To think that the looters should be ashamed of themselves

[clipclop5]

I think that the protests are fully justified, and support them, but imo looting is ridiculous. Using the horrific death of someone as an excuse to steal?? This is not what George Floyd would have wanted. Probably quite the opposite.

A USA citizen can use deadly force, this is allowed in law. That someone, anyone, can kill someone else to protect themselves, or their property? But of course this is open to interpretation. This also applies to the police. That a police officer can use it the same as any other civilian can. This is all tied up in the constitution and the crazed attitudes around it, specifically around guns.

This is somewhat incorrect.
There were a series of decisions made in the 1980s by the Supreme Court of the United States, SCOTUS, in response to police departments being held liable by lower courts for negligent homicide that gave police officers the right to prioritize force protection. The decision clearly stated that LEOs had no legal requirement to intervene in any situation if they felt it would endanger them.

The progress communities had made improving relations with the police since the sixties screeched to a halt and reversed itself. The trend toward screening out authoritarian abusers and sociopaths ended and that was the point when white supremacists began infiltrating police departments all over the country.
The reason it feels like 1968 is because very little has been allowed to change since 1968.

As horrible as it has been at least this time we have recordings that give the lie to the claims that the citizens brought the police violence on themselves.

"The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything."

-Scott Woods

Also some privilege it is to be "turned off by some yobs burning the buildings" to the state sanctioned murder of black people. Lovely touch putting the responsibility of educating you on injustice on the victims or else you can't be bothered and the status quo should remain. Must be nice to be able to ignore something that is life and death to people. Must be nice, some of us really do not have that privilege

Not everyone reacts to generations of oppression by having a nice peaceful protest asking to please not be murdered anymore. Some people are just really really fucking angry and I can’t say I blame them.

@StopMurderingUs How dare you say I am ignoring the bigger picture of the situation. Just because I don’t agree with one small part of it doesn’t mean I am some pro murderer as you are making me out to be??

Oh yes let's divert the issue even further and focus on your faux outrage for pointing out your apologist post and detract even further from the fact that yet another innocent unarmed black person was murdered and the county faked his autopsy report to protect their officer.

Oh I definitely am saying you are an apologist and missing the bigger picture, and I mean that as distespectfully as possible.

Even Piers Morgan has said and I quote (I never thought in my life I would quote Piers but heyho)

"If you’re angrier about the (totally unacceptable) theft & destruction of property than the slow, chilling murder of a black man by a racist heartless white police officer kneeling on his neck even after he lost consciousness, then your priorities are wrong. #GeorgeFloyd"

t.co/3yqqITYag5

I think if it was a life and death situation for you you would also dare to say the things I am saying.

That is all

Also my response was more to wink1970 about how
"We also look at looters (of all skin colours) and it turns us 'off'. We stop being interested in the politics of it, we stop wanting to know more, why should we educate ourselves on the problems when we just see yobs using a murder as an excuse to nick some trainers, and people defending them.

The Brooklyn protesters defending the Target store knew the damage to the protest message, as well as the downstream damage to the local economy. If you want people to be 'anti-racist' not just 'not racist' then you need to understand the optics from both sides and try to engage rather than starting from a position of hate and presumption".

But if the shoe fits then hey

@StopMurderingUs How about stop making assumptions about me. People like you who simply won’t hear any opinion but their own are what’s wrong with the world, and, like you said to me, I mean that as disrespectfully as possible. What makes you think that I am angrier about the looting than the murder of an innocent man for his skin colour? Of course I’m not, nor have I ever said this. Stop making false claims against me. This thread was simply to point out MY opinion that looting distracts from the good that the protests are doing, and paints the protesters in a bad light. Also the fact that many of the people looting aren’t even protesters, they couldn’t care less about the movement.

Damn I voted YANBU by mistake

YABVVVVU

No OP I'm pretty sure you are what's wrong with the world.

The focus on looting and rioting detracts from the issue. It allows systematic racism to thrive and is exactly why police officers have the impunity to murder innocent black men, women and children on the street. The CNN sign that was defaced in a protest was literally fixed the next day but what about the lives that were lost? They are gone. All this whataboutery and "oh they bought it on themselves" bullshit is exactly why things have reached a boiling point.

Following the Trump "Law and Order" narrative means this is exactly what people see and hear
twitter.com/ava/status/1267295555656409088?s=09

@StopMurderingUs Again, not what I said.

That is exactly what you and the rest of the "how dare they react in this manner" crowd are saying.

Black people are literally saying

"Stop killing us"

And your response is literally "Yes, but...."

There is no but. You are trying to justify the indefensible

...MY opinion that looting distracts from the good that the protests are doing, and paints the protesters in a bad light.

Then change opinion OP and get back to the real issues at hand.

twitter.com/benyc/status/1267587033783992322?s=09

The heavily militarized police antagonizing and attacking protestors are the problem and the people who should attract your derision.

YABVVVVVVU

And completely on the wrong side of history.

Fuck the looting, so what, things get replaced, this distraction is exactly what Trump wants everyone to focus on, there is only one focus and that is the murder of another black man by white police officers

Vocal about looting, silent about murder (some false equivalency between looting and murder is the same) = you are complicit and part of the problem.

twitter.com/FlipLloyd/status/1267120230691717125?s=09

I read that protestors are finding pallets of bricks on street corners. It’s almost as if they’ve been placed there going the protestors will turn violent and use them. People are are saying it’s white supremacy groups, some people are even saying it’s the police placing the bricks!

Even Piers Morgan has said and I quote (I never thought in my life I would quote Piers but heyho)

"If you’re angrier about the (totally unacceptable) theft & destruction of property than the slow, chilling murder of a black man by a racist heartless white police officer kneeling on his neck even after he lost consciousness, then your priorities are wrong. #GeorgeFloyd"

He's just shitting himself that his racist targeting of a POC woman (Megan) - using his contacts and influence within the vile British press (remember "chimpanzee baby Archie"? ) isn't going to age well in a post George Floyd world.

Someone will have written that for him.

No cause for the looting.... except to be a thug.

there is power in protesting but the real power lies in the ballot box from the bottom to the top

Because that’s worked so well ...