Minneapolis riots
I feel as though I’ve written this post before. Oh, the details are different, but the phenomenon is much the same. A black person (usually a man) dies at the hands of police, either by being shot outright or in the process of some sort of strange technique supposedly used to subdue him. The police involved are suspended or fired, pending an investigation that sometimes exonerates them and sometimes implicates them. Sometimes they end up in prison themselves.
And at some point the riots and destruction begin. Sometimes the riots start as protests, and then more destructive nihilistic elements take over and use the cover of protests to go on a lawless and destructive spree. Sometimes they start as riots without the peaceful protest part. In the end, the community suffers.
At this point, quite a bit of video has surfaced in the death of George Floyd, and the police’s actions look bad. It’s mostly one officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck for many minutes; they rest stand by. The four involved have been fired. My guess is that they are guilty of, at the very least, gross negligence. But I know from previous experience that it’s always best to wait for autopsies and more information before coming to firmer conclusions. But even if Floyd died of a heart attack or something of that sort, the police can be held responsible if they were acting wrongly.
The riots are the sort of thing that we’ve come to expect under the circumstances, including the looting and burning. It’s depressing and it’s sad, and in this case the politicians and police of Minneapolis don’t seem to have done much to stop it. For further discussion, I refer you to the writers at Powerline, based in Minneapolis, such as John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson.
Video has surfaced of the moments leading up to the incident, and Floyd does not seem to have resisted arrest, contrary to early police reports. The officer kneeing Floyd’s neck had previously been the subject of a number of complaints.
And a large under-construction building that was burned down was low-income housing:
The under construction affordable housing development that burned in the widespread violence in south Minneapolis late Wednesday and early Thursday was to be a six-story rental building with 189 apartments for low-income renters, including more than three dozen for very low-income tenants.
And here’s an article describing other destruction in the community at the hands of the rioters (called “protestors” in the article):
Shattered glass, broken golf clubs and trash littered East Lake Street on Thursday morning after the destructive standoff between protesters and police, with some breaking into and setting fire to stores.
Many of these businesses, including fast-food restaurants, auto shops and banks, were ransacked by Thursday morning. The brick foundation of a Metro PCS store, the only part that remained, continued to burn as the crews dug a line in front to prevent a gas leak.
Smoke billowed from the shopping complex near Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue, the burning smell wafting over across Lake Street. A Wendy’s restaurant smoldered; so did a building behind it, no longer recognizable…
Charles Stotts, who has owned Town Talk Diner for four years, looked at his restaurant with gentle eyes and a somber frown. Its windows were shattered, the bar ransacked. Smoke filled the dining room and water from the sprinklers flooded the floor and poured out onto the street.
“It’s worse than anything I could have ever imagined happening to our little restaurant,” he said. “What did my little building on the side of the road do?”…
[Another store owner’s wife], Gita Zeitler, later sat on the stoop in front of their shop. She said she was disappointed in a lack of security provided by the police for the businesses. “The Minneapolis police has been useless for a long time,” she said.
“Why are we targeted here?” she asked. “We know the police didn’t do the right thing. Police is hiding, policymakers are not here, and local neighborhood life is taken away by the riots.”
Minneapolis is run by Democrats, of course. But no doubt they’ll find a way to blame Republicans.
Although the actions of the police may in this case look bad, experience of these matters should teach us that hasty and highly emotional reaction to stories constructed around snippets of video without proper context should be tempered by measured analysis based upon all the facts as they become available, The rush to rapid judgement by all on the left (and by some on the right) has been proven to be foolish indeed time and time again. In addition, had the deceased been white, this would never have become a national story, nor would there have been such indefensible behavior by the “protesters”, more properly described as rioters and looters.
I have noticed that the “spokespeople for the black community” usually give us explanations for why people do this that largely exonerate them, but when the people themselves are asked to justify their own actions they don’t make much sense.
A lot of lacking accountability here, of police and protestors both, it seems. Remember that even the great King David turned pretty evil when he wasn’t held accountable. We all need it.
This comment at iSteve might be relevant as well:
https://www.unz.com/isteve/minneapolis-before-diversity/#comment-3923529
To borrow a Powerline meme:
The last Republican mayor of Minneapolis left office in 1961.
