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.
Looters Gonna Loot.
This is all about FREE SH**.
Not a one of them gives a damn about this man or his death.
Nobody will remember any protest, just looting, burning and rioting, which destroys their message. And yes, that cop murdered Floyd.
[[This is all about FREE SH**.]]
and about venting their hatred of whites through violent means- What they are doing is committing hate crimes- but hate crime laws only apply to white folks apparently-
Limbaugh is opening up on this up on today’s (5/28/20) talkie.
Ding ding....you nailed it.
Look my boss (he’s a bit of a bleeding heart ) showed up trying to talk about Ali saw this video and made him cry and all the outrage he felt and I said “look bud you’re just getting played by the media “
and then I brought up the Rodney King riots of 1993
and I said do you know how many people died in the Rodney King riots ?
and he had no answer for me
I said do we know the names of any of those black kids that were murdered in one day in Chicago on Monday. any of their names ? no answer
tso well we have here is another media “‘hate the cops”
“ oh it’s racism “ narrative that they’ll run with and try to outrage people
but you know what’s going to happen - people are going to get hurt . shot people are gonna die
many many more than this George guy
and what good is that going to do ?
The Arbery kid can watch his story go up in flames nobody’s going to care about that anymore they got the new outrage one that’s more juicy because cops are involved in the video is quite damning
My question is instead of all those onlookers just watching this cop including his fellow cops why didn’t somebody push him off of the guy- ?
This one on for what 57 minutes why didn’t anybody had the temerity to just push this guy off
Agree....They know police will do everything not to antagonize these little monsters.
Just a quick geographical clarification from someone who lives in the Twin Cities...
The riots are not happening in parts of downtown Minneapolis. They are happening in a specific neighborhood of south Minneapolis - about two miles south and southeast of downtown Minneapolis.
There also was some property damage in the Hennepin-Lake area of Minneapolis. That area is westerly on the other side of Minneapolis from the riots and mayhem. The targets were (no surprise) a liquor store, a jewelry store and a Verizon store. They also attempted to break into an Apple Store but were fended off by two armed security officers.
The area in question is heavily minority, black, Somali and Hispanic. There have been efforts to gentrify it by building new housing - some of which was torched by the rioters last night.
The entire city is not in flames and over-run by rioters.
Let Minnecraponus burn. Not one dime of insurance money for claims. Not one dime of Federal funds to rebuild. Leave it as a garbage dump.
"That" part of town? Thought so...
Leftists in MN will raise taxes to build it all up again, just so in the future, its there to be burnt to the ground.
This is nothing compared to the Rodney King riots (and he wasn’t killed), so things have gotten better.
Say no more.
Yeah, some black star was on Facebutt this morning saying, “Brilliant, you just burned your own neighborhood, dumbasses!”
“Let Minnecraponus burn.”
Agreed. I lived there for almost 30 years.
My biggest regret is that the rioting and looting didn’t happen in areas like Kenwood, Linden Hills, East Isles, etc.
That’s where the guilt-ridden white liberal NIMBY’s live.
Paradoxically, in 1968, the political effects included the election of Richard Nixon as the country craved a return to law and order. If Trump hits the right note of advocating for law and order AND justice for the wronged, he may similarly win the moment and help assure his reelection. Judging by Trump's initial comments, he seems to realize this.
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.
The other matter that's referred to is the 2017 murder of a white woman by a Somali Minneapolis cop when the woman had called the cops to report a possible rape. That makes two inexcusable murders by Minneapolis cops in the last four years, while most major cities go without any for many years. It tells me the Minneapolis PD has a real cultural problem that cuts across the the races, one of the victims being black and the other white. Thus, there's ample reason for the DOJ Civil Rights Division to enter the case and fully investigate the Minneapolis PD, while also prosecuting the involved officers.
Has any of the cop’s lawyers come out and make a statement?
Did you forget the sarcasm tag, or was in invisible? I’m not sure,
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