Comments

1
Our peace officers' actions Friday will show whether they work for the people of Seattle or for the downtown businesses--whether they aim to keep the peace or to protect retail profits.
3
Maybe instead of buying cheap shit made by exploited labor they should be spreading goodwill by standing in solidarity with the oppressed. This 'peace on earth' is a lie when our black brothers and sisters are being shot like dogs in the street.
4
Seattle police make more children cry that protesters do. Just wait and see. I bet you they start taking toys or candy or whatever away from people claiming they might use it as a weapon. "No Christmas for you, kid. This' ll learn your dad to think he has rights."
5
Hey @2 -

I love when people bring up Dr. King as if they know what he would or wouldn't have done.

But in this case your blatantly wrong. Don't remember when Dr King, the SCLC and the ACMHR went and put major pressure on local Birmingham merchants during the Easter season of 1963 - what the Stanford library has on record as being the SECOND busiest shopping holiday of the year at the time? No? When he and other frustrated black and brown people and allies "ruined a holiday event for children and families to get his point across?" Well, here's a link for a refresher to the Birmingham campaign -

http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/enc…

So next time you go all preachy on us and call up the late Dr. King, don't forget that we use the tactics he helped invent.

Don't be so quick to dismiss BLM because of what you're calling overly disruptive and alienating tactics. You're response to their call to action is the exact kind of bullshit BLM is tired of - talking down, condescending, and downright manipulative towards a systemically oppressed people.

6
Dr. King is dead so anyone trying to pretend what he would do or not do is just full of shit. But if people want to protest they can do it whenever and wherever they want to. That's their choice and let the chips fall where they will.
7
What kind of turd decides they don't care about civil rights because somebody somewhere "alienated" them. How does not liking somebody alienate you from the cause of fundamental justice?

That kind of a shithead wasn't ever going to lift a finger to begin with and alienating them is no loss.
8
I was downtown last year when all this unfolded. I took my tween to meet up with her Eastside friend to go see a movie @ Pacific Place theaters. I stuck around downtown with the other mom killing time, getting lunch while the kids were at the movie. When the protestors came up the mall escalators, they were shouting slogans, waving small signs, and ending up at the theater level where someone made a small, hard to hear speech and then they all filed back down the escalators outside. It was peaceful and slightly bewildering only because shoppers and workers were caught by surprise.

How impactful was all this is hard to say. For us, it was preaching to the choir and because of who we are, we already get it. When the girls came out of the movie and our party walked out of the mall, the riot police were out in force between Pacific Place and Westlake. That's when things got eerie and tense for us because we looked like we could have been part of the protest. (The best evidence to show that we weren't was my friend's Nordstrom shopping bag.) After geting a hard, unfriendly glare from the riot police at our small group, I scanned for a friendly police face and found one in an Asian American bike cop and asked him what exactly was going on. He was pretty calm and remarkably reassuring in his explanation to us. During all this, the usual shoppers and corner dwellers were scurrying about; many carrying on commerce as usual. I kissed my friend goodbye and we all headed home.

It wasn't the dramatic WTO moment when I had to walk to work because the bus stopped running and I had to run away from the tear gas. I think if the movement is to have impact, it needs clear goals, not dispersed ones. Focus on issues which are the most harmful. The militarization of our police force, increasing erosion of our individual rights, and unequal treatment by our justice system are good places to start.

9
Do any of the stores at westlake even have black friday sales/deals? Those are usually corralled into big box stores like walmart and best buy. It would be one thing if they had a sit in or a die in or whatever the kids call nonviolent protest these days, but these protesters just want to yell at crowds and be disruptive for the sake of maybe ending up on the news.

I doubt anyone will see what goes down on the news, or in person, and consider BLMs message and support them.

This is purely an orchestrated provocation as propaganda so BLM can paint themselves as victims and rally their own supporters.
10
@9: just read what you wrote back to yourself:

"This is purely an orchestrated provocation as propaganda so BLM can paint themselves as victims and rally their own supporters."

