Civil Unrest Check-in Thread

Raleigh is in a bit of a twitch. When I was picking up the pizza tonight, one of the officers was getting dinner and mentioned this was expected, they're working doubles today and he had the riot gear in his vehicle.

I'm seriously hoping nobody gets hurt.

I know they love fireworks around here, basically from May to September, but tonight isn't the night for it, Chicago. 

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :

They had a warrant for him at that address, in conjunction with two other warrants a distance away. I keep reading that it was the wrong house or wrong person but it was not. Not to say plainclothes cops bursting in unannounced in the night and spraying gunfire was right.

@mtn - Probably not a Conspiracy Theory - It would be typical that the Russian IRA would be involved.  There was a similar but much smaller "situation" in Milwaukee a couple of years ago and the Russians were on social media trying to rile up both sides.

Police misconduct is not new, or probably as common as it some seem to think.  I really think it's a few bad actors that cause most of the problems.  What's different now is that it they are suddenly being held accountable by everyone carrying video cameras in their pockets, and able to publish that video to the world in minutes.  There have always been bad cops, but they have been protected by the unions and prosecutors, and generally the public - "Who are you gonna believe?".  It's time to fix that.  Hold the cops to a higher standard.  Expect more and pay them more and provide more support and resources.  It's a tough job.

former520 said:

So what do we think it will take to settle this down quickly?  Do you think a public hanging would make them happy and stop or would they just keep going?  

This is going to be really common until an inauguration occurs.  This is all political and an attempt to take control politically.  

Keep your eye on the money and the big picture.  Keep your family, neighbors and friends safe.  Don't expect police forces, a press or politicians that can't keep themselves safe to care about you.

This is pure evil.  If you haven't thought long and hard about what you will do when face to face with evil, start planning.

This may not even end after an election and inauguration.  I knew in 2016, 2020 would likely be worse.  This is shaping up to be worse than I ever worried. it could be.  

I read somewhere this was like 1918 and 1968 had a baby.....  more like 1918, 1968 and 1984.  

This is really bad, and it's not going to just go away.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Glad to hear things are quieting down near you. My Sister's neighborhood a few blocks from Lake street was protected by baseballs bat wielding neighbors and yellow do not cross tape.  
Given the tension I'm glad to see baseball bats rather than guns.  Too easy to imagine some Don Knotts kinda gun carrying  person shooting  someone out of fear and turning things violent. 

Harrisburg PA is still pretty active.  I haven't been downtown, but I hear it's not good.  Certainly not as bad as some cities, but there is all kinds of talk about plain-clothes police "joining" the civilian protesters and then when they get the signal they're strategically pepper spraying.  I'm not there, but did see one cell phone video that makes it look to be true, at least in that one instance.

So far I haven't heard about deaths, but plenty of injuries.

Grand Rapids had a mostly peaceful protest until after midnight.  Now many innocent business are cleaning up glass, graffiti and burned cars/dumpsters.

Some looting happened and a local tv reported assaulted when trying to stop an ATM theft.

I support protesting, not the senseless destruction.

However, I am very impressed by the community cleanup support that started almost immediately.

The problem here is the protesters are peaceful demonstrators.  The looting is done by opportunistic criminals who use the civil unrest as a guise to get something for nothing. The protestors didn't trash my city last night, criminals did.  I believe there are instigators too who go to these things just to get the mob mentality flowing.  They didn't smash the windows and loot the dispensary because they're taking a stand, they destroyed someone's business because they wanted to steal weed.
 

I'm disappointed in my country for many reasons this morning and the worst part about it all is feeling helpless to do anything about the problems we have.  

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

This is going to be really common until an inauguration occurs.  This is all political and an attempt to take control politically.  

Keep your eye on the money and the big picture.  Keep your family, neighbors and friends safe.  Don't expect police forces, a press or politicians that can't keep themselves safe to care about you.

Okay, this thread has been decent so far, but I feel like the above comment is crossing over into flounder territory. 

