Posted on 05/28/2020 9:34:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
By all accounts, the death of George Floyd looks like murder by a police officer. Attempting to burn down one of the Midwest’s most beloved cities won’t ensure justice.
In downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota — Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district, to be specific — rioters descended upon the police station and even nearby businesses Wednesday evening, breaking windows, setting fires, and looting. The mob gathered in response to the horrifying death of George Floyd. This video shows multiple officers pinning unarmed Floyd to the ground, one with his knee on Floyd’s neck, cutting off his airway. For nearly five excruciating minutes, Floyd begs for mercy, saying explicitly, “I can’t breathe,” before he dies.
Floyd is someone’s beloved son. His death is horrendous and disgusting. The four police officers involved were put on leave and then supposedly fired, but Minneapolis residents want more. They want justice, as they should.
Forming a mob and descending on private businesses, however, will not do this. In fact, it may only incite more systemic racism, violence, and civic unrest.
A local journalist and others captured videos of the mobs looting private businesses, including a Target, Cub Foods, Auto Zone, and Wendy’s. They also tried to attack the 3rd Precinct police station.
I’m arriving to the Lake Street Target and surrounding stores. alarms are blaring. Tear gas deployed near 3rd precinct. It’s mayhem here pic.twitter.com/5xhReWp4Ga
— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) May 28, 2020
The inside of the Target is smoky; people are trying to break into the cash registers. Alarm is blaring pic.twitter.com/qfd97sfNTr
— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) May 28, 2020
The Auto Zone is on Fire pic.twitter.com/2IJHx4AKdt
— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) May 28, 2020
Target is getting cleaned out pic.twitter.com/0OGSHY132k
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020
The mob took on police officers trying to quell the looting.
Minneapolis police repeatedly being hit with large fireworks hurled from crowds. pic.twitter.com/zSGoP7L55t
— Mark Vancleave 🎥+📰=🎉 (@MDVancleave) May 28, 2020
Minneapolis is burning. pic.twitter.com/TbwbPIbkC9
— Mark Vancleave 🎥+📰=🎉 (@MDVancleave) May 28, 2020
Not only have the riots damaged private property. Some of the mob descended on a woman in a wheelchair.
Video captured earlier of the elderly wheelchair-bound woman who was attacked at the Minneapolis Target during the BLM riot. In a later interview, she said she was trying to do her part in stopping the looting. She was beat on the head & sprayed in the face w/a fire extinguisher. pic.twitter.com/EpcAAF0HLY
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) May 28, 2020
The looting may have even led to another death, although this has not yet been confirmed.
Police are investigating a homicide. They say the owner of a nearby pawn shop shot and killed a person suspected of looting his building.
— Libor Jany (@StribJany) May 28, 2020
Some Minnesotans are stepping up. These self-proclaimed rednecks were grieved by Floyd’s murder. They didn’t agree with the looting, however, so they showed up at the riots to help protect local businesses vulnerable to the mob.
These two men say they support the protests but not the riots and are helping protect a tobacco store owner from looting
pic.twitter.com/PDn2Jd8iEB— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 28, 2020
As a white woman who grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I can’t understand the pain Floyd’s family and friends are going through, nor the outrage African-American people experience regarding systemic racism. If you read the replies to the Tweet below, you’ll see even Bradley Moss, a self-proclaimed Democrat, get accused of being out of touch, ostensibly “whitesplaining,” or failing to understand the frustration of African-Americans. But that doesn’t make his point any less valid: “Looting isn’t going to bring justice.”
Stop looting. I will stand with you to protest. Without hesitation.
But looting isn’t going to bring justice. Stop. #GeorgeFloyd
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) May 28, 2020
George Floyd's murder was awful, and justice must be served and people are tired of the excuses.
But… This. AINT. IT.
Looting and tearing up your own neighborhood only makes your neighborhood worse off. https://t.co/N2w9k72JF7— George Wrighster III (@georgewrighster) May 28, 2020
Something is undoubtedly very wrong with Minneapolis law enforcement. This is not the first time we’ve seen a police officer act callously, with total disregard for training, common sense, or human life. Offending officers need not just be fired but tried in a court of law, and remaining officers must go through intense, additional training. Without proactive change, this will continue to happen.
