Posted on 11/28/2015 6:45:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Black Lives Matter, not Black Friday!
If you took time out from holiday festivities with family and friends to watch the news at all yesterday (likely a bad idea to begin with) you are probably aware of the large scale Black Lives Matter protests which essentially shut down holiday shopping on Chicago’s Miracle Mile. It wasn’t as if they weren’t telegraphing their punches because organizers, including Jesse Jackson, had announced the disruptions days in advance.
Here are a few of the sights and sounds.
The crowds, understandably angry over the more than year long investigation of Officer Jason Van Dyke’s shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, locked arms in front of multiple stores, essentially closing them for business, and faced off with the police. Thankfully there were relatively few arrests and not much in the way of violence, but the city’s commercial center was pretty much shut down.
Thousands of people marched on Chicago’s most prestigious shopping street on Friday, disrupting business on one of the busiest U.S. retail days, to protest the shooting death of a black teenager by a white policeman and the city’s handling of the case.
About 2,000 protesters, some holding signs reading “Stop Police Terror” gathered in a cold drizzle for the march on Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile,” which closed the major city street of Michigan Avenue to traffic on the traditional “Black Friday” shopping day after the Thanksgiving holiday,
Organizers said the rally, led by activist-politician the Rev. Jesse Jackson and several state elected officials, was a show of outrage over the October 2014 death of Laquan McDonald, 17, and what they see as racial bias in U.S. policing.
Frankly, this is precisely what we need to see as far as I’m concerned. If anything, it needs to spread to every other major city in the nation which is run by liberal, Democrat, gun grabbing, heavy spending municipal governments. And it needs to be seen by every law abiding citizen in each of those cities as they try to simply get on with their lives. The portrayal of these protests which they get from CNN and their newspapers is so totally skewed on a regular basis that too many of them have no clue what they’re really dealing with. Cable news spokesmodels will continue to portray this as some sort of noble endeavor, justifying anything and everything that the BLM national network is up to. I saw it again this morning as CNN’s Victor Blackwell (normally a great anchor with an even, “just the facts” tone on most stories) described the activity as BLM “refusing to back down” and “fighting for justice” in the Laquan McDonald case. That’s obviously not what’s happening, but until the rank and file citizens get a first hand view of what’s being done in the name of “social justice” we’re not going to get anywhere.
Having watched the video of the actual shooting, the citizens of Chicago have every right to be demanding answers in the wake of that incident. As I said at the start of this episode, I have no idea what spurred Officer Van Dyke to do what he did. Perhaps he’s a racist. Perhaps he’s just an easily panicked individual who kept on firing long after he should have stopped and should never have been given a badge and a gun in the first place. Either way, after a taser was requested but not available, facing down a suspect high on PCP and armed with a knife who had vandalized some vehicles and was staggering away from the scene, if Van Dyke had stopped after the first shot or two he might have had a case to defend himself. But firing more than a dozen rounds into a suspect who was already down on the ground means he has to face the music over his actions.
But that’s the point which is missing from most of the coverage of the case. Van Dyke is already in jail facing murder charges. A reasonable amount of time for a thorough investigation and due process is understandable, but this dragged on too long. On these points I agree with many of the complaints of the protesters. But as usual, the response is going in exactly the wrong direction and once again discredits the entire “Black Lives Matter” movement. People who head out on Black Friday to go shopping have now been reminded of this and they need to be very clear on the key points here.
The clerks at Banana Republic did not shoot Laquan McDonald. The cashiers working at Neiman Marcus did not shoot Laquan McDonald. Nor did the shoppers looking to make purchases in those stores. The protesters were screaming through bullhorns that they were not only angry with the police officers on the scene of the shooting but that they also wanted the Police Commissioner and Rahm Emanuel indicted. Trust me… I can relate. There’s more than a few times I’ve wanted to see Rahm indicted on one thing or another myself.
But Rahm Emanuel doesn’t work at Neiman Marcus.
