Comments

1

And, that's the end of any future economic growth in Minneapolis. Existing businesses will not rebuild and new businesses will not enter. Pity. It didn't have to be that way.

4

Goodness! Had me going there for a bit #2 as it's plausible.

6

@1,

I can tell you've never spent any time in Minneapolis.

7

Burning and looting your neighborhood has proven to be a successful protest tactic. Hell, you can still go to the south and west sides of Chicago and see all the empty lots from the 1968 riots. /s

8

Technically, there are 130,000 dead from COVID-19, if you use death statistics.

Remember, the Billionaires made money while they laid you off.

10

@7,

Indeed this may not prove a successful means by which to voice their dissatisfaction. Instead these outraged citizens should start a petition requesting police stop murdering innocent people./s

11

Maybe the one good thing that will come of this presidency will be the dismantling of social media. We'd be better off without it. Also, no one is calling for wearing masks outdoors so please stop spreading misinformation. The current recommendation is to wear a mask in public places.

12

The thing is 45 says he wants to force social media platforms to be held liable for the things people post there right?
He apparently doesn't understand that applies to him and what he posts.
What he says he wants is EXACTLY what happened to him when they fact checked his tweet about mail in voting.
If he can actually get this executive order of his enforced, that means every questionable tweet or Facebook post will have to be vetted.
This would be a huge burden on the companies, and they could respond by beefing up their reporting systems, or forcing comments or posts or pages to sit in moderation for who knows how long.
Not just the evil "liberals" but every wing nut with a don't tread on me flag as their home page as well.
It could mean the end of Twitter and/or Facebook, which frankly I wouldn't be that sad about, or it could mean the end of any moderation on those platforms at all which I think is what 45 wants, but again if that happens it applies to the evil "left" as well, and right wing users would have no recourse if there are things they want taken down either.

He is, in short, a moron having a tantrum.

14

Yep, and all economic growth ended in Seattle after the WTO riots. /s

16

Hell, even Ben Shapiro has pointed out how this could backfire on conservatives. He brings up all websites disabling comment sections as a possible course of action since they count as social media and companies most likely wouldn't have the money or resources to mod every comment.
No comment section, fewer clicks, fewer eyes on ads, loss of revenue. Are businesses going to like that? What about Yelp for example? Under this order would businesses be able to sue them for snotty reviews?
There are so many ways I can think of, just off the top of my head, that this could bite, not just liberals, but conservatives in the butt as well.

This is a CLASSIC example of cutting off your nose because you're mad at your face.

20

I find the rush to associate the looters with the protesters to be disgusting. These are clearly two different groups with different agendas. The protests were peaceful. The police armed up and hunkered down and the looters said, "Hey look, no cops! Let's get Target." And now it's on like Donkey Kong.

You can talk about throwing rocks and bottles at cops starting this shit, but we it's well-documented that cops will just send plainclothes into a protest crowd to throw rocks and bottles for them, so the cops can start the shit and say, "Well, they threw rocks and bottles at us, so we needed to start cracking skulls."

23

Police will always be brutal because they don't know personally how it feels to do what they are doing. Additionally, for their mental health, they should not always be on calls dealing with crime. Let them serve the community as a police officer without having to arrest individuals help with those negative moments so they don't get PTSD.

Racist police is a problem, however, if you look at Boston you will find those racist policies applied by people of the same color; as they are arresting.

24

the Washington State unemployment new filing statistics probably didn't really drop 62%, but instead previous stats were inflated by Scattered Canary scammers.

26

I feel like I am living in a real life version of how the zombie apocalypse starts, no one believes it is happening so they go about their business.  It is insanity. All the concern for businesses and the economy and not one shit given about any death - not due to COVID-19 and not due to the endless, relentless murdering of black people.

@12 Trump is always having a moron tantrum. I hope this one really bites him in the ass. The best thing that could happen right now is him not having a platform to spew his shit from anymore.

27

"A riot is the language of the unheard." MLK.

This entire shithole country needs to burn down.

28

@27 agreed.

29

S. Korea forced to reimpose restrictions as COVID-19 cases increase after reopening in early May https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/28/1948203/-S-Korea-forced-to-reimpose-restrictions-as-COVID-19-cases-increase-after-reopening-in-early-May?utm_campaign=recent

America won't take notice or learn anything from this, however.

30

Superlatives are like cayenne pepper, a little bit goes a long way.

31

@13:

Speaking of "the thin veneer of civilization", how ARE things over there in East Drunkland, Lower Tweakerton, Lesser Oxyville, and Little Slapthebitchburg?

