Is your city rioting?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles has 2 big groups of protesters, 1 in downtown LA, the other in the Fairfax district. Teargas being used. Rubber bullets. Standoffs. Not yet frenzied like Minneapolis but on the verge of it. They are targeting high end shopping malls at the Grove and Rodeo Drive.

[disneysteve]

Where were the angry black voters against Trump? Their piss poor show rate is the result of more systematic racism.

Exactly. The voting system, especially over the past few years, is stacked more and more against minorities and the poor. Gerrymandering, selective closure of polling sites, voter ID laws, and efforts to stop vote-by-mail are all racist policies being promoted by the white conservative elite to help improve their chances of winning. They're doing everything they can to suppress the minority vote.

[Singuy]

The pain is real and the optic might not be socially acceptable, but neither systemic racism. We must remember why this moment is happening and if your foci is on the aftermath, then you are out of touch with the current reality. This moment is raw, painful and ugly, but it is necessary for us to go through it.

If you have some downtime, please take a minute to read about the Tuskegee Experiment. This past occurrence shapes how people of color have been treated and devalued by government systems. Let’s continue to hope that our nation will grow and learn from this moment!

Where were the angry black voters against Trump? Their piss poor show rate is the result of more systematic racism. They made their bed and now must lie in it. And don't tell me the right did everything in their power to prevent them from showing. They did that during Obama also and the blacks did show up.

I remember the day after Trump won, there were many increase in blatant racist activities in schools. So yeah, keep the racist from becoming powerful and give the rest that voice. Not a hard concept and black votes 100% swing the election. In fact black voters hold more power than anyone in the US and that's why every democratic candidate plead for black votes in swing states knowing if the black shows, the other side has zero chance.

Racism will not disappear, it will never be fixed. It's like gout, best you do to prevent flair ups. There's systematic racism everywhere, including racism against your own race(people who actually think their own race is inferior).

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles is heating up, burning police cars. 1000's of punks intent on provoking the police. Stand offs. Still relatively calm but could erupt. 8:00 pm curfew but that do anything really.

[docstudent]

The pain is real and the optic might not be socially acceptable, but neither systemic racism. We must remember why this moment is happening and if your foci is on the aftermath, then you are out of touch with the current reality. This moment is raw, painful and ugly, but it is necessary for us to go through it.

If you have some downtime, please take a minute to read about the Tuskegee Experiment. This past occurrence shapes how people of color have been treated and devalued by government systems. Let’s continue to hope that our nation will grow and learn from this moment!

[~bs]

So why are business owners not defending their property? Thought most Americans have plenty of guns laying around.

It really depends on the business owner and where they're living. Some states would rather arrest the law abiding citizen than arrest criminals "protesting". Asians, frequent target of discriminations protecting their property during the rodney king riots.

[Singuy]

These last few days have been a roller coaster for me. I grew up in St. Paul, and my buddy's auto shop in midway is like a 2nd home to me. On Thursday I watched the footage, but then my friend told me around 2pm someone caused an accident in front, and got out of their car and started shooting at the shop before running away. Luckily no one was hit. They still wouldn't close (which I still don't understand), so I went down there and stayed with them just in case rioters came back.

By the time we left after 6PM, furniture store next to us just started on fire. The Napa less than block away was his main parts account, was torched, no way to recover. Most the other shops around him already looted. He was pretty upset, thinking his garage is going to be torched next. Luckily his was the only intact overnight. All the others are destroyed or burned.

A family business of almost 40yrs to the community survived. But none of the others did, and most came from minority owned businesses as well. My friend was telling me about the local barbershop next door that paid a large amount to update for Phase 2 of opening up, but now emptied out. He call the owner not to go there, as its too painful to witness what rioters did to it.

I'm just angry at how selfish people are, justifying the destruction of local communities, that did NOTHING to deserve this. What that police officer did to George Floyd was UNACCEPTABLE. I don't see how anyone can justify his actions. I understand everyone is furious, and demand justice. I realize the destruction isn't the work or result of peaceful protesters, but a group of opportunists willing to exploit sensitive circumstances. But to anyone who supports or justifies what these rioters are doing, you may think differently when they're in your local neighborhood doing the same damage. Until then, its pretty easy to criticize from a screen and keyboard.

So why are business owners not defending their property? Thought most Americans have plenty of guns laying around.

[corn18]

[cypher1]

These last few days have been a roller coaster for me. I grew up in St. Paul, and my buddy's auto shop in midway is like a 2nd home to me. On Thursday I watched the footage, but then my friend told me around 2pm someone caused an accident in front, and got out of their car and started shooting at the shop before running away. Luckily no one was hit. They still wouldn't close (which I still don't understand), so I went down there and stayed with them just in case rioters came back.

By the time we left after 6PM, furniture store next to us just started on fire. The Napa less than block away was his main parts account, was torched, no way to recover. Most the other shops around him already looted. He was pretty upset, thinking his garage is going to be torched next. Luckily his was the only intact overnight. All the others are destroyed or burned.