Here in Milwaukee, it's been odd. During the day, a large number of peaceful demonstrations and marches. The first night of protests, though, aggressive protestors surrounded a police station, Walgreen's drug store, meat market, etc and did a fair amount of damage. This was about 6 blocks away from where I lived for 8 years (moved to a quieter part of town in 2016 but know the area very well).

That's been the pattern since. Peaceful during the day, then the aggression comes out at night (though nowhere near MPLS or Louisville, I might add). We had our first curfew last night, it sounds like there were a lot of violations and a number stores in lower-income neighborhoods were sadly vandalized or looted.

I think it's important to remember that the Floyd death is just the latest example of a systemic problem, and that's probably why there's so much pent up anger coming out right now. Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Eric Garner in NYC, etc. (obviously there are many more and circumstances differ, but there are still a lot). I don't agree with the level of aggression being displayed, but I think the anger is valid and the protests are justified.

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm disappointed in my country for many reasons this morning and the worst part about it all is feeling helpless to do anything about the problems we have.  

Agreed 10000%.

Personally, I had already been feeling pretty burned out on life in the Midwest US before COVID happened, and now we've basically decided COVID is over and are confronting a more systemic demon...was starting to investigate a company transfer to the coasts, makes me wonder if I should look internationally.

I got up this morning to see video of law enforcement shooting non-lethal rounds at people on their own property in MPLS which is beyond concerning.

It's been an up and down couple of days.  Austin had protests blocking the freeway right through downtown.  Watching video, seemed fairly calm (in comparison to other places).  Police had a line setup to keep more people from getting onto the freeway.  Watching a few people get right in the face of the police screaming at them and taunting them didn't make sense to me. 

Wonder how much is people are tired of being sheltered in place and the loss of jobs is pushing people over the edge.  Austin extended the stay in place until June 15th.

On a totally different view, watched the rocket launch yesterday and am watching the docking this morning.  Talk about a dichotomy.

-Rob

In reply to pointofdeparture :

That footage is really bothering me.  I'm pretty "law and order" most of the time but when "authorities" shoot at me and mine while we're on our own property?  Expect the response to be nasty.   
 

If this is how they act, they can expect escalation.  And in a pitched firefight there aren't enough cops.

rob_lewis said:

On a totally different view, watched the rocket launch yesterday and am watching the docking this morning.  Talk about a dichotomy.

Observing all that's going on at the moment, and the strange dichotomy you mention, brought to mind something I use in my US history classes to illustrate the tensions in late 1960s/early 1970s America. Presented solely as a historical document, no commentary intended or implied.

Things in Mpls have really quieted down. St Paul as well. Let's hope that continues. A great showing of community members coming out to help clean up neighborhoods after all the destruction.

pointofdeparture said:

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

This is going to be really common until an inauguration occurs.  This is all political and an attempt to take control politically.  

Keep your eye on the money and the big picture.  Keep your family, neighbors and friends safe.  Don't expect police forces, a press or politicians that can't keep themselves safe to care about you.

Okay, this thread has been decent so far, but I feel like the above comment is crossing over into flounder territory. 

Here in Milwaukee, it's been odd. During the day, a large number of peaceful demonstrations and marches. The first night of protests, though, aggressive protestors surrounded a police station, Walgreen's drug store, meat market, etc and did a fair amount of damage. This was about 6 blocks away from where I lived for 8 years (moved to a quieter part of town in 2016 but know the area very well).

That's been the pattern since. Peaceful during the day, then the aggression comes out at night (though nowhere near MPLS or Louisville, I might add). We had our first curfew last night, it sounds like there were a lot of violations and a number stores in lower-income neighborhoods were sadly vandalized or looted.

I think it's important to remember that the Floyd death is just the latest example of a systemic problem, and that's probably why there's so much pent up anger coming out right now. Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Eric Garner in NYC, etc. (obviously there are many more and circumstances differ, but there are still a lot). I don't agree with the level of aggression being displayed, but I think the anger is valid and the protests are justified.

