Comments

2

Block after block of smashed businesses is a riot. F**k you Rich for putting it in quotes.

8

Who's paying to clean up all the "BIDEN 2020" signs the rioters left behind?

10

I was looking at some of the video from the twitter threads Rich Smith posted. There aren't very many people there during the rioty parts. Maybe 100? But it only takes one to break a window, I guess. Profound how the meaning of these events can be so transformed by the camera angle - Fox et. al. prefer the low angles, but put the camera up on a roof and it seems less menacing than last call during Mardi Gras.

And Raindrop, Duck, what are you doing up at 4:30 in the morning, dang.

11

well, they're Quelling any Dissent
amongst the commentariat, Alden.

we must all be Pro-Coppers
or
we're fascist Anti-fascists.

12

Fires and Pepper Spray in Seattle as Police Protests Widen Across U.S.

SEATTLE — Weeks of violent clashes between federal agents and protesters in Portland, Ore., galvanized thousands of people to march through the streets of American cities on Saturday, injecting new life into protests that had largely waned in recent weeks.

Protesters in several cities said the smoke-filled videos of federal agents firing tear gas and shoving protesters in Portland had brought them to the streets on Saturday.

“Portland is leading,” said Chantelle Hershberger, an organizer with Refuse Fascism who was part of the Los Angeles activists protesting the presence of federal agents in Portland, where city officials have opposed the presence of the federal officers. “They’re showing what it looks like to stay in the streets despite police oppression, despite the federal forces being sent in. This kind of energy is actually what’s needed.”

Bipasha Mukherjee, 52, of Kirkland, Wash., said she has been protesting on the streets since May and said it was worrisome to her to see such aggressive tactics by the police.

“This is not the country I immigrated to,” said Ms. Mukherjee, who arrived from India more than 30 years ago. “It feels like we are rapidly becoming a fascist state and a police state.”

Michaud Savage of Seattle said the protests there were aimed at both local authorities and the deployment of federal officers who have waged a crackdown against a long-running protest in Portland.

Mr. Savage said the law enforcement tactics in Portland, which have included the use of tear gas and crowd-control munitions, were dangerous and inappropriate.

By Mike Baker and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Published July 25, 2020
Updated July 26, 2020, 9:21 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/us/protests-seattle-portland.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

trumpfy's GOTTA have himself a War ASAP
or it's off to the Gulag for he and his crime Fambly.

Good luck, America.

13

oh and btw
I do NOT
condone
Violence.

15

@14 Well, you have to allow the window glass was much more expensive in those days.

17

Got glass insurance?

18

https://youtu.be/vkkM9YAJ-Ts

19

@13: Good. Glad to hear. Thanks for clarifying.

Downplaying violence = condoning violence.

@10 should clarify too.

20

@19. Like you and the feds, yeah.

21

@20: trigger happy retort failure

22

@19 I should clarify or, what? Who are you to demand an accounting from me?

But ok: I think broken windows et. al. are a consequence of civil unrest. The same way that shot people are a consequence of our light regulation of fire arms. If you want fewer people shot, reduce the number of guns. If you want fewer broken windows, reduce civil unrest.

What does Some Guy on the Internet think of broken windows as an abstract proposition is an absurd topic to consider at all. Could anything be less interesting?

23

To the protestors: speak loudly, speak proudly, but denounce the violence and vandalism. It diminishes the cause. Remember Martin Luther King.

24

@22: You are so naive. They weren't setting fires and destroying storefronts because of "civil unrest". Get real dude.

27

@26 maybe if the cops shot a few more woodcarvers or they could beat up a few more black senior citizens if they see them using a cane? That might help things. I’m all out of ideas.

29

I should clarify myself.

When a citizen feels her or his civil rights are being infringed upon, and they take action by peaceful protesting, that is indeed exercising the need to protest their civil unrest.

But mob violence is nothing civic. It is composed of two simple ingredients: anger and anonymous opportunity. At that point their anger is no longer a rational or justifiable position, as they are hurting others and endangering their lives. The reasons for their anger are moot, as they've already sacrificed their integrity by refusing to be cooperative and have empathy for their neighbors.

30

I like how rich used quotes around riot but not around protesters in similar "articles".

If he put his money where his mouth is he'd have welts on his body, red eyes and would be in jail.