I once searched the web on the NYC Blackout of 1977 and discovered that some attribute the rise of hip-hop to the looting which followed:
___________________________________________________________
But [DJ Grandmaster] Caz also believes that the 1977 blackout may have accelerated the growing hip-hop movement, which was just beginning to put down roots in the Bronx. His theory: The looting that occurred during the blackout enabled people who couldn’t afford turntables and mixers to become DJs.
Caz admits that he himself stole new equipment that night. “I went right to the place where I bought my first set of DJ equipment, and I went and got me a mixer out of there.” He continues, “After the blackout, all this new wealth … was found by people and they just—opportunity sprang from that. And you could see the differences before the blackout and after.”
Caz’s theory—that the hip-hop movement was catalyzed by the 1977 blackout—can’t really be confirmed. Joe Schloss, the hip-hop researcher from City University, buys it, with a caveat. “I think it’s true, but I think it’s also important to keep in mind that basically, hip-hop history is an oral history at this point, and that it’s all mythology in some sense—the true stories as well as the false stories.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/10/16/roman_mars_99_percent_invisible_was_the_1977_nyc_wide_blackout_a_catalyst.html
___________________________________________________________
You see, it all works out!
Yes, at the very least we should await autopsy results. However, having looked at the videos, I can see no excuse for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for five minutes. Even if Floyd had resisted arrest, which is not evident, there still would be no excuse.
Minnesota has a process in which the results of a state investigation will be turned over to the county attorney, at which time charges will presumably be filed. This is likely to take a lot less time than it did in the shooting of an innocent white Australian woman by a Somali-American police officer in Minneapolis.
Wow. Minneapolis seems to have turned into a real sh#! hole, real fast with a lot of blame to be spread around. Isn’t that where the Australian woman was shot by the immigrant cop who felt “threatened”?
I’m not necessarily going to rush to full judgment yet, regarding how the officer should be charged. I can say that from watching the multiple videos the officer is likely in big, big trouble. Kneeling on a man’s neck, and obstructing his airway (the man repeatedly tries to tell the officer this until he can no longer say anything) is reprehensible. Obstruction of breath is deadly force. And there a very, very limited times when deadly force is authorized. Depending on jurisdiction and agency, even if deadly force is authorized, there are some types that are still forbidden because they fall outside the scope of training and thus are not indemnified. If the cop wasn’t aware that he was obstructing the breath, that makes it worse. His conduct was reckless and his ignorance was deadly.
The police often pull out the ‘resisting arrest’ excuse. Resisting arrest is one of law enforcement’s dirty little secrets (along with the ‘A’ word: Articulation*). Once resisting arrest is added to charges, its very, very hard to fight. And is often added whether the person being arrested resists at all because it is so hard to fight. Its also used as an all purpose excuse for conduct and methods that go beyond acceptable limits of violence.
Even if the man had resisted, it would not have justified the “technique” (full sneer quotes) used on him.
j e said:
“In addition, had the deceased been white, this would never have become a national story, nor would there have been such indefensible behavior by the “protesters”, more properly described as rioters and looters.”
While that’s true, I don’t find the officer’s conduct any less infuriating and the man’s death on camera any less heart wrenching because it was all so unnecessary.
All that aside, I want to stress (because I know it will be necessary to do so) that I am not excusing the actions of the looters or the MSM. I definitely won’t call the looters protesters. They’re predators who took advantage of the chaos, chaos they helped create at that.
*Articulation is what all police agencies teach in their academies, for a while now. Like the cop who shot the Australian woman in the bath robe, he was taught to say, even before he is supposed to ask for his lawyer, that he was “afraid for his life.” He is taught many ways to articulate that fear for his life, so that when a grand jury hears his testimony, they are supposed to believe that very thing whether it was true at the time or not.
The video coverage I saw on FOX last night showed, not peaceful protests and protesters a la the old Dr. King-led Civil Rights marches but, instead, apparently a lot of people interested in working themselves up–yelling and screaming, holding up signs, throwing stuff at the police, and smashing police cars—the supposed “protesters,” who–I suspect, many of them–were in it just for the thrill of rioting, violence, and destruction.
Then, at other locations, there were the outright looters, and arsonists.