1. wut?
2. blacks ARE disproportionately VICTIMS of police violence. that's the fucking point. they don't have to "paint" themselves that way.

go watch that video of that kid getting executed in Chicago. 16 fucking bullets.
14
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Ge…
15
I just feel like a lot of the stringent defenders of the black Friday protests are the same type of people who never would've gone black Friday shopping anyway so it seems a bit disingenuous to declare that Black Lives Matter! (More than your silly holiday shopping tradition that I already looked upon with disdain.)
16
Ever been to Washington, from the Chicago Route?

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
(d) Misuse of power possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law is action taken "under color of" state law within the meaning of § 1979. United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299; Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91. Pp. 183-187…

The Ku Klux Act grew out of a message sent to Congress by President Grant on March 23, 1871, reading:

A condition of affairs now exists in some States of the Union rendering life and property insecure and [p173] the carrying of the mails and the collection of the revenue dangerous. The proof that such a condition of affairs exists in some localities is now before the Senate. That the power to correct these evils is beyond the control of State authorities I do not doubt; that the power of the Executive of the United States, acting within the limits of existing laws, is sufficient for present emergencies is not clear. Therefore, I urgently recommend such legislation as in the judgment of Congress shall effectually secure life, liberty, and property, and the enforcement of law in all parts of the United States. . . .

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt…
18
@11, 12, 13: it's good to know I won't have to see your cracker ass on the streets of this booming, vibrant city. feel free to stay far, far away.

you still don't get the point: blacks are exposed to DISPROPORTIONATE VIOLENCE when encountering police. white mcwhiterson walks away with a ticket. a black guy winds up with 16 bullets in him. it's as if their lives don't matter to SOME of the police.

so. dense.
20
If people want Black Lives Matter to go away, then this country has to say it's wrong for police to shoot people to death because they act suspicious and resist a beating while in restraint. The millions of dollars taxpayers are paying out in cases of police brutality and misconducts are a huge indicator these are real problems. Many of you are right, it's not just black lives, but all lives matter. But blacks and the poor are the most targeted.

Black Lives Matter is what it is because what do we have on the national platform besides more videos of police shootings and corresponding protests? Obama and Ben Carson right now are MIA. Nationally, Eric Holder, no longer beholden to the AG position, can be there lending leadership, but isn't. Bruce Harrell. Eric Pettigrew. Mayor Murray would be my mayor righ now if he walks with these young people on Friday. A white gay guy of national prominence. How about the entire newly elected city council? Here's a moment to show acknowlegement and real courage by our diverse city leaders to step out of their political safe zone to show all lives matter. Here's a moment where with city leaders in tow, this doesn't have to be a confrontation between police and BLM.
21
Why not a total disruption of Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon. That would really have an impact.
They could also try shutting down Seatac airport as well. This could all be done non violently by sitting in on various freeway on/off ramps, bridges, and parking lot entrances, even railroad line and piers.
22
@5 "So next time you go all preachy on us and call up the late Dr. King, don't forget that we use the tactics he helped invent. " Ghandi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Ga…
23
BTW, I include police officers in all lives matter. When people strike at the blue wall off silence, ask yourself, why leave out the deafening silence and inaction of our political leaders? Their tolerance is the silence. Police officers are not super heroes. This isn't the Matrix. We don't have "The One". I think of Black Lives Matter as the canary of where this country is heading off to. We aren't Syria, but we are splintering off into hardening factions full of fearmongering and lots and lots of guns. Fighting takes a millisecond to start. Peacekeeping never ends.
24
Re: black lives mattering: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cr…
30
Just confirming that the word "racism" no longer has any meaning.
32
As a former Red, I learned early and often that organizing > activism in the long run. BLM has a lot to learn - or not.
33
If your support of civil rights is directly tied to your ability to shop uninterrupted, you are . . . not a good person. Anyone complaining that BLM protests on Black Friday will turn public support against them is just advertising how weird and irrational their own priorities are.
34
I'm not saying it's all an excuse to loot a Walmart, but it's really going in that direction.
35
I am not against the protests. Although, I am not a fan of the protests happening at a family holiday event. By taking away an event for all people I think it does more to alienate the group protesting.

