your home due to bankers crimes that were allowed? Made homeless due to loss of jobs sent overseas? Made homeless because you can’t get help for your mental illness or addiction? Can’t afford shelter? Won’t rent to you because you are black? Had loved ones die because of insufficient help because they didn’t have the money?? Not to mention countless other abuses. You are ok with that behavior but are offended when people fight back or complain. Come out of the shadows and give us your real name. This economic system is failing and there are better answers - not countless prisons and wars. You can’t stop stepping over the dead bodies. But you are happy with the status quo even if it is at many others expense.

@54

Oh, I've been more than inconvenienced by the present political-economic system. I most certainly don't think it's perfect.

But I think it needs reform, not complete and utter destruction with replacement by "we'll figure that out some time in the distant future, after we've abolished every present-day manifestation of capitalism."

@54 @55

Why yes, I do think that I have a moral obligation to work to prevent police from killing nonthreatening black people, and to do so via the most immediately attainable political avenues available.

Do you feel you share that moral imperative, or do you instead insist that capitalist societal structures must be destroyed before you will agree to work specifically on mitigating police violence against blacks, even if those specific efforts might not contribute to the downfall of the capitalist State?