If you want to protest, go to City Hall or the Mayor’s residence. Heck, if I lived in the neighborhood I might show up to join you. But that’s not what happened. Once again the Black Lives Matters protesters decided to take out their anger on their fellow citizens who have no involvement in government or law enforcement, choosing the usual activity of “disrupting white spaces” because this isn’t a fight against the police: it’s a fight against the rest of society. They are shutting down the businesses which employ the few of their neighbors who can still manage to find jobs. Rather than trying to fix an ailment of society, they are helping to tear it down.
That’s the message that the rest of the country needs to understand, so I hope these protests in this exact form spread to the rest of the cities around the country. Black Lives Matter is a misguided, destructive force which all too often incites violence of their own, particularly against police officers who have nothing to do with the handful of high profile police shootings which dominate the news. Rather than picking up wider support, the public should judge for themselves how they view the tactics of this group and respond accordingly.
Proof that small things amuse small minds like someone gives a crap.
BLM isn’t about Laquan or any other black person. It’s about revolution.
Like white liberals who ride their bikes naked through the middle of town for protests, both groups are doing nothing but showing their butts.
“Amazon must love them some BLM”
The exact same thought occurred to me.
Yes, it was flat out murder.
Disrupting Flack Friday shopping is flat out ridiculous.
If someone empties an auto pistol as fast as they can, you also have 6 seconds to stop them. How do you propose to do that? Plug the barrel with your finger?
Did you WATCH the video?
Don't answer, rhetorical question.
This sounds like the beginning of another Jackson/Sharpton “Protection Racket” shakedown to me.
“This sure is a nice business you have here, and we sure don’t want anything bad to happen to it, now do we.”
No reparations, no peace.
What amount of reparations is sufficient? Is there a number/amount/limit?
I think black Friday is ridiculous by itself, but that's another discussion.
Why weren't each and every one of those "protesters" arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, creating traffic hazards, and more?
I work in downtown Chicago. That bullshit yesterday happened not terribly far from where I work. I'll tell you flat out I don't feel safe commuting into the city anymore to go to work without conceal/carrying. I'm at the point I ignore the stupid "no guns" signs because I believe them to be a violation of my CONSTITUTIONAL, GOD GIVEN right to defend myself from those thugs.
I've been on vacation the last ten days, I go back to work on Monday. I'm carrying.
Lol.
First, that was a Chicago Police Officer who emptied his 9mm.
Second, it took him longer than six seconds.
Third, did you see ANY ONE of the other Chicago Police Officers in the five video's that were released yelling at Officer Van Dyke to STOP or NOT shoot?
NO.
It doesn't take six seconds to yell DON'T SHOOT or HOLD YOUR FIRE when you're a cop and your life wasn't in danger in that scenario.
There was NO REASON for Officer Van Dyke to have his pistol drawn in the first place, much less to have fired a single shot.
I'm just glad he was nice about it. ;-)
The shock factor of the sudden killing precluded anyone stopping him, I suspect you know that. I really don’t understand your stance on this. It seems to me you are dredging up outrage in the wrong spot.
No I did not, I am sick of killing.
When I was much younger, one of my unit's training drills was to practice disarming armed assailants, and each of us became quite good at it.
In one of our drills, you were in a 20' X 20' room facing a man with his pistol drawn and aimed at you. To pass this drill, I had to move across that 20' X 20' room and disarm this man before he could realize he was under attack, his brain could send the signal to his trigger finger, and he could pull the trigger.
I believe this police officer had been trained to draw his pistol and fire if he felt his life was in danger, and to continue to fire until that danger had been neutralized. He was only following his training, and if there is any blame to be placed on his actions, blame his training.
If #BlackLivesMatter tries to violently shut down all commerce in all cities they will just open a lot of commerce in private security companies, law enforcement, firearms and ammunition manufacturing, emergency hospitals and trauma centers, prisons, funeral homes, cemeteries, crematoriums... and demonicrat voter registration offices.
Then you are not qualified to post on the topic, or accuse anyone (me) of dredging up outrage. You have zero clue what you're posting about, by your own admission.
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