35

@24 You're not getting me - I'm not talking about the motives of individuals. I don't know what motivated the specific window breakers and neither do you. My point is that when you have disturbances, windows are going to get broken. Alas! Lament if you want, but it won't do any good.

@26 Easy - eliminate social and economic injustice. I'll leave the details up to those people foolish enough to have gotten themselves into positions of political responsibility. That's what we pay them for.

36

@35: Correct. As I said, their motivation for their violence is moot. It doesn't matter.

The notion of inevitability is not an excuse for violence. You wouldn't be so gracious if it was your window (or your life).

37

@2:

Since when do a few windows at THREE establishments constitute "block after block of smashed businesses" (the number I counted while in the march)? It's precisely this sort of hysterical, overwrought hyperbole that always gets you into trouble, because it's just another indication you have no fucking clue about which you speak.

@3:

Using that logic every American citizen is equally guilty of the murder of every innocent POC perpetrated by the law enforcement agencies we support with our tax dollars. You don't have to pull the trigger or put a knee on their neck, but you're just as culpable - see how that works? So fuck your complacency.

Yeah, all you fuckers clutching your pearls in horror over a few broken windows - I can imagine if you'd lived in the Middle East a couple millennia ago: "sure, I'm all for protesting against the brutality of the Roman occupation, but smashing up the money-lenders tables is just indiscriminate, criminal violence and MUST be condemned!"

40

This is dogged and determined reporting. Good on ya, Rich.

41

@38 Hmm, I thought you'd be annoyed that I gave such a generalized and cavalier answer. To a question pertaining to this turmoil here in Seattle today and the windows that will get broken tonight.

I'm not sure what you're saying, though. Some of your assertions comparing the 60s to today seem wrong, depending on how terms are defined (Jim Crow was still in effect for half the decade) but maybe you should just bottom line it and articulate your theory for where today's demonstrations come from. Instead of starting a game of 20 questions.

41

@37: Oh, so unless we know the exact number of business vandalized it doesn't make a difference? Multiple reports were blocks along 12th Ave. (Yes, block after block is a lot more dramatic.)

Just what is your threshold? Unless it has the blessing of what you and another self-anointed semantic police say as constituting a riot, it's just run-of-the-mill and deal with it?

42

@36 Fine, but then neither do the actions of individuals condemn a movement as a whole.

43

@42: Absolutely!

44

Let's all take a moment and reflect on the passing of the insufferable and annoying Olivia de Havilland at age 104.

Okay, that's enough. Let's move on.

45

@couvis or seafas or whatever handle you’ll use until you’re tossed out again. By your reasoning if several of us were in a bank and someone shot up the joint everyone in the bank would be responsible for the shooting. Once again your lack of understanding of the law is clear. Anyone charged as an accomplice would have to be involved in a conspiracy that predates just walking by a guy breaking a window. With as much as you troll you should be a lot better at it.

45

Buddy, if you think anyone’s clicking your link you failed the cognitive test. I don’t care what color the pill is I’d rather fuck myself than “research” a meme.

46

@38 you clearly weren’t around in the 60s during the protests. The overt racism and class disparities between the white community and minorities were worse than they are currently. Women as well. The economic disparity between white middle class males wasn’t as bad as it is today. Unless you were white, middle class and above you were marginalized.

47

If only people were so concerned about police brutality and the murder of Black people as they are about property damage. So much hand wringing and chastising of how people need to do things. HOW ABOUT COPS STOP BEHAVING LIKE BRUTAL MURDERERS AND THEN THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO DESTROY ANYTHING. PERIOD. FULL STOP. FFS people. It's thoroughly disgusting how concerned you are about PROPERTY when people are being murdered. Don't like the property damage? Honestly, I am AMAZED that the fucking country has not been burned to the motherfucking GROUND!!!!

48

In Portland’s So-Called War Zone, It’s the Troops Who Provide the Menace
If President Trump is actually trying to establish order, he is stunningly incompetent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/opinion/sunday/portland-protest-federal-troops.html

49

Federal Agents Push Into Portland Streets, Stretching Limits of Their Authority

Federal agents are venturing blocks from the buildings they were sent to protect. Oregon officials say they are illegally taking on the role of riot police.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/us/portland-federal-legal-jurisdiction-courts.html

THE FEDERAL AGENTS ARE INSTIGATING THE RIOTS.
THE FEDERAL AGENTS ARE INSTIGATING THE RIOTS.
THE FEDERAL AGENTS ARE INSTIGATING THE RIOTS.