32

Minneapolis isn't engaged in protest. Rioting isn't protest. Rioting is destruction, and in this case, self-destruction. What's happening in Minneapolis will hurt black and brown people a lot more than it will whites.

33

@1: So...you're saying that Minneapolis would ONLY be rebuilt if the police are allowed to kill anybody for any reason? You do know that all George Floyd was even potentially guilty of was passing a little counterfeit?

35

Now they've called in the National Guard. Mary Richards and Mr. Grant would be horrified!

36

If you hurry, you can arrive in time to participate in the looting.

38

It probably took the 1992 riots to finally get rid of racist LAPD Chief Darryl Gates.

40

@37: Awww do you need Morty to come back in here and remind you that you don't know shit?

41

@37: Even Sean Hannity did not try to spin this away last night talking extensively about the vulnerability of the neck and how that hold is never a police practice.

44

@43: Oh honey. We've established many many times, in all your iterations, that you are 1) racist as fuck and 2) terrible at math.

45

It is time for white people to dismantle and destroy the system of white supremacist terrorism. White people either step up and do the work to put an end to this or step aside and go down with it. It is the responsibility of white people to put an end to this. It is up to white people to call out and punish white people for enabling and perpetuating the system of white supremacist terrorism EVERY TIME, EVERY TIME, EVERY TIME.

Hold those who commit acts of white supremacist terrorism accountable and demand that they are punished. Hold those who ignore the reality of the harm done by white supremacist terrorism because they benefit from it and would prefer to pretend that it does not exist accountable. Every single day, in every possible way, it is up to white people to put an end to this, once and for all.

47

Why Are The Protestors Being Framed As The Problem? White Supremacy.

The media narrative about protest tactics has always been one centered around the discomfort of the majority, rather than the demands of the marginalized.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9842857/minneapolis-riots-protests-looting-media-reaction

Remember: this country and the shit bag in the WH have collectively denounced anyone taking a knee in silent, quiet, non-violent protest to the endless, relentless murder of black people. So when people say demand that people who are angry and being killed for simply existing calm down and be quiet and not rush to judgement and behave like good little children, well they don't want that either. Silent, quiet, non-violent protest will cost you your job and more. Protesting in any other manner may cost you your life. This is why it is beyond time for every single person sick and tired of the United States of White Supremacist Terrorism and all of the harm it inflicts from birth to death to STAND UP AND DESTROY THE SYSTEM. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Anyone not on board can go down and be destroyed right along with it.

48

@46 Nope, but every time a troll posts, $ goes to another organization (or rather is set aside until I have a good amount to make a donation and with the number of trolling that goes on here that does not take much time).

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Stranger clearly supports these trolls since it refuses to get rid of them. The least we can do is use the trolls to raise money for other organizations that contribute positively to the world (or if you want, to Seattle directly).

One example: Crosscut (they have an explicit statement on their commenting policy, too).
https://crosscut.com/about

Here's a NYT article about online comments and discourse:

When it comes to online comments and discourse and what you can do to limit their toxicity, you only have a certain amount of power. The real leverage lies with the tech companies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/technology/personaltech/internet-trolls-comments.html

49

@17 - I thought I was the only actual "copsplainer" here, having been an actual cop and all. The others are what? Copscusers?

To offer a smidge of hope, ALL of my cop pals in my closed social media circles have been condemning the Minneapolis cops very harshly among just themselves and their own friends and families. It's been more universal than any other incident I can recall, no dissent from anyone. Granted, I don't have racist assholes or brutes in my social circle, but still...

What's bizarre is that actual cops (mostly DFW area ones in my networks) are strongly condemning the Minneapolis cops actions even (mostly) among themselves, but non-cop right-wingers are still defending the strangulation as A-OK. It's a phenomenon I've noticed on several other past occasions.

It seems to me if someone truly supported cops, they would want swift justice here, because shit like this just makes the public hate and distrust cops more and more, and it makes cops' jobs more hazardous. The non-cop cop defenders aren't the ones out there having to quell riots and deal with increased hostility, after all. Defending this means you want the public to hate cops even more and for cops to have to face more violence. So, thanks?

51

@37 - Even if he had strongly resisted and fought like a maniac, he is now handcuffed and in custody. You cannot strangle a handcuffed prisoner, period. You never apply pressure to the neck of a handcuffed prisoner...never ever.

Evidently, Minneapolis still allows the neck restraint (vascular, not respiratory ones) to subdue a resisting suspect. We did in Dallas until 2009 or so, but you still cannot ever apply pressure to the neck of a handcuffed prisoner...ever.