The clip I happened to see featured people–mostly black (with a bunch of others–white and black–wandering around in front of the store, and observing the goings on, and maybe deciding whether to take part)–who were looting a Target, and you saw at least one guy–there might have been a couple more–loading up three or four flat screen TVs on a shopping cart, ready to haul way, and other guys exiting the store carrying large boxes—maybe stereo or computer systems?
Yah, they were certainly “protesting” what happened to George Floyd, and “protesting” hard.
The latest info I could find on the race of people dying while in police custody showed the following percentages:
White: 42%
Black: 32%
Hispanic: 20%
“Institutional racism” at work, no doubt. Why don’t we hear about the 42%?
huxley,
Ever read “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning” by Jonathan Mahler?
Covers the blackout of ’77, Reggie Jackson, the Yankees, the Son of Sam and the rise of Mario Cuomo. It was a pretty good read. I hear ESPN made a miniseries but haven’t seen it.
On wiki, refreshing my memory of the author’s name, I found this odd (prophetic?) quote:
“The handsome Mario Cuomo, “the candidate of the outer boroughs,” known for his involvement in a 1972 public housing dispute in Forest Hills, and before that the Corona Fighting 69.’
Mario Cuomo and the Corona Fighting 69. I forgot that part. 69 Queens homeowners fight against the city wanting to knock down their homes and build a school.
And, yes, there’s no excuse whatsoever for the looters and arsonists. Businesses which were serving this locality will reconsider whether they want to operate there, probably.
This comment at iSteve might be relevant as well:
You’re not familiar with Sailer’s comment boards, are ya?
Burning question– were the rioters wearing masks, and observing social distancing?
Brian E
“Burning question”
Well done.
The under construction affordable housing development that burned in the widespread violence in south Minneapolis late Wednesday and early Thursday was to be a six-story rental building with 189 apartments for low-income renters, including more than three dozen for very low-income tenants.
Good. Burn the rest of it down. The disreputable Mr. Sailer (who is a better man than the people who read him) refers to ‘affordable housing’ as ‘awardable housing’. The concessionary rent generates political patronage, and if it’s a worthwhile place to live, you’ll find many places occupied by the impecunious relatives of local politicians.
If you’re concerned about the real income of the impecunious, why not amend and elaborate upon the EITC? Each household will allocate the additional income according to it’s utility function and you’ll get more utility improvement for each dollar of redistribution. It’s gratuitous to be subsidizing people’s rent, groceries, and utility bills. The goods and services in question are frequently replenished (so are less taxing to people’s planning skills) and their consumption in sensitive to considerations of taste and amenity. (With purchases of medical care, long term care, schooling, and legal services, you have a time-horizons issue and consumer information deficits).
Another thing that’s troublesome is aggregating the impecunious by design. Unless your population consists of elderly and disabled people, being poor is correlated with being disorderly, and you don’t want to contrive to concentrate disorderly people in one place. They cause enough trouble when it’s one household in a building with six apartments.
Of course, the city government will do nothing sensible. If something is run by gentry liberals, it will be run badly whenever running it well requires a satisfactory understanding of human nature (as opposed to a sense of aesthetics). Let liberals run the oratorio society. Let the rest of us run the police department.
Don’t you know that smoke and tear gas kills that virus? Makes coughing, sneezing, touching your face, picking up and throwing rocks, etc. safe as a baby’s bare bottom.
Again, the main reason people riot is that the police let them. The police let them because officious and incompetent politicians insist they let them.
Brian E:
Good point indeed! Must have been those N95 respirators they were wearing. And of course voluntary compliance with the building occupancy restrictions by those protestors who were reappropriating that merchandise.
Fractal Rabbit: No, I don’t know the Mahler. However, your Cuomo remark sparks a connection to Paul Simon’s song, “Me and Julio,” which was released in May, 1972.
From wiki:
In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation Negotiations and Love Songs. The video was filmed at Mathews-Palmer Park in Hell’s Kitchen, which was standing in for Halsey Junior High School in Forest Hills, Queens, the neighborhood in which Simon grew up and met Art Garfunkel in high school.
The song’s lyrics contain the elusive call-out:
Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona.
I’ve puzzled over the song and never touched bottom. Paul Simon is no help, calling the song, “a bit of inscrutable doggerel.”