49

I like how they get mad when we downplay their property concerns, and then expect us to take them seriously now that they want to be taken seriously.

50

https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2020/07/25/kayleigh-mcenany-fox-news-briefing-violence-perception-reality-commentary-smerconish-vpx.cnn

51

As if caring about black lives being murdered and caring about property damage were mutually exclusive.

56

@55 NOPE. Gun laws came to be because the Black Panthers armed themselves and white supremacists did NOT want Black people armed, as they believe the 2nd Amendment (like everything else) only applies to them. Nice try though. The whitewashing and lies about historical fact just never ends, not even by trolls in the SLOG comments section.

The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons
Back in the 1960s, even the NRA supported gun control to disarm the group.
https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act

57

When Black Panthers Carried Guns, Conservatives Supported Gun Control
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/joshuamanson/gun-control-history-race-black-panther-party-conservatives

When the NRA Supported Gun Control
https://time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history/

58

There were no "liberals trying to get guns away from the KKK" that is total bullshit.

The Racist Roots of Gun Control
Jim Crow Laws Were the Foundation of Gun Control in America—and The Ku Klux Klan Was America’s First Gun Control Group

The Ku Klux Klan was America’s first gun control group, as well as America’s first domestic terrorist organization.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/racist-roots-gun-control/

59

@51 Raindrop, Black people are not property, we had a war about that remember. Beating and killing Black people is not the same nor equatable with a broken window. Equating them is a false equivalency and frankly deeply troubling.

60

@59: If only you so concerned about police brutality and the murder of Black people as you are about property damage. That's even more troubling.

66

@53: "I mean, the series of unfortunate events in Minneapolis had something to do with it"

Same Pigfucker @14 "on the other hand destructive behavior needs to be stopped."

So, a police officer, tasked with protecting the public kneels on a restrained black man's neck until he is literally calling for his mother as he is strangulation to death is "an unfortunate event in Minneapolis."

But, when a window is broken, we have "destructive behavior needs to be stopped."

When you place as much value on a black human being as you place on a window we will know you are not a cop. Until then, you might want to shut the fuck up.

67

@61: Wow, you're full of shit again. Who saw that one coming!

Here's an accurate history based on the facts you ignored:

https://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/02/nra-gun-control-black-people-complicated-history/
"The NRA, Gun Control and Black People: A Complicated History"

"When the 2nd Amendment was written, it was done so specifically for a militia that functions both as a Confederate defense and a Slave-owner’s offense."
“When the 2nd Amendment was written, it was done so specifically for a militia that functions both as a Confederate defense and a Slave-owner’s offense."

https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act
“The law was part of a wave of laws that were passed in the late 1960s regulating guns, especially to target African-Americans,” says Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms. “Including the Gun Control Act of 1968, which adopted new laws prohibiting certain people from owning guns, providing for beefed up licensing and inspections of gun dealers and restricting the importation of cheap Saturday night specials [pocket pistols] that were popular in some urban communities.”

70

62

So your position is that if a person interferes with a police officer doing their job in any way, they deserve to be beaten for it? That's how you want policing to work in America?

You know the police work for the citizens right? To serve and protect?

72

@68:" Independent autopsy finds George Floyd died of homicide by asphyxia
The examination was led by a former New York City medical examiner."
https://abcnews.go.com/US/independent-autopsy-george-floyd-findings-announced/story?id=70994827

Let's make is that typical and representative Police officer Chauvin murdered George Floyd by asphyxiation rather than strangulation. Do you still consider that an "unfortunate incident" compared to breaking a window that you consider "destructive behavior needs to be stopped" pigfucker?

It's almost as if you ignore facts to forgive typical police criminality....

74

@70: "If they interfere, resist arrest, attack the officer, flee from an arrest;
sure, a beatdown if that will get the job done"

Well pigfucker, what do you think we should do when a typical and representative scumbag cop attacks an innocent civilian, then claims they were the party attacked?

