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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Are the people protesting in London mad?

408 replies

JKD1982 · 31/05/2020 23:03

I agree that what happened in the USA is appalling but why would anyone risk their own health and go against all the social distancing rules to protest in London? It won’t make a difference to what’s happened and could cause another crisis in London hospitals because people catch COVID.

AIBU thinking they are mad and there is a better way (from a laptop?) to express anger

OP posts:
EveryoneLoves09876 · 01/06/2020 20:24

The gathering desite the pandemic is pretty powerful. But I see your concerns op.

I just hope Trump bloody deals with it.

TabbyMumz · 01/06/2020 21:22

George's brother has condemned the violence saying his family is upset by it as George was a peaceful man.

Thisisworsethananticpated · 01/06/2020 21:25

YABU
And how can people NOT understand this rage and anger
It’s wrong and it’s been wrong for hundred and hundreds of years
And yes people are upset anyway due to COVID but this is a tipping point

I hope things can change

But reading this thread I fear they won’t

cyclingmad · 01/06/2020 21:30

Yes let them sit at home and be angry because of covidand how dare they be out protesting meanwhile covid didn't stop the police from killing that guy. Let wrongful killings due to racism whilst you insist people are stupid for protesting and should stay at home and just stay quiet.

You know they just had an indecent autopsy say he died because of what happened whilst the county autopsy said otherwise. It's just outrageous that had this bot come to light it would of been brushed up and that cop would still be out there working and you cant understand why people are so angry that they go out protesting to make sure their voice is heard that racism and police brutality is unacceptable. Successive governments in Amweica, generation after generation and it still happens

Msmcc1212 · 01/06/2020 21:38

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

We should protest. I hope they keep a 2m distance to protect themselves but I thank them for risking their lives to send a clear message that this needs to change. Sometimes civil disobedience is what it takes (Ghandi, Martin Luther King, suffragettes etc).

Porcupineinwaiting · 01/06/2020 21:53

Given the disproportionate risk to BAME people from coronavirus, protesting for their right to safety (generally very admirable) in a way that directly increases their risk of dying of COVID seems crazy to me.

MadameMarie · 01/06/2020 21:56

@Msmcc1212

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

We should protest. I hope they keep a 2m distance to protect themselves but I thank them for risking their lives to send a clear message that this needs to change. Sometimes civil disobedience is what it takes (Ghandi, Martin Luther King, suffragettes etc).

Gandhi and MLK believed strongly in peaceful protest, rather than civil disobedience.
Leflic · 01/06/2020 22:12

Martin Luther King leaded the campaign against segregation, Suffragettes wanted the vote, Ghandi against British rule. Quite specific.

What us the aim of thus protest. I thought originally it was about getting getting the other police officers charged but O haven’t heard that.. The quickest way to end a racist police force is to recruit a more ethnically diverse force I’d have thought.

Monkeynuts18 · 01/06/2020 22:21

Well, Covid didn’t stop a police officer from kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

Plus the infection rate in London is slowing down massively anyway.

Porcupineinwaiting · 01/06/2020 22:29

Actually the infection rate in London is on the up tick. Besides which a lot of black lives have been (and continue to be) lost to COVID at the moment, both in the UK and the States. Bad enough George Floyd is dead, no need to lose more black lives tonight senseless virus. Better for people to live to fight for justice another day.

Nousernamehistory · 01/06/2020 22:38

in a way that directly increases their risk of dying of COVID seems crazy to me.

Oh the privilege of being able to pick and choose the times to fight for your rights.Hmm

It's also a privilege to be able to prioritise Covid because there is no other immediate threat to your life.

Think before you speak. At the very least don't give a poor show of disingenuous concern to the people you are criticising.

Porcupineinwaiting · 01/06/2020 23:11

@Nouser sorry but that's crap. If you are African American or African British the threat to your life from COVID is huge. I'm part of the slack group of COVID survivors/victims. So many African Americans on there - people losing parents, husbands, children- its carnage. Only a tiny fraction of that is reflected in the media but it's very real and it's happening right now.

Nousernamehistory · 01/06/2020 23:18

Which part is crap?
Where did I say Covid wasn't a risk?

If you are are Black American or Black British, the risk to your life from systemic, institutional and social racism is also huge.

People have the right to choose which risk they prioritise and it's no one's place to tell them they're wrong or talking crap Hmm

Swiftsseason · 01/06/2020 23:46

I felt immense pride that demos rook place in London and apparently Berlin and New Zealand.

It's amazing.
I felt very moved by reports of the protests where people laid down and chanted I can't breathe.

I think this should be the focus.
Imagine everywhere people blocking whatever chanting I can't breathe but in a peaceful way... I felt that was very moving.