______________________________________
“Paul Simon – Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Official Audio)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVdlpZ4M-Hw
I look forward to future protests by black “community leaders” about “food and shopping deserts”–the lack of places to shop, stores from national chains, and big box stores in poor black communities–and how these lacks are due to deliberate “racism.”
huxley,
I’m no aficionado but most of Simon’s lyrics seem that way to me. Even when I like the music, which I usually do. I remember the video when it came out. I was quite excited because Mickey Mantle was in it.
A HUTU vs Tutsi epidemic, post-apartheid Progressive South African lynching, redistributive change, or retributive change.
It’s not a tragedy, it’s an opportunity… for forward-looking people… persons, special and peculiar interests.
#BLM “Baby Lives Matter”
#DiversityBreedsAdversity
#HateLovesAbortion
Fractal Rabbit: Clearly Paul Simon’s song wasn’t based on a true story — there was never a Newsweek cover with Me, Julio and the Radical Priest as claimed in the lyrics. But the radical priests, known as the Berrigan Brothers, did appear on the cover of Time.
So if Simon was synthesizing song elements out of current events, I’m wondering if he didn’t include the housing dispute you mentioned earlier:
__________________________________________________________
“The handsome Mario Cuomo, “the candidate of the outer boroughs,” known for his involvement in a 1972 public housing dispute in Forest Hills, and before that the Corona Fighting 69.’
Mario Cuomo and the Corona Fighting 69. I forgot that part. 69 Queens homeowners fight against the city wanting to knock down their homes and build a school.
__________________________________________________________
That was Simon’s high school stomping ground so I assume he was aware of the housing dispute at the time he wrote the song and the neighborhood activism became an ingredient in the song.
Simon did get stoned, as many did in those days, and his songs contained odd bits from marijuana reveries — like the “I own the tailor’s face and hands” verse from the song “Faking It,” which was an earlier life he imagined while high.
Anyway. Probably more than anyone wants to know.
This story is so repetitive and so… predictable. I could feel the anguish in Candace Owens tweets this morning.
They are boarding Targets and other stores across Minneapolis and neighboring cities tonight. Reports of looting a Walgreens in St Paul. So in addition to the high tax and cold weather we can now add gangs of roaming thugs to the local attractions.
This was a total tragedy with a man dying after being taken into police custody and of course the first ones who come to attention are the officers who we find have a cloudy past with some violence. Then you look at the police department and chief of police who happens to be a black man as well as a lot of his staff. Going on up the line you have entrenched liberals, young 38 year old mayor, governor who is a lefty as well as state attorney general who is a black man and wonder who is accountable, who are they protesting against?
It appears the crowd and celebrities are saying an out of control local police officer and his buddies are Trump’s and the conservatives fault and the riots are because changes need to be made. This destruction of cities by their residents who live with a sense of outrage and anger waiting for an incident to take to the streets is a sorry, sad result of decades of failed liberal policies and as the next few days go by they might destroy one of the most liberal cities in the nation, a city full of ever so nice, enlightened people.
I have a lot of concern that with all of the lock down and loss of jobs the outrage will spill over into other cities as various people decide the time has come to use violence to rectify something.
As a long time resident of the Detroit area the thing that amazed me the most about Minneapolis was that the houses inside the city limits- which appeared to built in the same style as those in Detroit and in roughly the same era- weren’t burned-out ruins. I found it truly weird and just a mite unsettling to see them, as if I’d somehow been transported to an alternate universe. Alas, it seems that Minneapolis is now taking the same road that Detroit took decades ago.
Shrug. I wish I could feel more, but as Roy Nathanson wrote, this is so repetitive and so predictable- and based on my Michigan experience, I think I know how it will end. Those houses in the Twin Cities that amazed me will end up abandoned and, eventually, they will burn. Businesses will leave, or cease to exist. The local politicians will complain, and blame racism- but the victims of the riots won’t care. They’ll just leave, fearing for their lives, and for the lives of their children.
Because that’s another thing my Michigan experience has taught me- black-on-white crime attracts almost no attention at all from our so-called media, no matter what. I’ve heard of an endless stream of violent attacks, going back decades, which has impacted my life a good bit. I haven’t been a victim, but I’ve made certain expensive choices to avoid becoming one.