A family business of almost 40yrs to the community survived. But none of the others did, and most came from minority owned businesses as well. My friend was telling me about the local barbershop next door that paid a large amount to update for Phase 2 of opening up, but now emptied out. He call the owner not to go there, as its too painful to witness what rioters did to it.

I'm just angry at how selfish people are, justifying the destruction of local communities, that did NOTHING to deserve this. What that police officer did to George Floyd was UNACCEPTABLE. I don't see how anyone can justify his actions. I understand everyone is furious, and demand justice. I realize the destruction isn't the work or result of peaceful protesters, but a group of opportunists willing to exploit sensitive circumstances. But to anyone who supports or justifies what these rioters are doing, you may think differently when they're in your local neighborhood doing the same damage. Until then, its pretty easy to criticize from a screen and keyboard.

[Scallywag]

I feel bad for his wife and family. They're likely suffering fallout from this as well. I will say that I HIGHLY doubt this is the guy's first rodeo when it comes to abuse of police powers, just the first time he killed someone. There's a pretty clear pattern of cops that abuse their powers will do so, and do so regularly unless forced to stop. And the police tend to protect their own (and not the community) to a fault, and do not engage in meaningful discipline, training, etc. for these "bad apple" cops. I also don't think this was race motivated, as far as real racism is concerned. He likely has abused his power against other ethnicities in the past, including his own.

But, I would say that he probably is more aggressive towards blacks than he would be towards other races, indicating prejudice. Part of this is human nature, blacks do commit a disproportionately large amount of crimes on a per capita basis. Perhaps in an ideal world, everyone would get treated the same, but in reality a 90 year old granny isn't going to be treated the same as a 30 year old black man, even if both are suspected of similar crimes. On a traffic stop, a 20 year old asian college student isn't getting the same treatment as a MS13 gangbanger covered head to toes in tattoos.

Blacks are also more likely to be poor and from deprived backgrounds than people of other races. Poverty leads to crime and a criminal record keeps you poor - it's a vicious self-feeding loop.

I hope there is justice for George Floyd as this is highly likely not the first time that that cop has physically abused a suspect in the process of an arrest or while in custody. A 3rd degree murder & man slaughter charge is simply a slap on his wrist.

[~bs]

I feel bad for his wife and family. They're likely suffering fallout from this as well. I will say that I HIGHLY doubt this is the guy's first rodeo when it comes to abuse of police powers, just the first time he killed someone. There's a pretty clear pattern of cops that abuse their powers will do so, and do so regularly unless forced to stop. And the police tend to protect their own (and not the community) to a fault, and do not engage in meaningful discipline, training, etc. for these "bad apple" cops. I also don't think this was race motivated, as far as real racism is concerned. He likely has abused his power against other ethnicities in the past, including his own.

But, I would say that he probably is more aggressive towards blacks than he would be towards other races, indicating prejudice. Part of this is human nature, blacks do commit a disproportionately large amount of crimes on a per capita basis. Perhaps in an ideal world, everyone would get treated the same, but in reality a 90 year old granny isn't going to be treated the same as a 30 year old black man, even if both are suspected of similar crimes. On a traffic stop, a 20 year old asian college student isn't getting the same treatment as a MS13 gangbanger covered head to toes in tattoos.

[disneysteve]

The biggest (and only) point I will make is that riots & chaos are NEVER justified. Protests very well may be.

I agree.

However, I would also point out that blacks don't have the same right to peaceful protest as whites in this country. Can anyone honestly say that a mob of heavily armed black protestors would have been allowed to enter the Michigan state capital building without incident in the same way that the white mob was? That would have been a disaster.

Racism is a huge problem in this country whether people admit it or not.

[kork13]

The biggest (and only) point I will make is that riots & chaos are NEVER justified. Protests very well may be. But at the point a protest devolves into violence, rioting, much less days on end of vandalism, destruction, looting, injury/killing, and so on, any shred of justifiable indignation is totally lost. They aren't bringing attention to any cause or injustice. They're taking advantage of chaos & destroying their own community, putting their neighbors & friends in fear & danger.

Corn18 is completely right -- MLK is an American hero because he understood how to effect dramatic change, and how to change the hearts/minds of an entire nation & culture, without resorting to mindless, stupid violence.

I don't have any tolerance for rioting, regardless of the underlying issue. I hope the governor & local authorities shut it down rapidly.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Minnesota Gov Walz said these are highly organized urban warfare professional criminals. One person impersonated a cop and murdered another. One group blocked a delivery truck in order to steal its contents. All of the people arrested on Friday night in Minneapolis were from out of state. Anarchist infiltrated the city and over powered law enforcement. These are very bad people and we cannot let them win.

[Fishindude77]

I don't believe this Minneapolis incident had anything to do with racism.
You don't get pinned down and man handled by police unless you are resisting arrest and being a problem.

Was the cop too rough? For sure, but that does not make this racism. That A-hole cop probably would have treated any other arrest resisting white, asian, hispanic, etc. person the same way.