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm disappointed in my country for many reasons this morning and the worst part about it all is feeling helpless to do anything about the problems we have.  

Agreed 10000%.

Personally, I had already been feeling pretty burned out on life in the Midwest US before COVID happened, and now we've basically decided COVID is over and are confronting a more systemic demon...was starting to investigate a company transfer to the coasts, makes me wonder if I should look internationally.

I got up this morning to see video of law enforcement shooting non-lethal rounds at people on their own property in MPLS which is beyond concerning.

That is one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. Nowhere in the use of force continuum is firing off rounds, non-lethal or not, at a citizen on their own front porch. 

drainoil said:

Things in Mpls have really quieted down. St Paul as well. Let's hope that continues. A great showing of community members coming out to help clean up neighborhoods after all the destruction.

There were some tense standoffs between the authorities and the crowds from around 8:30 to 10:00pm, but after that it was quiet.  

I was impressed at the number of people who spontaneously came out to clean up on Saturday.  In the parking lot of the strip mall near the 5th Precinct building there are huge piles of debris, neatly shoveled/swept up for removal.  The city was also out with a street sweeper picking up all the broken glass.

Lived in the same area most if my life. I've seen a lot of peaceful protests.

This ain't one of them.

Even more telling is the decision to assemble at night. Large crowds Friday night. Saturday, nothing. Then back again Saturday night. No buildings burned down yet, but the vandals were more successful this time.

Live about five miles from where they were marching too in San Diego. There was a very large amount of people on the freeway in the  main protest and a smaller group making trouble and burning stores.

Not sure what Vons and the local resale stores had to do with this but they burned them. Same with a bunch of other small stores. The march was supposed to end at the high end mall down the road and a cop car got burned about two miles out and they just decided to use tear gas and rubber bullets after that.

My old city of Omaha started up last night when at 20:15 cops began tear gassing and pepper spraying protestor groups on a major street- people had gathered there where there's a busy intersection but no station or government buildings. Street wasn't even shut down by them this time. Cops would repeatedly form walls to force the protestors back, but would get stopped by something- maybe news van presence.

Protests moved to our ACTUAL downtown in front of ACTUAL government buildings, which turned to rioting. I've worked with our cops thanks to my field and they've always been very aggressive and undermanned and I don't doubt they tear-gassed first. When my cop friends get drunk, the stories start and they aren't good.

Tons of coverage now of newspeople and reporters being tear gassed. One was sheltering with other people in a gas station and cops gassed them.

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm disappointed in my country for many reasons this morning and the worst part about it all is feeling helpless to do anything about the problems we have.  

I think the worst thing to do is stay at home and stay quiet now.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

A little context would go a long way. I had to do a little digging before I realized your link is not related to Omaha at all.

I'm in Omaha right now. Grew up in the northeast corner aka the "hood", currently live west and work in the southeast area, delivering all over.

Given how many other cities are burning and ours is not, I'm happy with how it's been handled thus far.

Mad respect for the Flint police and gennesee county sheriff though

Justjim75 said:

https://townhall-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2020/05/31/watch-video-from-around-the-country-shows-antifa-thugs-hijacking-george-floyd-pr-n2569761?amp=true

This isnt good at all if true

I would call it suspect. At the risk of floundering this thread, the national authority who last night in a press conference  blamed the riots on antifa and "left wing" groups offered absolutely zero evidence to back up his statements. Townhall.com has a mixed record of factual reporting and has a noted bias: LINK 

In reply to Justjim75 :

Good thing it is not true, but the exact opposite is, and that isn't good either.   

Sacramento has protests, so far no one hurt or buildings burned.  Fire next to freeway yesterday closed 99 down. 

My shop is very close to the police station where they were protesting friday and the freeway fire saturday.

We've had the police shoot and kill a couple unarmed black people in the last year or so, so BLM group is well motiviated here.

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

What do you consider "the exact opposite"?