Comments

1

Good luck with that curfew Minneapolis. They'll just burn down another police station. Run away!

2

I look forward to the new set of health rules that neither the county nor state will enforce, yet will somehow still bring cries of oppression.

3

@2 -- we White men can never catch a break.

4

There is more to this than white cop murders black man. This white cop worked with this black man at the same club doing the same job (security). Minneapolis made the club owner use the cop for security as part of her being able to keep her club open. This white cop hated black people and was particularly violent against black club goers.

This white cop is worse than the typical white supremacist murderer. This cop murdered a black man he knew and he did it on purpose. He committed first degree murder.

George Floyd And Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Worked Security At The Same Nightclub.

The clubā€™s owner said former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would sometimes "overreact and lash out quickly" while working as a security guard at the popular club.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/george-floyd-derek-chauvin-security-minneapolis-night-club?origin=web-hf

I hope the entire fucking city is burned to the ground, including every police station. And the store owner that called the police in the first place. (The fatal encounter took place outside a convenience store after a store manager who suspected Floyd had tried to pay with a counterfeit bill called police).

And the three cops who helped this white cop murder George Floyd are complicit co-conspirators who need to be charged with felony murder for their participation.

Fuck the United States of White Supremacist Terrorism.

5

Cop haters, anarchists, and misguided white idiot opportunists don't care about black people. Fuck people that want to burn cities and police stations to the ground. These are awful people.

8

"the most vicious dogs and ominous weapons"

9

@8: "... pale in comparison to Slog commenters."

10

We heard on Twitter about the all-male KUOW Week in Review segment.

@4 is correct. This may have been a hate crime, in that he knew the victim and used his authority to conceal his murderous hate as he violated all police protocols and killed him.

11

There's a persistent problem with unprofessional behavior in municipal police departments in this country. I saw some video from Louisville of police serenely shooting a news camera crew with rubber bullets - what kind of yahoo b.s. is that?

The obvious solution is to refrain from hiring so many creeps and assholes. But how to effect such a change - and to do it at a systemic level, across the entire country absent a central authority - I do not know.

14

In this age of pandemic, kleptocracy, total economic collapse, and mass murder, Iā€™ve said it before, and Iā€™ll say it again:

Itā€™s like being trapped on a plane in a tailspin, and a third of the lunatic moron passengers are screaming with glee for the deranged pilot to ram us into the ground at full speed.

15

Hope everyone enjoyed Infrastructure Week!

16

@13 I guess. But a centralized national police force under a Minister of the Interior (a very common arrangement in other countries - both authoritarian and democratic - on this planet) could serve that purpose just as well. Maybe better.

What do we have? an atomized hodge-podge of thousands of independent agencies. And then layered on top of that an bewildering array of Federal grants and programs and partnerships and all the rest. Most of it effectively immune to any political accountability.

18

In large cities around the country, I donā€™t understand why people donā€™t seek reasonable, peaceful change through orderly protest against a system that confers impunity for murdering them or through voting in a country that systematically tries to disenfranchise them.

I'm no fan of riots, but I understand how they exist in a system where all the rules marginalized communities live under are forced on them by privileged outsiders who have weaponized the entire system against them.
All peaceful requests for reform have been either ignored, or met with police violence with prosecutors, judges and police unions consistently excusing that police violence.

If there's a silver lining to the riots it's that police are the ultimate cowards who know and respond only to violence themselves. After each police inspired riot over the past 3 decades some minor reforms were made until prosecutors, judges and police unions were able to roll the reforms back through the rigged court system where they make and approve all the rules.

I see no long term solution to the epidemic of police violence beyond far fewer police with far smaller budgets. That is true for the rest of the destructive criminal system as well.

The harder sell will be changing mainstream media's (hello Seattle Times!) addiction to policing, incarceration and a never ending PR push to cover for every criminal cop in their statist propaganda.

20

@17 Mellow, here's the thing, and by far you're not the only one who just doesn't seem to get this - it's not just about about one bad thing happening. People are fed-up, and they've been fed-up for a long time, and there's eventually a breaking point where people lose it. People get to a point where the consequences lose meaning. The pressure builds up to the point where it explodes. And that's what's happening around the country.

Calling for reforms doesn't do anything. Peaceful demonstrations don't do anything. Our political leaders don't do anything. The rule of law at the highest level of the land doesn't exist, and the laws itself is stacked against the common people in any case. The entire nations political system is corrupt. Civil unrest takes over.

Welcome to the new normal - and this is just the beginning. It's not something I welcome, and it poses a danger to my own wellbeing. But I understand it, and I can't blame the folks for rising up. We as a society, through incredibly poor judgement and choices have brought this upon ourselves. And it didn't have to be this way.

22

Yes, we can't blame folks for rising up. But we can blame the smashies and molotov cocktail throwers who are piggy backing on the "breaking point".

Every era thinks that they're living through the worst of times. Not really. For those of us who remember the summer of 1968 - it's not all that different.

Pray for Peace

23

@21: See 4, p6

24

@21- see @4

25

Well, we're all feeling a bit stressed over the events of the past few days, time for a good laugh, courtesy of our nations attorney general and aspiring comedian, Bill Barr-

ā€œIn many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchistic and far left extremists, using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from out of state to promote the violence,ā€

27

@22 raindrop, yeah, there's always some point in history where things were worse. "Hey, at least we don't live in 1863!"