What gets me is what is the message and the outcome? Since the black lives matters protests began murder rates have increased dramatically in most major cities. If 92% of African American murders are done by African Americans, you would think their would be protesting and outcry regarding that statistic. The murder and crime rates in predominantly African American neighborhoods are on the rise. You think their would be outcry for more police involvement, instead it looks like there is less involvement and more crime.
36
It wouldn't be a civic event in Seattle without someone being insulted and grandstanding about something, and our hysteria-addled media and dim-witted police responding like its World War III.

Now if they decided to protest this, I'd dust off my sensible shoes and be right there with them.
http://redtri.com/seattle/bellevue-place…
37
@35: go watch the Chicago video. any encounter with the police shouldn't be a summery execution. THAT is what BLM is about, not what you want it to be about.
38
Will they be marching to public spaces that blacks have riddled with bullets themselves? The doors outside QFC and 13 Coins?
39
The problem, still, is that appropriating the Black Lives Matter movement for yet another anti-capitalist demonstration is both cowardly and saturated with racism of its own.

How disgustingly presumptuous it is to assume that anyone with a black life that matters must necessarily oppose shopping. Or that it is perfectly acceptable to speak as if your voice represents all black lives. Or to speak as if your own narrow economic agenda is the one that all people with black lives would adopt if only they were sophisticated enough to do their own political thinking.
40
This assumption that everyone is just mindlessly shopping is one of the failures of the left and one of the main reasons why people tend to shy away from identifying as a liberal, even though most Americans hold liberal opinions on most things.

Families come to stuff like the tree lighting because it's free and it has traditions associated with it. It's much less expensive than taking everyone to a Seahawks game, or even a movie. If BLM wants to have a tantrum at it, that's their right - but the only people they are impressing are themselves and those liberals who fail to understand the significance of place and time.
43
@42

Except we've seen the endless photos of heavily armed rednecks waiving guns around in front of police and nothing ever happens to them. Somehow when you're white on PCP going wild they usually mange to not shoot you 16 times.

Get a grip on the facts and then come back and try again.
45
What if the first bullet didn't kill him?

Where were you guys when the Feds stormed the Branch Davidian compound? Where were you guys after Ruby Ridge? Oh, wait. You were always here. It's just that you have a different standard for excessive force when it's white people.

Also, google that shit. I mean, good god, look at that.
47
Trying to make people care about your movement by angering them is like expecting a girl you want to date to give you a chance as you tick her off and stalk her. As others have said if the movement really cared about "Black Lives" then they would be solving the problem of the broken black family which leads to kids growing up as thugs which in turn gets them in confrontations with the police.
50
It is beyond sad that SPD spent $86,096 on their over-reaction to the peaceful protests ...and to think how many donuts that could have bought!
51
@40 - Very well said.
52
#50...that thought gave me the image of Homer Simpson sobbing.
53
Don't Taze me bro…"Additionally in the Alley, the Washington State Association of Police Chiefs and Sheriff's filed an amicus brief. is support of John Batiste?

https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/4…

Never fall of those U.S. District Courthouse's Rickety Old Steps. Where crime pays best at your local donut shop investigation team's head offices. Queen Christine, and King Insleeeeee….=fathfully executed as a governors duty.

https://popehat.com/2009/02/12/a-rickety…
54
If BLM is a thing. Then why doesn't this same group spend as much time protesting in their own neighborhoods over Black on Black violence. They know who the gang members are. They know who the drug sellers are. Go those places, addresses, streets, etc. And protest against the people who ruin more black live than the police do. They know who ditches school. Work with them to get that High School degree. Protest the Drop Out Rate. Change comes from within.

