Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stopping traffic risks the lives of people in ambulances so it’s pretty hard to condone that. Make noise, block access to some businesses, etc, but don’t block streets and cause traffic jams that could kill people FFS.
I have never in my life seen an ambulance be stopped by a protest, nor have ever heard of such an incident ever occuring.
Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
481–490 of 835 posts
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s the same here in Seattle as it was while I was in Berkeley during Ferguson. People protest peacefully, and police shoot tear gas into the crowd and attack whomever they can get their hands on. I’ll admit, the outright brutality I saw in-person in Oakland was worse than what I’ve seen here in the recent days. In Oakland, the police would purposely corral protestors into groups and literally beat the shit out of t…
Race relations between Oakland's black residents and Oakland police have been fraught for decades (probably at least since the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland in the 60s). But that doesn't justify the violent actions you've described. Unfortunately, some senior "dog whistle" politicians have labeled protesters "thugs" and "looters" and have called for "shooting" and "no quarter." These loose words are…
"have labeled protesters "thugs" and "looters" "
Referring to looters as 'looters' is not problematic.
Calling for shootings, using code-words like 'thugs' and referring to peaceful protesters as 'looters' is a problem - but let's not lose context here: there are riots and rioters are bad news.
I think in these ugly times it's even more important to be cool and clear about things.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#483It's a pity that some on the left in the past have been so ready with the word 'fascism'. It's a serious word describing a serious problem, and it should not be used casually for "people on the right I disagree with". I believe that the word is appropriate to describe this administration.
Very few people understand fascism because it's a very context-specific and loosely-defined ideology. Unlike Marxists, fascists rarely wrote books. So if you read any book about fascism, the first chapter typically struggles with even defining what it actually is.
The Wikipedia page on 'Definitions of fascism' is almost as long as the page on fascism itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
Today, it's used by both the left and the right to just mean "bad people", as far as I can tell.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s the same here in Seattle as it was while I was in Berkeley during Ferguson. People protest peacefully, and police shoot tear gas into the crowd and attack whomever they can get their hands on. I’ll admit, the outright brutality I saw in-person in Oakland was worse than what I’ve seen here in the recent days. In Oakland, the police would purposely corral protestors into groups and literally beat the shit out of t…
Race relations between Oakland's black residents and Oakland police have been fraught for decades (probably at least since the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland in the 60s). But that doesn't justify the violent actions you've described. Unfortunately, some senior "dog whistle" politicians have labeled protesters "thugs" and "looters" and have called for "shooting" and "no quarter." These loose words are…
While I think Cotton is a jackass, I can’t help but notice how your first paragraph is about Oakland, California, and your second paragraph is about a guy who is a Senator in Kentucky.[1]
Oakland has had a Democratic mayor since 1977. California routinely has a super-majority of Democrats in the state legislature, and the last Republican Federal Senator from the state left office almost 30 years ago. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the second paragraph after mentioning the “fraught” relationship between black residents and the Oakland PD should have something to do with those Democrats who have direct executive and legislative control over the city and state, who are directly in charge of hiring/firing police chiefs and operating the state level internal affairs bureaus, and who set police department budgets and make the laws. And maybe the (admittedly deplorable) coded language a Republican Senator thousands of miles away uses belongs many paragraphs below that.
[1] Interesting fact. Oakland and Louisville are ranked similarly (188 versus 194) on Urban Institute’s “economic inclusiveness” index: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/97981/...
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Women didn’t shoot cops in the back of the head, burn down city hall, steal and loot stores In what timeline are you talking about? Women's Suffrage definitely had protests turn violent. Here[1] is source about documenting this violence, and I went through the trouble of finding a source published 2 years ago in order to counter any narrative that it's "convenient" for today's issues. History has a way of whitewash…
Not so much in the US.
Are you sure of that or are you just talking out of your ass? A 10 second google search would say you are wrong.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's fair. Still, "nuh uh" is not an effective rebuttal. Asking for evidence is better than "you're wrong" or "you're a liar". "Here's evidence that you're wrong" is even stronger.
It takes 10 seconds for someone to create a lie, it takes 10 minutes to rebut it.
If that's your concern, fine. Then just ask for evidence for the lie. That takes 10 seconds, and costs the liar the 10 minutes. Don't just say "you're wrong". Even if they are in fact wrong, it's still really weak. People aren't going to believe you. (Nor should they, based on what you've presented, which is nothing but a bare denial.)
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
It all started with the media, as in, police crime was documented. Now when police already uses questionable methods, cameras will point at them. Since they can't be identified in full gear, they can shoot at press without anyone stopping them, so I guess why not? They're already shooting at random people so there's a lot of aggression built up.
The media didn't document the crime. It was ordinary people with smartphones.
Maybe I implied this too subtly: If you've got a phone camera pointed at police, there may be a legal definition difference, but effectively you're media or the content provider for them.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
The police seem to clearly be allowing looting on purpose. SoHo was looted two days in a row . Where were the NYPD? There are 10's of thousands of uniformed officers Maybe you can say the first day they somehow missed it, but two days in a row? Come on. I refuse to believe that they didn't see this coming - they brag about how they're "gathering intel" on terrorist groups, but they couldn't check twitter to see #soho…
On the topic of police refusing to do their job in order to punish backlash. https://twitter.com/MplsWard3/status/1267891878801915904 > Politicians who cross the MPD find slowdowns in their wards. After the first time I cut money from the proposed police budget, I had an uptick in calls taking forever to get a response, and MPD officers telling business owners to call their councilman about why it took so long.
That is just evil. That's police using their power as a protection racket. It should be illegal, and the officers involved should be put behind bars.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is such utter fucking bullshit. You can watch hundreds of videos of peaceful protesters being attacked by police. They are not looting. What you are saying is an outright lie. Conservatives are just practicing the same racist tribalism t hey always have. There is no structural logic to how they behave except "us vs them" and right now the police are hurting the right people. It is not and has never been about pr…
err.. There are so many videos of people grabbing stuff from stores and running. That is looting. Now, If you make the argument that these people are not protesters but opportunistic thieves, then we can all move on. Looting & destroying someone else's property as a response to injustice is almost as bad as the injustice itself. This is not to say all protesters are looters, but that thieves take this opportunity to…
I'm talking about protesters. Deflecting to looters isn't really that helpful when cops are attacking people who are peacefully demonstrating and kneeling in the street.
Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28
#490Disclaimer: I am a bleeding heart liberal and this may filter my observations. I have been to a few rallies/vigils/marches lately and all incidences of violence that I have witnessed either in person or through media has been instigated by the police. As far as I know,every documented case where a formerly peaceful crowd turns into chaos has been started with police shooting pepperspray, teargas, or whatever into the…
Yeah, I don’t believe it. Rioting is natural human behavior. In Bangladesh we have violent riots after every election. The police aren’t instigating them, they are nowhere to be found. Why would I believe that Americans are any different?
>Why would I believe that Americans are any different?
We don't have violent riots after every election, for one thing.