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/charges-dropped-case-dismissed-against-2-men-charged-with-assaulting-officer/33369427
"Charges dropped, case dismissed against men charged with assaulting officer
Grand jury indicts officer on charges of giving false statement to police, misconduct in office."

79

The trolly trolls are certainly triggered by this, they must be terrified, I hope no one tells them about The Everett Massacre or The Battle of Blair Mountain

82

71

Cops are complex human beings, just like all of us. I don't put anyone in "good guys" or "bad guys" categories. That's too simplistic and doesn't reflect reality.

I'm not a fan of giving anyone, especially police or government, the authority to hand out beat downs like that. I don't think most police share that outlook. I don't know, I wish Morty were around to ask...

I mean, sometimes shit happens and cops need to protect themselves and others with force. But those are extreme situations, not anytime someone interferes with their work. A veteran asking officers to reconsider their actions or a nurse attending to hurt people don't deserve to be beaten, in my opinion.

But I realize you have a bleak worldview, Feebs.

83

Just because he died with a knee on his neck doesn’t mean that police officer killed him. Could have been from cholesterol.

84

Looks like I was one of the lucky ones, had twenty years of fun living in Pike/Pine with only SPD stupidity marring it during WTO.

I'm still wondering what 12th & Columbia Starbucks, the people living above it, Cannon, and Rein Haus had to do with anything #BLM. Great establishments all, I've had a wonderful time at each...

85

@81: "Yep, the doctor hired by the family says the cause of death was asphyxia."

Do you every tell the truth? It's rhetorical, we all know the answer. Here's the part you left out. I will include the link so no one thinks I'm a lying piece of shit like yourself:

https://www.tmz.com/2020/06/01/george-floyd-independent-autopsy-findings-family-news-conference/
"Dr. Baden said there was one cause of death, and you don't really have to go beyond the video to understand. He said Floyd was unresponsive 4 minutes in, yet the cop kept his knee there for nearly 5 minutes longer. Baden says Floyd was in good health and no medical condition contributed to his death."

You call this ambiguous.

There's nothing I could add to reveal what you are more than your own statement here. Your sociopathic support for police corruption will serve you well as a member of the police union.

It's also a perfect example of why the police must be defunded. As long as the police continue to defend heir corruption, reform is impossible. We must starve the beast.

86

73

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

87

Fiddle dee dee. Olivia de Havilland was amazing. Gone With The Wind.

88

Enough with the "How many Biden 2020 signs" remarks. The protesters despise Biden and the Biden's campaign has nothing whatsoever to do with what's happening. Not everything conservatives disagree with is a conspiracy.

Sometimes, reality just drives people to these things.

Oh and...let's get this straight...no white person, and especially no white conservative, has ANY moral right to cite Dr. King in attacking this rising. Dr. King rightly called riots "the language of the unheard".

And remember that JFK rightly said "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable".

What's happening is happening because the power structure give the powerless no other means to challenge those in power, no other means to work for change.

Working for Biden-and I say this as someone who will vote for him solely on antifascist grounds, since there is no positive, progressive case for Biden and whichever bland centrist token he chooses as presidne to run on a bland, centrist "it's enough that it'll be Democrats running the status quo" platform-is no way to work for actual change. Biden's victory, if it happened, would temporarily free us from a monster while guaranteeing that the monster's party will make a huge comeback at the next election in response to the useless, irrelevant, and essentially conservative program Biden will implement. if Biden runs another fiscally conservative Democratic presidency that accepts even more cuts in social services while putting the rich's man goal of low inflation over the people's goal of full employment and a decent social welfare system, there's no possible outcome other than a return to the "misery index" that Reagan used to destroy Carter in the 1980 debate.

We've all seen this movie before.

Biden is just barely beyond a change in name only, and there was never any valid reason for the party establishment to heavyhandedly insist that he HAD to be the nominee, that nobody else could possibly win, that the country wouldn't accept anything beyond a change of government in name only.

He knows that the only meaningful response to the existing conditions would be to go New Deal 2.0, but we all know he won't do that.

We all know he won't do anything that matters.

All electing Biden does is get Trump out...and that's all the Democratic establishment will allow us.

The only thing for it is to elect Biden, and then take the party away from him and the big donors as soon as possible.