White people are not going to do your job for you.

But, then again, you shouldn't have to be protesting at all. More funds and services need to flow to under served areas. And more strength in the teeth of Police Misconduct proceedings.

That is, if Black Lives Matter. But then again, the Photo Op just isn't the same.
55
Well Thrill Killer, when your too ignorant to breed, run for the Seattle School Board No 1.
1 math problem, always leads to another, and the mayor has one in his mouth.

Held: Initiative 350 violates the Equal Protection Clause. Pp. 458 U. S. 467-487.

JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.

We are presented here with an extraordinary question: whether an elected local school board may use the Fourteenth Amendment to defend its program of busing for integration from attack by the State.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal…

When you send you children to the UW's Dogs, or WSU's Cats, they are guaranteed to graduate more ignorant than when they first attended.

Inbreeding is a problem, in every State Institution.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial…
56
Black Lives Matter? To bad Black Brains don't.

Pay Poor School Tax, of $15.00 , Ron Sims, more ignorant than a sack of Washington Potatoes,

On May 30, 1997, Armen Yousoufian submitted a PRA request to King County. The request was prompted by remarks Yousoufian heard King County's then-executive, Ron Sims, give about an upcoming referendum in which voters would be asked to decide whether the county should finance the construction of a $300 million football stadium in downtown Seattle. Yousoufian's request was for production of two distinct groups of records: (1) studies concerning how a “ ‘fast food’ “ tax[, which was to be] used to finance a new stadium[,] would affect consumers, and (2) “ ‘[a]ll file materials relating to, and including, the widely quoted ‘Conway Study’ that many politicians have referred to in connection with the economic impacts of sports stadiums and any other such studies.' “

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/wa-supreme-co…

57
Why is that not "ALL LIVES MATTER" is not protesting all of the black on black murders? Lets look at actual statics here. So far for 2015, there have been 385 fatal shootings by Police.They break down like this, 171 whites, 100 Blacks, 6 Asian, 3 others, and 31 unknown. If you want your cause to successful then maybe you should include all races, and if then you are the one being a racist and and saying black lives matter more than any other race? How many of you without googling can tell me who Tyshawn Lee is? Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered; 94 per cent of the time, the murderer is another black person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims .The 94 per cent figure suggests that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks. You can go to the Bureau of Justice Statistics yourself so you don't say i'm just creating these numbers. Why is that no one especially, #BLACKLIVESMATTERS is not out protesting the black on black murders, over 800 homicides of black on black murder in Chicago alone this year, thats just one city. Over 4,000 gun involved shootings in Chicago this year alone with black on black. What are you doing for your community instead of blaming everyone else. And the media is not doing anything to hold anyone accountable either. Come up with a plan, when a Police Officer shoots an unarmed individual of ANY color is truly a crime a sad event and the Officer should be arrested and convicted like anyone else. But don't act like its just in the black community that Police Officers shoot unarmed innocent victims because its not. Overwhelmingly most Police Officers are good and an incredible job at protecting us and even at times as in yesterday in Colorado Springs give up their lives to defend us. Judging all Law Enforcement on a few bad apples is like judging all whites on Donald Trump or all blacks on a gang member in Chicago that assasinates a young and innocent boy.Want real change? Come together as the human race and fight injustice where ever and when ever it raises its head. Race becomes an issue when we as a society stop denouncing a murder as a murder and a criminal as a criminal. Together change is possible when those who have a common issue stand together and demand Justice for ALL, no matter the race. I also encourage you to take at look at this, because if you wanna talk about race and crime these are some interesting FBI statistics. Be honest about whats going on and then maybe REAL CHANGE can happen. And before you say, "oh this is just another white person writing this", you should know that i come from an interracial family that i am very proud of. I believe #alllivesmatter not just one particular race.

