Why do protesters loot and burn

[Bigworldoutthere]

Disclaimer: not a comment on the awful event leading up to it but on rots/ protest in general. Watching the situation in Minneapolis it struck me that in almost all protest situations there are people —young men— who burn things that are useful to them and there community, loot shops that are useful for them and their community and damage/smash the same. I can understand anger s as d shouting but why actually damage the area you live in?

At this point you would be unreasonable for questioning why if the black people of america went to war with their own country

The National Guard are to be deployed on US citizen protestors this evening. Rather than stop the serial murdering of innocent Black people, officials will simply stop Black peole protesting the murdering.

I'm sure this will go fine.

Somebody posted something really interesting on an irish history group im on. Whenever these events happen with black people being murdered, the rate of google searches for 'irish slaves' leaps massively as racists try to find stuff about that myth to discredit black people's grievances.

Oh and I see the usual simpletons are bringing up 'antifa'

It's peaceful law breaking, like blocking roads, or baring your arse in the Strangers' Gallery in parliament.

They tried that the last few summers with Black Lives Matter, kneeling for the anthem and standing impassively at protests when confronted by police. Media, documentaries, interviews, talking, talking, talking.

Plus everything done peacefully since 1865.

That worked, didn't it?

If I was a black store owner in Minnesota who couldn't afford insurance against civil disturbance, but had the whole thing burned down "for the greater good", sure I'd be all fine and dandy about it

If you're looking for a rational assessment of the usefulness of community assets you're unlikely to find it in the brain chemistry of men (mainly) who are rioting. Reason has left the building.

@PicsInRed, this is starting to remind me of the rioting that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King: spontaneous rioting in cities from one coast to the other, the National Guard going in, people getting shot.

It was the National Guard that killed 4 peace protestors a couple of years later.

It's horrific, especially with Trump in charge of the country. The man's unstable and the worst president in my lifetime. My memory goes back to the Kennedy era, so I've seen a few hopeless presidents, but none so constitutionally unsuited to deal with something like this,

To be honest, I haven't been following these protests enough to say what factors are at play, other than the ongoing murder of black people by America's police.

However, I think violent protest by the black community is foreseeable and understandable.

America (particularly the Republican party) does it's best to stop black people from voting. Be it taking their names of voters registers, barring postal voting in areas where it's the preferred means used by black voters, or barring felons from voting when institutionally racist law enforcement means black people are criminalised at far higher rates than white people.

When you suppress a community, and deprive them of their rights at the ballot box, you're basically asking for violence.

The US needs to fully embrace democracy, and stop trying to make it the preserve of white people.

Because peaceful protests aren't working. But there are also people who travel from one place rile people up and then stand back and watch it escalate.

@mrsBtheparker

Because people who aren’t white have so little value in society peaceful action means absolutely nothing

A kind of double o Licence to Steal? Gosh, I wish I were lucky enough to have such an pathetic excuse.
Stacking up the wrongs will never make a right.

So you’d like to have to teach your child from as soon as they can walk if you’re stopped by the police to keep your hands where they can see them. Don’t trust the police they aren’t your ally. Don’t hang around with people the same colour as you or those lighter than you. Groups of black youths will have the police called on them. A black kid with a bunch of white youths will be the one that is remembered. Oh and you are happy to be stopped for random ‘terrorism’ reasons? I am not happy for this to be a feature. Thanks. Walk a mile in their shoes before you judge.

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

Oh to have the privilege to be able to sit back and judge the oppressed minorities.

While pretending you understand what they go through on a daily basis.

Of course the police will deny it was one of their officers. They claim he had an alibi yet there is no proof

Does anyone seriously expect the police, the National Guard or any other officials to post evidence for this kind of thing on social media? I realise some posters quite fancy themselves as judge, jury and executioner, but that's really not how it works

We all know people are angry (I'd be angry myself in this position) but there's already been so much nonsense talked ... police who were "proved" to have set fires, the wheelchair-bound lady who was "stabbing people" and much more ... and no proof yet shown for any of it

Wouldn't it be better to decide these things, and hopefully get the guilty into jail, on the basis of facts?

This

LakieLady
Civil disobedience doesn't mean violence, rioting or looting.

No - but the specific reference to Michael Chessum from 2010 quite clearly refers to rioting and looting - which he defended at the time;

^"Mr Chessum told the BBC at the time: “I don’t think I’m going to wade in and condemn violence from protesters,”

The Times 2019;
"Michael Chessum, the Momentum activist who once dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s “kinder politics” in favour of “heads on sticks”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/momentum-urges-protesters-to-block-bridges-and-occupy-streets-over-prorogation-jsjn7np98

I’m not condoning the looting but how on earth are these people supposed to get their point across? I know they can make changes by voting but this has been going on for years, it’s so ingrained, I feel so desperately sorry for them.

I know they can make changes by voting
To an extent but, as mentioned above, America (particularly it's right wing) does all it can to stop black people from being allowed or able to vote.

Because there are plenty of opportunistic thugs around who will use this as an excuse.

There is no acceptable and effective form of protest.

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

twitter.com/AngelaNissel/status/1266739446558257152?s=09

twitter.com/dopeblackdads/status/1266707194877218816?s=19