To think that the looters should be ashamed of themselves

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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.

I don't agree with some of the shady shit that has gone on, amongst the (mainly peaceful) protests.

As someone, whose brother was killed at the hands of the police, who were meant to be there to protect him, I can tell you what I am most angry about.

For too long, being black has been a criminal offence. Heck, it wasn't even that many years ago that you could be lynched for looking at a white person the wrong way, for not giving you're (already sat in) seat to a white person. If you are black, you are four times more likely to be stopped by the police. And if you are sentenced, your sentence will be significantly longer than your white counterparts...I could go on..

The point is, it is fucking exhausting. I cannot wait for the day that black people can go about their business without busybodies ringing the police on them.

You are guilty before proven innocent, if you are black.

But guilty white cops, for the most part, have ended up not being punished for murder/attempted murder.

You need to look at the 'black deaths in police custody". Most of them come up unexplained...that should tell you the level of this shit.

Enough is enough.

You moaned when we knelt, you're now moaning because we are refusing to bow down.

"These people are revolting"

Yes, these people are revolting!

I don't think what George Floyd wants comes into it - looting and violence is wrong (peaceful protest obviously isn't). But as others have said, he was an ordinary man who was murdered, not a saint. Its terrible what happened to him but looting isn't a legitimate form of protest to state the obvious.

What smile said. This is not a simple situation. Social contracts have been breaking for years, for all sorts of people. The opportunists and lawbreakers are out, but who created them? Where did they come from? We can see many of the same issues in Britain: America is huge, more complex still. Trump is exactly the wrong person to have in power right now.

looting isn't a legitimate form of protest to state the obvious.

What do you do when "legitimate forms of protest" are ignored? When the official attitude to them is to go through the motions and then do precisely what you were going to do anyway?

What do you do when "legitimate forms of protest" are ignored? When the official attitude to them is to go through the motions and then do precisely what you were going to do anyway?

Agree. Was it 4 years ago that footballers were being sacked for 'bending the knee'?

Whilst I don't condone violence the culture of racism in the US desperately needs to change. I think a pp. is right its a distraction from the issue. Trevor Noah did a thought provoking piece on the breakdown of social contracts within society leading to rioting and he's right.

I agree with Smile

www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/06/01/fire-causes-minor-damage-to-st-johns-the-church-of-presidents-in-washington-during-night-of-riots/

"Earlier in the day, over 1,000 protesters had marched peacefully through the area, demonstrating against the killings of African Americans by police, including George Floyd. The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington, joined parish leaders at the church to show support for the protesters."

Later the police used rubber bullets against those protesters so the president could pose infront of a church.

I think this is far more worrying than looters.

I think I've heard it said that the emotional age of a crowd is inversely proportional to the number of people in it.

Think about that.

Imagine a boy aged between 9 and 14. He lives with his uncle, George, because his parents died in a car accident, his aunt, Atatiana www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50032290 was shot dead in her own apartment by a police officer doing a welfare check on the property and his older brother Ahmaud en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Ahmaud_Arbery was murdered by two men while he was out jogging. He still grieves his parents, his aunt and his brother and why wouldn't he?

You are the family liaison officer or a social worker given the job of telling a boy aged between 9 and 14 that his uncle George was murdered by police officers today. Would you really be shocked and appalled if he broke down and expressed part of his grief and rage at this latest loss punching and kicking the walls of his room?

Would you make smartarse comments that he was only harming himself when he damaged his room?

Quotes:

BBC
Atatiana Jefferson, 28, had been living at the residence in Fort Worth, Texas with her eight-year-old nephew.

A neighbour had called a non-emergency police number after growing concerned that her front door was open at night.

twitter.com/jackmjenkins/status/1267654371032039430/photo/3

If you think the looters should be ashamed, you are holding them to a standard to which the president of the United States does not aspire.

I’d like to ask the black posters on here something:

What would you suggest white people do regarding this idea of ‘social contract’?

• if it is believed to be broken by the black community, then do you think the white community should continue to uphold it?

If we do, it will not benefit the black community unless we can bring about change in other areas. If we don’t , I don’t think it will benefit the black community either.

I don’t mean disregard the normal laws of society (just in case anyone thinks O am advocating that) rather what can we do?

I don’t want to be part of something that perpetuates this but other than being conscious in my interactions and behaviour, I don’t know that achieves much on a political level.

It requires a shift but how do we achieve that whilst the very oxygen (as Scott Woods described it) that we breathe gives it life?

@StopMurderingUsThat poster NEVER made any comment about race. You’re the one being racist here. Grow up.

OP you really are part of the problem.

Every single black person knows what "thug"means. Every black protest is filled with "thugs" despite police often agitating and inciting violence.

The same is never said about majority white protests. That neo-Nazi man who drove into a crowd of anti-protestors (peacefully protesting again) and killed a woman and the President declared they were fine people on both sides and never once condemned or used the codified word "thug". Thug is a racist dog whistle, despite the colour of the looters it is used exclusively for black protests. No mention of thugs with armed white protestors yelling the police faces over wanting to have haircuts and do their nails instead of a lockdown for public health, no police agitation either.