Summing up, I think people can figure out how this works by just two incidents, both from the Minneapolis area. The first is that Australian woman- gosh, why isn’t she a household name?- who was murdered in cold blood by an obvious political hire. The leftists running the city wanted a Somali cop, ever if the guy was obviously unsuited for the job. If I recall, the city fought against firing the guy and plainly didn’t want any scrutiny on that case. The second is the inspiration for the present riots- immediate termination for the officers involved, accompanied by servile groveling aimed at the rioters.
Good luck with that Minnesotans, but don’t expect it to turn out any different than it did in Detroit.
“they might destroy one of the most liberal cities in the nation”
There’s the rub. To the extent this stuff is tolerated or encouraged, the idea is the threat of continuing violence will grease the wheels for whatever liberal/progressive policy is popular at the moment. But it doesn’t take much for the violence to get out of control and frighten the public in the exact opposite direction, sending them running into the arms of the law-n-order crowd.
I suspect that much like decades of GOP demagoguery opened the door for Donald Trump, the paranoid fantasy that black people are being exterminated by the police may lead to something the white power structure running the Democratic Party doesn’t like.
Mike
The Rioters were sent by Soros. As many conservatives like to lecture me, Soros has this “freedom of expression” thing.
Not sure I understand… but I do know Americans don’t have the spine to kill the Deep State. If they did, things would be simpler.
Fractal Rabbit on May 28, 2020 at 4:33 pm said:
Ever read “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning” by Jonathan Mahler?
I was going to sleep on the firescape… i lived it in the bronx..
after that, all the stores had to get metal gates to be insured.
window shopping was no more…
I have no doubt that this is led by fascist Antifa ringers, many of them visiting from out of state. These are the young and rich who were ridiculed as “cause heads” in the 1990s satirical comedy “PCU” or Politically Correct University.
These well off leaches are “protesting” for a Black folks and against The Man.
They believe they are hero’s, because to the Left, they are.
I’m from Minneapolis and my old uni roommate turned stats professor lives just on the St. Paul side of the Mississippi River, just East of “the action.”
“I suspect that much like decades of GOP demagoguery opened the door for Donald Trump, ….”
‘Tis a puzzle, what to make of such thoughts. President Trump is the result of GOP demogoguery? Those dim bulb deplorable deplorables, victims of demogoguery, not observers of progressive policy and preferences for decades. Our country needs a better class of or more competent confederation of demagogues. It is truly disconcerting.
“I have no doubt that this is led by fascist Antifa ringers, many of them visiting from out of state. ”
Maybe. But it doesn’t even matter, because if you’re right or wrong it still boils down to the same ugly residue.
That is, some people think they’re somehow owed a living by someone else. In this case those sort of folks have decided they get to loot various stores because somehow it’s wrong to expect them to pay for such things, because shut up. Abraham Lincoln described this as the idea that you work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it. These rioters exhibit the exact same spirit.
I have no sympathy for them.
Does the plot thicken? Or is this just a the Law of Large Numbers at play?
https://amp.kstp.com/articles/george-floyd-fired-officer-overlapped-security-shifts-at-south-minneapolis-club-may-28-2020-5743990.html?cat=1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_KSTP&__twitter_impression=true
The cop and the man he killed both also worked for the same music club venue as security. Not clear yet whether they knew each other there.
Things will not be looking up in the Twin Cities this weekend, it will be nice weather and folks might want to be out a bit. From ‘American Digest’
Outraged, they came, protested, and then did a little shopping by VANDERLEUN
http://americandigest.org/outraged-they-came-protested-and-then-did-a-little-shopping/
This link helps explain a bit more of what has occurred in recent years.
I lived with those fine folk up in the Twin Cities for three years until I left in 1989 and I was in charge of a group of retail stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin and in the Twin Cities I had a lot of well meaning college degree people over-educated for the retail positions they were working and they were always upset about the way the world was working and wanting to see the world fixed because social justice was most important.
“President Trump is the result of GOP demogoguery?“
Demagoguery involves the use of false claims and promises to gain power. The GOP demagogued the hell out of immigration, abortion, and a bunch of other policies for years. Anybody remember those anti-gay marriage state constitutional amendments Karl Rove helped get on the ballot in 2004 to help turn out voters to re-elect W? How fast did the GOP change its tune on that?