89

"At that point, some protesters hopped the nearby construction site's fence and burned four trailers. They also busted the jail's windows, and slashed tires and tagged cars in the parking lot. Emergency vehicles arrived to extinguish the flames. "

So if I understand this right, the protestors attacked and burned parts of the youth jail where Dan Satterberg and Dow Constantine dream of spending 95 million dollars to get our children into the mass incarceration system. Wow, what progressives they are.

I'm sorry, who are the violent terrorists again?

91

@47 xina for the WIN!

@90: Check your blood sugar, Doofy. Your terminal MAGA stupidity has hit an all time high.

92

@87: She was indeed. But the way she snubbed her sister, but they're probably reunited now.

94

@89: "So if I understand this right, the protestors attacked and burned parts of the youth jail..."

"I'm sorry, who are the violent terrorists again?"

Thank you for answering your own question.

97

If black people are voting for trump now then who do I vote for to make them mad? If I cans make the libs mad what even is the point?

99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duQRnqaz6XQ

100

As far as I am concerned today we are seeing an attempt to create a police state. As far as defunding seattle police that is a local issue and it deosn't matter at all what somebody halfway accross the country thinks. A person living in newyork will not be affected in anyway at all. I actualy live in seattle my opinion on this issue supercedes anybody who deos not. I support defunding. If seattle wants to defund it should be able to. The majority of the council has already pledged to defund. Pepper spray has already been banned. Now instead of this advocacy being respected we have federaly dispatched militarized border gaurds kidnapping people and a federal order stopping our pepper spray ban. Continued protest are occuring because peoples needs are not being met. Why is sombody halfway accross the country scared of a city they have never been to having a few less police? For the people who will responds swearing up and down they live here and are a concerned citizen who deosn't want this i say to you call you representitives then and make your own movment. If the popular opinion of the city is with you you can stop all of this. But most of you are not from here are you?

101

@47:

It's pretty simple, dumbass: if "block after block" of damage had occurred, one would expect to see massive damage over a more or less continuous swath, not a handful windows broken out of the literally hundreds of windows within an eight or ten block area. Just like when we use the phrase "day after day" - it doesn't mean a few randomly scattered days here-and-there over a period of time, it literally means "one day, then the next, then the next after that, and after that, and after that" and so forth. Seriously, this shit is pretty simple, but I guess not for people like you with the cognitive ability equivalent to a mediocre species of ocean sponge.

102

"Around 4:00 p.m., the crowd stopped for a snack break outside the youth jail on 12th Ave in the Central District. At that point, some protesters hopped the nearby construction site's fence and burned four trailers. They also busted the jail's windows, and slashed tires and tagged cars in the parking lot. Emergency vehicles arrived to extinguish the flames."

Interesting that you buried this in the fourth or fifth paragraph, and don't return to it again.

Peaceful protest? Right. Lighting shit on fire is totally okay these days, and surely won't make it even fucking harder to fight our shitty government.

As a progressive who isn't beholden to the Seattle idealogues who think that we do, in fact, need to burn shit down in order to make a difference, I'm pretty tired of this type of two-faced nonsense.

Reactions against an existing power do not create anything new--they merely reinforce the views of the existing power. It does not create new spaces for discourse and growth. I think there are a few people on the Stranger's staff who recognize that, but most are still beholden to out-dated dialectics based on false prophecies predicated on pseudo-Hegelian rhetoric.

103

"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future."

104

@98: I not only don't hate myself, I get along with myself just fine. What, in any of what I wrote there, had anything to do with self-hatred? None of what I called out the white power structure for refusing to do would have prevented me from being myself if it hadn't happened. I didn't need white people to use violence to keep black people from moving into white neighborhoods OR police using excessive violence against black people OR redlining of black, brown and working-class neighborhoods OR deliberate underfunding of schools in black neighborhoods or the pointless rules against public assistance for two-parent families OR anything else I mentioned in order to be me. Nothing that is of any value in myself required any of those injustices to happen and I'd have lost nothing if they hadn't, just as you would have lost nothing if they hadn't.

107

@93 Downfall: Bullshit. You're just paranoid that xina's right spot on the money.

@98 & @106: ....said the MAGA denier whose butt crack is deeper than the Grand Canyon. Don't get lost in the dust storm. Those triple digit temperatures can be brutal.


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