Even if the prisoner is fighting to avoid custody, the vascular neck restraint is only pressure to both sides of the neck, not the back or front. If in the heat of a struggle you find your neck restraint is improperly applied, you MUST disengage and either try again or try another tactic. That takes discipline when highly stressed, and it's why the vast majority of departments have simply banned the restraint or reclassified it as deadly force.

Once in custody, tho, you cannot use a neck restraint for any reason. And this idiot didn't even use the one he was trained to use. We were also required to constantly monitor for what's known in LE as positional asphyxia. It can happen when a restrained prisoner is placed face-down on any surface and especially if there is weight on top of him or her. Such a position may be necessary for short periods of time, but you must constantly monitor for PA and correct the position if the prisoner shows even the slightest sign of it. These guys ignored it.

I know it's a shocking concept, but even if the prisoner violently resisted or even shot a cop, cops are 100% responsible for the prisoner's physical safety once in custody. And yeah, if the disregard for that safety is egregious enough, they can be criminally liable for it. This guy would have been arrested for certain in Dallas as soon as Public Integrity Section saw the video. I don't know Minnesota law of Minneapolis policy to know enough why this officer hasn't been arrested yet. It's baffling to me and every officer I know.

52

50 - Except the condemnation is in private groups among themselves, not for-public concern-trolling. And it's limited to those I know in another part of the country. I said that.

53

Meanwhile they arrested the 23 year old white male who shot and killed someone and chopped up another with a machete (while trying to do the same to a third) without incident and he's being described as kind and non-violent. White supremacist terrorism at it's finest. Even when you've murdered others you are treated with the benefit of the doubt, while black people are murdered for existing and blamed for their own murders every time. Even when sitting in their own apartment eating a bowl of ice cream.

Fuck the United States of White Supremacist Terrorism. White men are the biggest threat to the safety of all people in this country, especially women, children, and black and brown people.

But watch as this 23 year old man (the second white boy murderer to be raised in Newton, CT) will be treated like a misunderstood child.

54

Now that xina has described her symbiotic relationship with trolls, @48, I think we safely worry a little less about her fragile and excitable dispositions.

55

@54 raindrop, here's your daily reminder - fuck off already. No one here gives a shit what you have to say about anything.

57

@54 I am neither fragile nor excitable. Are you describing yourself? As for my position regarding the trolls - the 404s are gone and so is Amy N. I consider those wins, however they happened.

The Stranger wants the people who read the Stranger and who comment here to give $ to them. Every troll post that directs money away from them because they refuse to do what can be done easily and with very little effort on their part, is a choice they make.

I typically have to go to Portland twice a year for a week's worth of doctors' appointments each time. That's not happening this year, so all of the money saved for those trips will be donated. $600 of it already has been.

Oh and if you're directing a derisive or nasty comment at me that has nothing to do with the topic of the article, you're the troll.

58

@56 - Again, ask yourself this: Would Floyd be alive if the officer had not kneeled on his neck for 10 minutes (or however long it was)? I'm sure you know the answer, if you'll admit it to yourself.

59

@57: Well good then. We were starting to get concerned.
@55: Don't be rude.

61

@60: Settle down Sausage. Morty didn't say ANY of that.

62

@60

You are such an asshole.

63

Apologies, Morty
he's not usually this bad
but you have our permission
to beat out a Confession
just for the Good
olde days.

64

Apologies, Morty
he's not usually this bad
but you have our permission
to beat out a Confession
just this once, for the
Good olde days.

65

@18: The American Revolution-or "The War of Independence", as the reactionaries who want to pretend it wasn't a violent anti-imperialist uprising childishly insist on calling it, even though no war for independence was ever NOT a revolution-was far bloodier than anything that has happened in our cities in the last few days.

I'm against violence. But no white American, and especially no white American who makes a point of sanctimoniously praising the supposed inherent moral superiority of our violent anticolonial revolution over all others-let me guess, it's inherently morally superior to all other revolutions because...we preserved slavery for another eight decades after it happen and slaughtered as many of our continent's original inhabitants as we could? Yeah, THAT's inherent moral superiority if I ever saw it-has any moral right to condemn what has happened in this uprising. By the same token, no white Republican has any moral right to quote MLK, a socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-militarist, to back up their bogusly judgmental comments about what has been happening in the streets.

The uprisings are happening because the racist truth of this country is causing them.

As JFK put it: "those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable",


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