If Republicans governed the way they campaigned, there wouldn’t have been an appetite for Trump.
Mike
**** BREAKING NEWS ****
Normally (sort of), the press has been fomenting a switch to the hard left, but also, has enjoyed not really suffering the consequences. ie. they had enjoyed a special privilege afforded by society, the state, and ultimately the constitution.
Many of us on the #NotLeft as i prefer to say (as there is no actual Right), have talked and wondered from time to time as to why they would do this. Why they would want to create a society where their jobs would be dictated by the state, and their protections would not exist.
Ultimately, I think that they did not understand the Frankensteins monster they were creating. In their haste and desire to be the tool of the left and the darling of the left, and be rewarded by the left, they were remiss as to history of what happened to such darlings (Stalin made them heroes of the people before he mass executed them years later. We do not know of equivalents in China as china was even more secretive than Russia and more distant and out of mind).
This morning, within a few hours, on camera, the militarized police near the police station that was burned down. Wearing black as the gulag archipeligo warned, without badges or numbers, without any way to identify individuals, stormed out of their area, grabbed what appears to be a woman near the camera crew. As they did, they grabbed the CNN crew, with the reporter telling them that they can tell them where to go, and they will comply.
I do not know whether the crew realized it or not, but its now a police state, and they were not going to let the special relationship with the press and first amendment and all that remain standing. They arrested the reporter, the crew, and took the equipment shutting down all coverage in the area. By doing so, they created a news black out with Sturmtruppen with masks and body armor in complete control.
They were connected by radio with the station, who was asking and reporting, and yet, it was easy to tell they were all completely confused.
When they made the argument that emergencies allowed the suspension of the bill of rights over COVID, did they not realize that such suspensions of the Bill of rights and the constitution would apply to ALL EMERGENCIES? that such would also apply to them? did they really fantasize that as the state locked down the citizens, that the press who the police see as the fomenters of such ills would remain untouched? i believe so.
In no communist leftist state is the press un-harrased, unmolested, left to do the job it did when things were ‘free’. This is why this always confused the #NotLeft as to their complicity.
As of this morning a new day has dawned in the United Soviet States, in which the rights of the people can only exist outside of emergency powers, which may never end. We the people have lost the 1st amendment right to know what is going on, and the news is now in a blackout by their reporters being arrested and leaving no way for there to be any coverage of anything that will happen.
suspension of our rights under covid, has expanded to suspension of our rights and the rights of the press under this emergency, and its been made clear by STATE Sturmtruppen, there is no way to protest it, avoid it, cooperate with it, other than to be subjected to it.
Will the left wake up to what they are making? doubtful.
For the few who do, their actions to protest, and act, and to change things back will be met with the force that they created that can now crush this action, black out the news, and act without identity. Its not Donald Trumps police, which are federal, nor is it the military, which technically cant act (they can, but thats another discussion we will avoid in favor of other discussions), nor is it the national guard.
Other democrat held areas will now know they can go this far. And we still do not know how far they will go. CNN will probably have lawyers present to release crews days later to only be arrested again on site and keep the black out. the Sturmtruppen involved can not be identified, nor singled out for any action, including murder, beatings, false arrests, and more. they carry no identification
Welcome to the new state power created by the left
it will not serve the #NotLeft, it will not serve the left, it will serve itself
and its Sturmtruppen will insure that this is so
God rest our souls…
Mr Bunge:
Some might say President Trump is not the problem or the response to GOP demagoguery (found a new word lately?). Some might say that voters are reacting to progressive policy that has been enacted by administrative and judicial fiat.
Mike, ever hear of the Supreme Court and judgments on various social issues, such as gay marriage and abortion? Those decisions weren’t made by GOP politicians or GOP voters. You think the GOP senators controlling judicial appointments and possibly the next Supreme court appointment may be a bit more important than “demagoguery?” I wager the left does.
But the rise of Trump or the appetite for Trump, that is a serious concern! /Sarc sheesh.
Those decisions weren’t made by GOP politicians or GOP voters.
True. The trouble is, the GOP gave up any serious resistance to those decisions nearly 40 years ago. With Obergefell, Addison Mitchell McConnell rolled over and played dead. The man couldn’t be more useless.
“This comment at iSteve might be relevant as well”
“You’re not familiar with Sailer’s comment boards, are ya?”