It's a really lazy and pointless line of reasoning - no surprise coming from you.

28

22: "Every era thinks that they're living through the worst of times. Not really. For those of us who remember the summer of 1968 - it's not all that different."

Not only does police violence in the past not justify police violence today, but that's the entire point.
Violence, rape, sexual assault and domestic violence by the police is just as prevalent, problematic and unaccountable now as it was in 1968 and I think by 2020 marginalized communities deserve better than a police force designed to reflect its origins in the south as slavery suppression gangs our current police force is based on and in many ways still reflects. When the police gratuitously injure or kill someone in custody it's not a bug, but a feature. The only difference between 1968, 1860 and now is hand held video. It's not just the killing, but the pattern of false reports from the police about the killing that then needs to be revised when a video comes out proving they lied, again.

It's not lost on anyone that the "prayers for peace" against violence are always directed at protestors rather than the violent police who inspire them. No question that looters will join in the protest, but you more than miss the point if that's where you focus your attention.

If you want peace, pray for less police with smaller budgets. The natural result would be less violence, more freedom and greater civil rights. Everyone agrees things like murder, theft, rape and domestic abuse are bad, yet when a guy puts on a blue clown suit prosecutors and judges line up to excuse such despicable behavior and large members of the public blame their victims.

What do you call 175,000 men who physically beat their wife and kids on a regular basis?

Officer

pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8357/9d94db09ca037821661f026fb03d3f699891.pdf

30

Violent protests are not the story. Police violence is.
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275507/minneapolis-george-floyd-protests-police-violence

The Language of Violence
https://www.speech.almeida.co.uk/malcolm-x

If violence isn't the way to end racism in America, then what is?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/30/if-violence-isnt-way-end-racism-america-then-what-is-george-floyd-protests

A Riot is the Language of the Unheard ā€” Remembering the Words of MLK
https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-riot-is-the-language-of-the-unheard-remembering-the-words-of-mlk-edd673d69762

31

@29 I got my first haircut since C19 hit then that very same day, bang, riots in the street.

See how that works?

Or maybe "quack quack" is a theory of causality in duck. Maybe you could provide a translation.

32

If only people cared about the endless and relentless murder of black people as they do about riots and violence in response to the endless and relentless murder of black people.

So much hand wringing and finger wagging and lecturing and explaining about how black people should behave better (and yet never the same amount of hand wringing and finger wagging and lecturing or explaining in response to the murder of black people - not even when they are children like Tamir or Trayvon - not even when they are in their own homes sitting on their own couch or sleeping in their own bed - like Botham or Breonna - not when they are unarmed, handcuffed, begging for their lives, in fact not in any case at all).

All of the white people worried about cities being burned to the ground (yet only when it happens when people are so angry and fed up with white supremacist terrorism). People rioting are using the only language that is understood in this country, especially by white people - violence.

When the looting starts, the shooting starts. - George Wallace 1968
When the looting starts, the shooting starts. - Donald Trump 2020

Trump praises white supremacists as very fine people while calling black protesters thugs.

Trump calls for governors to negotiate with white men threatening to kill them at state capitols, while calling for the execution of any people protesting white supremacist terrorism.

Trump 2020 is the same vile thing that called for the execution of 5 innocent black boys charged, prosecuted, and imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. He called for their execution again after they were exonerated.

There is never the same concern about white people behaving badly as their is when white people think black people are behaving badly. Not when white people have gunned down huge groups of people. Not when white people have run people down with their cars. Not when white people have hacked up people with machetes. Not ever. Not in any instance.

Meanwhile: White people never get their panties in a twist when white people riot.

White People Rioting for No Reason
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/11/white-people-rioting-for-no-reason.html

White Privilege on Display in Post-Super Bowl Riots
https://www.diversityinc.com/philly-super-bowl-riots/

11 Moronic Reasons White People Have Rioted
https://www.salon.com/2014/12/02/11_moronic_reasons_white_people_have_rioted_partner/

33

@29:

Let's see, you've posted "quack, quack" about 50 times in the last month - and suddenly Minneapolis is in flames - see how THAT works?

34

Asian Giant Hornets are NOT aka Murder Hornets. Stop sensationalizing the story.

35

So weary of these quote throwers who hang their hat on just one that fits their bloviating. Martin Luther King also said:

Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. (1946)

As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. (1956)

We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. If I am stopped, our work will not stop, for what we are doing is right.
- 1956, in Montgomery, Alabama

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. (1958)

A fifth point concerning nonviolent resistance is that it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. (1958)

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction ... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. (1963)

We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart. (1963)

We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience. (1963)

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
- Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 1964

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.
- Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 1964

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

https://mlk.wsu.edu/about-dr-king/famous-quotes/

37

35

Put your critical thinking hat on. He said a wide range of things. He believed in non-violence, but understood the reason for the violence. He was against those laying the blame on the rioters.

36

Police murdering black people is the contributing factor for this outbreak of lawlessness.

38

@37: That copy and paste is your point.

44

@39: So you're saying that unemployment benefits cause riots? Interesting hypothesis. Prove it.


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