A mob filled with righteous indignation is understandable, even good. An organized, peaceful protest aimed at the Minneapolis mayor and law enforcement officials, jamming the phone lines and exercising their right to “peaceful assembly” and to approach the government for “a redress of grievances” are all law-abiding, effective ways toward change. Are they slower than a riot? Absolutely. But they are ultimately more effective. One encourages good law, while the other incurs the law’s consequences.
Surely the civil rights era saw a racism far worse than today. Yet the strongest ally and tool of change was an African-American pastor who supported and demonstrated peaceful protest. This Time article asserts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “lessons about peaceful protests are still relevant”:
“The strong man is the man who will not hit back, who can stand up for his rights and yet not hit back,” King told thousands of Montgomery Improvement Association supporters at the city’s Holt Street Baptist Church on Nov. 14, 1956. The black citizens of Montgomery would demonstrate their humanity while victims of a broken society. Nonviolence was the “testing point” of the burgeoning civil rights movement, King explained. “If we as Negroes succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and bitter night of — a long and desolate night of bitterness. And our only legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.”
Let justice be served following George Floyd’s death. Let law enforcement sever all forms of racism and oppression, power-grabs and hubris. Minneapolis must rest, and its citizens prepare to make way for justice quietly, peacefully, and effectively.
What is going on with people rioting and not wearing cloth face coverings this an additional public health measure people should take to reduce the spread of COVID-19. CDC still recommends that you stay at least 6 feet away from other people (social distancing), people were looting stores and not keeping 6 feet apart. Looting and stealing everything in a Target store and not wearing a mask is not a public health measure people should be doing. People burning down the Auto Zone store were not using frequent hand cleaning and other everyday preventive actions. The people who burned down the apartment complex did not have a cloth face covering and staying 6 feet apart. This not intended to protect the wearer, but it may prevent the spread of virus from the wearer to others. When burning, rioting, breaking car windows and destroying strip mall wear your mask, keep 6 feet apart be respectful.
If you are protesting to go back to work or open your business you are acting criminal but if you loot, burn down a store you are a protester. If your a governor who sends senior citizen who have the virus into a nursing home to infect others and lead to tens of thousands of deaths you are a great governor according to the media.
Disgusting...
Goes to show there is one animal that will crap where it sleeps and eats.
Very nice of them to bring misery to innocent people who are now out jobs, out of business and could very well be homeless.
Good Going!
Such warm, kind and generous human beings.
I’m sure George Floyd would think this is a just outcome...
Because everyone knows AutoZone killed that guy.
It’s a blue city. Burn that mofo to the ground.... IGAF if they loot and burn every store.
There was not a single word about the extensive riots that occurred last night in Minneapolis. I have always known about the power of the press to omit but this is breathtaking.
Welcome to another food desert. Turning into the Mogadishu it is
The mayor is on live right now. Blubbering like a little girl.
Minneapolis was a powder keg waiting for something to set it off.
There is nothing that quite manifests a heartfelt cry for justice like a mob looting major retailers and making off with TVs, top-brand athletic shoes, and portable appliances and household goods.
Free stuff while destroying other people’s stuff you don’t want or can’t carry off.
People who refuse to live like this will escape and move. They have been planning on moving probably for a while and will head to nearby conservative areas. The Trump red map will be the roadmap of migration.
I am reminded of the old saw:
“When blacks chimp out cities burn.
When whites chimp out continents burn”.
They haven’t looted the library or stole any work boots
Hope not. Red states turning blue because of this out-migration.
There is nothing that quite manifests a heartfelt cry for justice like a mob looting major retailers and making off with TVs, top-brand athletic shoes, and portable appliances and household goods.
—
And no better way to counter racism than to burn down stores, clean out a Target and beat up a woman in a wheelchair because, you know, you’re angry.
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