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cr…
58
Why is that not "ALL LIVES MATTER" is not protesting all of the black on black murders? Lets look at actual statics here. So far for 2015, there have been 385 fatal shootings by Police.They break down like this, 171 whites, 100 Blacks, 6 Asian, 3 others, and 31 unknown. If you want your cause to successful then maybe you should include all races, and if then you are the one being a racist and and saying black lives matter more than any other race? How many of you without googling can tell me who Tyshawn Lee is? Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered; 94 per cent of the time, the murderer is another black person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims .The 94 per cent figure suggests that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks. You can go to the Bureau of Justice Statistics yourself so you don't say i'm just creating these numbers. Why is that no one especially, #BLACKLIVESMATTERS is not out protesting the black on black murders, over 800 homicides of black on black murder in Chicago alone this year, thats just one city. Over 4,000 gun involved shootings in Chicago this year alone with black on black. What are you doing for your community instead of blaming everyone else. And the media is not doing anything to hold anyone accountable either. Come up with a plan, when a Police Officer shoots an unarmed individual of ANY color is truly a crime a sad event and the Officer should be arrested and convicted like anyone else. But don't act like its just in the black community that Police Officers shoot unarmed innocent victims because its not. Overwhelmingly most Police Officers are good and an incredible job at protecting us and even at times as in yesterday in Colorado Springs give up their lives to defend us. Judging all Law Enforcement on a few bad apples is like judging all whites on Donald Trump or all blacks on a gang member in Chicago that assasinates a young and innocent boy.Want real change? Come together as the human race and fight injustice where ever and when ever it raises its head. Race becomes an issue when we as a society stop denouncing a murder as a murder and a criminal as a criminal. Together change is possible when those who have a common issue stand together and demand Justice for ALL, no matter the race. I also encourage you to take at look at this, because if you wanna talk about race and crime these are some interesting FBI statistics. Be honest about whats going on and then maybe REAL CHANGE can happen. And before you say, "oh this is just another white person writing this", you should know that i come from an interracial family that i am very proud of. I believe #alllivesmatter not just one particular race.

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cr…
60
@8: Well said, Marcie. I remember WTO. Thank you for your feedback.
62
@58 & 59 Just because you are unaware of blacks protesting black on black crime doesn't mean it isn't happening.

'If blacks are protesting black on black crime why don't I hear about it on the national news' you ask. Simple it is an intra-community protest/discussion/effort, not a inter-community protest/discussion/effort. To put it another way, one is local and the other is national.

@61 as always incoherent, rambling nonsense.
63
@58, +1

@62, "@58 & 59 Just because you are unaware of blacks protesting black on black crime doesn't mean it isn't happening. "

@62, Show where a BLM protest is going on in a Black community. They know where gang members hang out. They know who sells drugs and where they're sold at. BLM needs to protest there. Protest as big there as they do for tv.
66
@63

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arch…

https://storify.com/scipoet/protests-aga…

That was a quick n easy google search you could have done it yourself.

@65 Got it, you've been beaten in the head by cops a lot. Explains the brain damage. Thanks for the info. Run along now.
69
@68 So willfully ignorant cowardly crybabies like you have something to throw temper tantrums about.
72
@66, an obscure journal for sure. But, I didn't see any BLM signs in the pictures, Why? I didn't see the group, nor the words Black Lives Matter? So like I said, BLM isn't protesting in black neighborhoods. Only to white people for the photo op.

You supposedly live here. When was the last time you saw on tv, or internet, or newspaper a story of the BLM group in a black neighborhood confronting drug sellers and dope houses? Imploring them to stop selling drugs to blacks? When have you ever seen the BLM group in a black neighborhood confront kids ditching school, imploring them to stay in school and do good? When have you ever seen the BLM group protest gang violence in a black neighborhood? Going up to gang members and imploring them to leave the black youth of Seattle alone. And to let them grow up to realize their fullest potential?

How many times have you seen The BLM group protest to people who do not kill black youth? And tell them to not shop? Or, how many times have you seen the BLM group being disruptive to people who do not kill black youth?

You get where I'm going here?

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