I went and looked. I think the comment with that number is not there anymore.
**** Breaking News II ****
Camera crew and news person now released. The CNN reporter and the crew back at station are giving the police every benefit of the doubt and their questions as to why and what are being filled with their own opinions making it impossible for them to understand.
understand what?
that they were removed from the site. that the purpose was to remove them from the area so that there would be no coverage of the immediate location (another crew was over a block away). that once this was done, they were dropped off near the police headquarters, away from their transportation, away from any ability to return to the scene and record what was going on. They also do not realize that their behavior on scene has now been changed, that in such a place, they may not be as clearly willing or bold to be near enough to cover what is going on.
This is not the norm, and they want to treat it as a ‘mistake’ a sad coincidence. But a international news crew is not that hard to identify, they are often carrying 100k costing shoulder cams and packs, something hard to fake without lots of cash for the fakery.
They will refuse to wake up to the change until there is no way to argue against it or make excuses for it. they may even get out of its way to prevent such a delving into the point of being removed from scene and so, preventing reporting of what is there.
A news blackout without calling for a news blackout
Art Deco:
I think that Mitch McConnell could be more useless; he has gotten a lot of judges confirmed, and almost to the point of flipping the 9th Circus, and did get Kavanaugh confirmed. So he has been of some use, when forced. You fight the battle with the guys you’ve got, or something like that.
If you want structural changes to the system of governance as it’s tumors try the convention of states process (hobby horse warning).
First of all, from what we have seen so far, there is no obvious excuse for what the cop did, nor for the lack of intervention by his fellow officers.
Second, in reading the New York Times take on the incident, one observes by what they said as well as what they did not say, that a period during which judgment is suspended, may well be in order. Just as many have remarked before this.
When one reads that the 42 (Or so) year old “father of two” arrived from Houston four years before, found Minneapolis, “welcoming”, and was even takling to others about talking a truck driving course so as to (eventually?) get a job, then, what’s missing, becomes, if not conclusive in any sense, then at least reason to wish to know more about how he supposedly came to be passing counterfeit money or a forged check or whatever.
Finally, as far as the conduct of the behaviorally incontinent urban client class goes, I would note that I’d shrug in response, and the cities and the progressive overlords and enablers could both burn for all I care, except for the fact I’ve already implied it, or the equivalent, before.
And of course, in calculating more carefully, one would expect that the very people who enabled the destruction in the first place would – once things got so bad they could no longer buy their way into your circle of mutual support – then come knocking at your door, blubbering for admission, holding their kids in front of them, as they begged and whined for safety.
As it is, we will probably just have to content ourselves with the grimly comical sight of progressive politicians screeching as they are singed by the fires they have themselves stoked.
And finally, trying to look honestly in the mirror as I comment, I had better be about taking some of my own medicine; as after a couple year layoff, I had to drop the weights I was using for reverse curls down to 50 lbs, lest I incautiously tear something trying to jump back into a disciplined state of affairs all at once. No, life is not easy. But hysteria is not the solution, And I’m kind of fed up with the hysterics in this country.
behaviorally incontinent urban client class goes,
I assume you’ve copyrighted this phrase. What sort of royalty do I have to pay you?
This phrase is not protected by copyright and/or related rights. You, hereinafer the “applicant”, are free to use this terminology in accordance with the rules governing the fora or domains in which its application is intended, and no prior permission is required from the originator for non-commercial uses. The applicant further agrees to hold the originator harmless when and if in the course of events, the applicant is doxxed and his residence, appurtanences, and other properties real or personal are consumed in a conflagration initiated by members of the aforenamed “behaviorally incontinent urban client class”: and/or also including but not limited to, “morally deconstructed appetite entities”, “gynecomastic pajama boys”, “hedonic nihilists”, and “sensitive conservatives”. This constitutes the full and complete agreement between Originator and Applicant, and no further permissions, agreements, or obligations either expressed or implied shall be construed or obtain.
FWIW—There is now reporting that both George Floyd and the cop—Officer Derek Chauvin–both worked as security at the same club. *
So, perhaps they knew each other? Perhaps had some personal conflicts?