It's also something many people can join in with..
Re covid... Well yes that's a huge issue but right now is probably the safest point to protest.
I feel this is a turning point, especially with the new autopsy results... Which make absolute sense.
The other one 🙄🙄

Swiftsseason · 01/06/2020 23:49

Leflic agree.
It's moment but what is aim... Only solution is ethnically diverse force, more chances, money... Better schools.

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:26

I cannot believe people expect black people to wait for justice. It's no one's place to tell protesters to wait. They have waited hundreds of years. Do you realise the blood on the hands of those who tell them to "wait"?

And it's not "making a point". It's demanding to be treated with the decency that white people are automatically given. It's demanding not to have our lives taken through purposeful and calculated actions. It's demanding not to be hated for the colour of our skin.

I cannot believe it either (or maybe I can)

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:27

Mass gatherings will undo all the good work done to protect the NHS and the elderly. Any protest for any reason NOW at this critical time, is irresponsible.

Unlike the mass crowds on the beaches and the parks

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:30

Handling....yes I've seen the links, thanks. It's just the UK isnt well known for violence against BAME or murder, unlike the US, which is very well known for it

But it has been judicially and governmentally acknowledged food it’s institutionalised racism

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:39

George's brother has condemned the violence saying his family is upset by it as George was a peaceful man.

No - yet again posters twisting words for their own agenda

Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, has calmed for the death penalty for the officers and called for non violent action. His emphasis is on change not on condemning those uppity black thugs

The brother of George Floyd has called for "peace" and "justice" through voting rather than violence as he addressed a rally in Minneapolis.

Terrence Floyd urged the crowds to "educate themselves" and vote as he spoke to crowds in the city where his brother died last week.

Riots have erupted in cities around the US and across the world after a white police knelt on the 46-year-old's neck for nine minutes.

Protesters have defied curfews in the US as a sixth night of demonstrations turned violent, with unrest convulsing cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and flaring near the White House.

But Mr Floyd's brother, Terrence, has now called for "another way" to get justice for George.

He said: "Let's do this another way. Let's stop thinking that our voice does not matter and vote.

"Do not just vote for the president but for the preliminaries. Vote for everybody.

Educate yourself. Educate yourself. Do not wait for somebody else to tell you who is who. Educate yourself and now who you are voting for."

He told the crowds that those protesting should vote because there is "a lot of us" and: "That is how we are going to hit them."

And we are still doing to do this peacefully because that is how we going to get them.

We going to fool them," he continued. "Let's switch it up. Do this peacefully please."

"I highly doubt - no, I know - he would not want you all to be doing this."

Mr Floyd told the crowds to "relax" before breathing deeply into the megaphone.

He then began chanting with the protesters: "Peace to the left. Justice on the right."

EveryoneLoves09876 · 02/06/2020 08:40

Maybe it's worth the risk for them.

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:41

And for bit about his brother being a peaceful man

*

S]ometimes I get angry, I want to bust some heads, too," Terrence Floyd said. "I wanna ... just go crazy. But I’m here. My brother wasn’t about that. My brother was about peace. You’ll hear a lot of people say he was a gentle giant."

MORE: George Floyd protest live updates: NYC mayor addresses daughter's arrest
Speaking to "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts on Monday morning, Terrence Floyd said his brother "would want us to seek justice" but to channel the anger "another way."

"It's OK to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way because we've been down this road already," he said. "The anger, damaging your hometown is not the way he'd want."

ShutUpaYourFace · 02/06/2020 08:44

Ariadne
Yes there are idiots on the beaches as I mentioned in my first post as well as the idiots out mass protesting.
We are at a critical time with Covid. Now is not the time for mass protest or sunning ourselves on the beaches.
Do the elderly, the vunverable and the NHS no longer matter?
10 weeks of lockdown for what?

CherryPavlova · 02/06/2020 08:44

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

This.

Until racism becomes a white persons concern, it will endure.

Aridane · 02/06/2020 08:48

Given the disproportionate risk to BAME people from coronavirus, protesting for their right to safety (generally very admirable) in a way that directly increases their risk of dying of COVID seems crazy to me

No, no, fucking no.

What is crazy is 400 years of oppression

What is crazy is institutionalised racism, hatred and prejudice for the colour of your skin.

What is crazy is Ingrained social injustice.

What is crazy are the killings of black men by security forces

What is crazy that the protests haven’t been taking place before

As the (white) Governor of Minneapolis said, it’s been 490 years in the making

< and breathes >

longwayoff · 02/06/2020 08:49

YABU. They are not mad. They are ducking furious. Understandably so.