I do not understand how you continue to see yourself as a victim.

Try educating yourself instead.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2016/2/1/10889138/coded-language-thug-bossy

www.npr.org/2015/04/30/403362626/the-racially-charged-meaning-behind-the-word-thug?t=1591104029253

It's so much easier for you to be angry at what I am saying to delegitimise it so you can remain in your bubble than actually think why I am saying the things I am saying or challenge yourself to consider that you just may be wrong (which you completely are)

But as others have said, he was an ordinary man who was murdered, not a saint.

What do you mean here^^ @CayrolBaaaskin?

Yes OP yet I'm being "racist" to you.

And this is just the more subtle stuff. The insidious day to day week to week stuff. There is far far worse.

That it is unlikely for any one to look at you as if you do not belong.

This is fundamental.

Also, the Danny Baker incident stood out to me.

I hope that the more people say explicit things like this, there will be some moment when white people realise the extent of the levels, the dimensions, the 24-7/oxygen nature of it all.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. As a great man once said.

Enjoy the sunshine today. x

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

@Thesamethingkeepshappening

I don't agree with some of the shady shit that has gone on, amongst the (mainly peaceful) protests.
As someone, whose brother was killed at the hands of the police, who were meant to be there to protect him, I can tell you what I am most angry about.

For too long, being black has been a criminal offence. Heck, it wasn't even that many years ago that you could be lynched for looking at a white person the wrong way, for not giving you're (already sat in) seat to a white person. If you are black, you are four times more likely to be stopped by the police. And if you are sentenced, your sentence will be significantly longer than your white counterparts...I could go on..

The point is, it is fucking exhausting. I cannot wait for the day that black people can go about their business without busybodies ringing the police on them.

You are guilty before proven innocent, if you are black.

But guilty white cops, for the most part, have ended up not being punished for murder/attempted murder.

You need to look at the 'black deaths in police custody". Most of them come up unexplained...that should tell you the level of this shit.

Enough is enough.

You moaned when we knelt, you're now moaning because we are refusing to bow down.

"These people are revolting"

Yes, these people are revolting!

Bravo - such an excellent post especially For too long, being black has been a criminal offence.

I am sorry for the loss of your brother. As you say 'enough is enough'

Being black has been incriminated.

How do we intentionally decriminalise it? Without perpetuating the idea that it is about white benevolence rather than at the hands of white discrimination?

@CayrolBaaaskin

I don't think what George Floyd wants comes into it - looting and violence is wrong (peaceful protest obviously isn't). But as others have said, he was an ordinary man who was murdered, not a saint. Its terrible what happened to him but looting isn't a legitimate form of protest to state the obvious.

Hang on. What do you mean?

I referred to him being an ordinary man earlier, because I can see people canonising him to suit their own needs. If you can convince yourself that George wouldn't be angry at the horror of his slow torturous death, then why should anyone else be angry down on earth?

We should be angry.

I definitely didn't mean he wasn't good enough as a person to merit the protests!

Sharing a link to this event due to start streaming at 6pm, it may help those who seem to be confused.

www.eventbrite.com/e/justice-for-george-floyd-eyewitness-reports-from-minneapolis-tickets-107528336148

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has set off a wave of protests and uprisings across the United States. The rash of police violence, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and the unemployment crisis, has pushed many people to breaking point.

It is imperative that we demand justice for George Floyd, and build international solidarity and support for the protests in the US.

We have organized this emergency public meeting to hear eyewitness reports from activists on the ground in Minneapolis and across the US.

Speakers include:

Rose Brewer, a longtime activist in the black freedom struggle based in Minneapolis. She has been involved in building political organizations against police violence, and was a coauthor of the Black Lives Matter 2017 report, “A Vision for Black Lives”.

A Minneapolis bus driver from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, the local chapter of the bus workers union in Minneapolis, who have been supporting the protests and who have refused to transport police or protestors arrested by the police.

Aamer Anwar, a prominent campaigning lawyer and activist in Scotland. Aamer represents the family of Sheku Bayoh, a 31-year-old man killed in police custody in Scotland in 2015.

So many apologists for thieves! The old saying that two wrongs don't make a right would be a good one to learn.

Demonstrating peacefully just gets you tear-gassed, or worse

https://news.sky.com/story/george-floyd-death-bishop-outraged-by-trumps-photo-op-outside-church-11999148

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has said she is "outraged"
after police officers used tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters from her churchyard for Donald Trump to stage a photo-op outside holding a Bible.
....
Reverend Mariann Budde, whose diocese St. John's belongs to, said she was given no warning about Mr Trump's visit on Monday,

and no permission was sought for the photo opportunity.
The bishop told MSNBC the president was "preceded by a violent clearing of non-violent protesters".

"He was using our church as the backdrop and the Bible as a prop in ways that I found to be deeply offensive".

@mrsBtheparker

So many apologists for thieves! The old saying that two wrongs don't make a right would be a good one to learn.

Have you really just minimised hundreds of years slavery, torture, abuse, murder, rape and lynchings into a phrase normally used for trivial disputes among children?

So many apologists for racism!