Second, the cops were called to the scene by a store clerk who reported victim was drunk, was acting out of control, and trying to pass a phony $20 dollar bill. **
* https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/shocking-revelation-george-floyd-officer-derek-chauvin-worked-security-minneapolis-club-end-last-year/
** https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8368215/George-Floyd-911-call-Store-clerk-claims-awfully-drunk-not-control-himself.html
I wonder, does the Minneapolis police department advocate/teach/have a manual discussing using this very dangerous technique of a knee on the neck of a suspect?
Not every generally-leftist black celebrity is supporting the hysteria and riots.
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/05/29/killer-mike-rips-cnn-as-rioters-trash-headquarters-karma-is-a-mother-stop-feeding-fear-and-anger/
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/05/29/lil-wayne-on-george-floyd-stop-blaming-every-cop-and-making-it-about-race/
View from the Treehouse: the situation is more complex than the media wants to present, and Sundance is not going down the rabbit hole on this one until the dust settles.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/29/president-trump-looting-leads-to-shooting-msm-go-bananas/
To interpret, as the commenters did somewhat:
Floyd was passing counterfeit money without permission, and the cops knew it.
When will the law-abiding black community effectively push back against the lawless faction and their (white and black) government enablers in Democrat cities and states? The quote is what his wife posted on Facebook.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/black-firefighter-devastated-minneapolis-riots-bar
“Black firefighter ‘devastated’ after rioters destroy bar he spent life savings to build”
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-anger-over-george-floyds-killing-is-justified-rioting-is-not-and-should-have-been-prevented
All h/t CTH comments here :https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/29/the-anger-games-friday-night-riots-open-discussion-thread/
Atlanta’s mayor says: go home; this is not civil rights, this is chaos.
https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/1266579877718827015
As she said, most if not all of the destruction is falling on the minority community of Minneapolis.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-29/minneapolis-minority-business-owners-awake-to-destruction
And from a tweet by a black Georgia politician named Angela Stanton King:
https://twitter.com/theangiestanton/status/1266481829592399872
“The Black community in MN is calling out white Antifa members for starting the riots and destroying their communities. I keep telling y’all these white liberals are not our friends.”
For the record, here is a list of cities that have had riots to date (5/29):
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/leftist-mob-riots-houston-police-vehicle-destroyed/
Protests were held tonight in:
– NY, Brooklyn
– Milwaukee, WI
– Houston, TX
– Fort Wayne, IN
– Washington DC
– Atlanta, GA
– Kansas City, MO
– Denver, CO
– Las Vegas, NV
– San Jose, CA
– Detroit, MI
– Boston, MA
– Chicago, IL
Breaking from the Bee:
https://babylonbee.com/news/chicago-gang-member-relieved-to-discover-all-these-cops-just-here-to-raid-a-church
https://babylonbee.com/news/rioters-decline-to-sign-colin-kaepernick
I’m so … relieved.
I didn’t really expect the Bee post on gangs & churches to actually be almost true.
https://www.conservativereview.com/news/horowitz-justice-george-floyd-7000-black-homicide-victims-every-year/
Well – you can’t make this stuff up.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/29/chief-justice-john-roberts-sides-with-liberal-justices-as-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-restrictions-on-religious-services/
But, CNN told me it’s all Trump’s fault. Or white people in general. Or something…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/29/time-for-a-change-during-riots-donald-trump-urges-minnesota-to-vote-out-democrats/
Why are blacks so angry?
Because they were lied to by Dems, who they believed, when they were brought up to think blacks and whites are equal.
The Dem lie is that a group which has a lot of bad behavior is entitled to as much success as a group which has much less bad behavior. And it’s mostly better behavior that makes Asians and Jews even more successful than whites. (See the Harvard discrimination lawsuit)
The (racist?) Unz reader / John Derbyshire says:
Black men commit sexual assault and rape against white women with such frequency that the federal government ceased publishing the numbers some years ago, when the slide into denial accelerated under the Obama administration.
Is this true? One gov’t report says this:
Race of victim
Victims of rape were about evenly divided
between whites and blacks; in about 88%
of forcible rapes, the victim and offender
were of the same race.
https://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/SOO.PDF
So I believe the stats can be found, with looking, but not easily.
There won’t be “equality in results” until there is “equality in behavior”. And it’s politically incorrect to point out the truth about racial differences in behavior.