MINNEAPOLIS on fire
Protests first erupted Tuesday, a day after Floyd's death in a confrontation with police captured on widely seen citizen video. On the video, Floyd can be seen pleading that he can't breathe as Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneels on his neck. As minutes pass, Floyd slowly stops talking and moving. The 3rd Precinct covers the portion of south Minneapolis where Floyd died.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz earlier Thursday activated the National Guard at the Minneapolis mayor's request, but it wasn't immediately clear when and where the Guard was being deployed, and none could be seen during protests in Minneapolis or St. Paul. The Guard tweeted minutes after the precinct burned that it had activated more than 500 soldiers across the metro area.[ctvnews.ca]
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17 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Can anyone understand the innate anger of generations of hatred directed at human beings because of the colour of their skin? Not the content of their character but something so superficial as their physical appearance. I appreciate how USA got there (although UK has had their demons) but why aren't you all out on the streets? Looting is a reaction and why the hell not? I remember during the 2012 riots in UK one report was of a guy who looted a bag of rice! (Value price too...not even the good stuff!) That indicated to me that this is less about stealing a new pair of trainers and more about a desire to obtain battle tribute. Its all horrible, its messy and in the end water canons will be brought in and those people will be silenced. They need a quiet charismatic leader, a plan and a serious message. #blacklivesmatter was a great message but an inclusive message of hope and another way to live, real positive training for all law officers and change that includes everyone in USA. I really do not get why a country based on equality and fairness has given up and allowed the elites to continue
Amisja
Level 8
May 30, 2020
2
It was clear-cut and the officer primarily at fault has been charged with 3rd degree murder as of today. Investigation is still underway on charges for the other three, but I would expect some type of involuntary manslaughter/ contributory negligence at the very least. All were out of a job almost immediately. I approve fully.
Paul4747
Level 8
May 29, 2020
5
The fire in those buildings is nothing when compared with the burning feelings of the victims of racism.
Rodatheist
Level 7
May 29, 2020
7
Perhaps you might share our Red man feelings of racism and Atheists feeling of McCarthyism??? I am both Cherokee and an Atheist since age 5
@Larry68Feminist Yes of course. Racists are equal opportunity haters.
@Larry68Feminist cherokee? yes I know you told me before. ...but hey you coulda fooled me 
@TimeOutForMe haven't you heard the story: when the xians came we had land they had bibles ....now they have all the land and we only have bibles
The looting and fires are being done by outsiders who want to foment a revolution and are using these protests as an excuse to start their agenda. There is one report that the fire at the Auto Zone was set by a white person wearing police garb. There are some hateful people in this country who will use any means to start unrest and division, all led by donnie
starwatcher-al
Level 7
May 29, 2020
6
I was with you until the last four words, then you crossed into the twilight zone.
@dani2382 You are correct on that. The color of skin doesn't matter, we all bleed RED.
You are so very right about that. ...when Mandela was released and it was near time for first-time Democratic elections in South Africa, white right-wing trouble makers and white policemen did the same here. They joined forces with another black party (paid them off course) that did sweet buggerall for anyone, while those who cared served prison time. They tried to make Mandela look bad. Yet it was the white communists that ran this country and treated people inhumanely.
While what happened to Floyd is inexcusable and the officer who committed the act should be facing a firing squad while the one who let him do it should be facing prison time.....
I will never understand the whole "lets destroy our own neighborhoods" stuff.
redhog
Level 7
May 29, 2020
3
Firing squads are legal in Utah by the condemned prisoners request over hanging and other kills
What else do they have? 'When you have nothing else to eat...eat the rich!
Has everybody seen this?
George Floyd and now-former Officer Derek Chauvin both worked security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club on Lake Street, according to Maya Santamaria.
BD66
Level 8
May 29, 2020
2
Interesting, perhaps there is more to this.
Still puzzled about the lack of reaction from the other 3 officers and the person filming the incident. I feel that the arrest of Chauvin was an attempt to tamp down the outrage, not sure why the other 3 are still free, that's a legal matter, but someone had better explain it, as I think that has to addressed.
I think there are only two ways to make social change in such circumstances - either a completely violent or a completely peaceful revolution. These protests we see now are only extreme versions of venting and probably mean things carry on the same. Having seen how successful peaceful protest can be in the past, people should organise peaceful non-compliance like the withdrawal of their labour until things change.
brentan
Level 8
May 29, 2020
6
The media was probably relieved to have something other to focus on besides the pandemic. But it really is the same; a multi-layered crisis and chaos with a totally unhelpful president tweeting from his toilet room. The courts of public opinion weighting in each with its on opinion/bias.
AND NO one willing to come up with a solution. I do not condone the looting and burning but when you have a president of the United States saying a black man peacefully protesting the racism, the double standard and the injustice we ALL can see an SOB and the court of white public opinion weighting in with of course he can protest but he's doing it in an inappropriate place/time it was like the icing on the cake for many.
How many are aware that some areas of Minneapolis when they were developed years ago developers put clauses on the sale of lots - binding sales contracts attached to the deeds on the land - stating it could never be sold to any Blacks, Latinos, Chinese, etc., effectively just to whites. The courts have upheld those contracts, it is up to the property owner to remove those sorts of caveats or not. Making it difficult to cull thru the county records is the fact most or all of those records are on paper - no easy search in IT form.
The other thing that is so frustrating to me is the media constantly narrowing the focus of a problem so deeply ingrained and multi-layered.
silverotter11
Level 9
May 29, 2020
6
BD66:
You are correct. Nothing like taking a single bad cop and then present a grossly biased narrative against police to get people stirred up. Then they can cover the riots that ensue. Good for ratings, more money for the news agencies.
@spartan919 Yeah, you rreally have to watch all 5-8 minutes of Mr. Floyd on the ground with a knee pressing him down to get the full impact of what happened.
Dr MLKjr had no PROBLEM describing the riots as voices of people NEVER HEARD DEMANDING JUSTICE
....Many of us minorities of white xian genocidal racism and McCarthyism were never allowed to learn our own native languages know the names of our foremothers called SQUAWs instead.....our proud name of Atheists reduced to a adjective of villification
... it is only the xian who burns billions of people in hell forever
@spartan919 I really wish everyone could walk in the world of anorher person's world for like a week. We ALL have something to learn from those not like us.
I get what the media does - I do not have a TV. I search for news on the internet, Consortium news, BBC, mostly sources outside the MSM. If i want something right leading Capitol Press. Even the Christian Science Monitor. I really miss Walter Cronkite.
I try to understand what is going on even though I cannot support the actions of this. P. S. I'm not talking about the white people involved. Derek Chauvin and friends need to come to justice. Swift justice will counter black looting.
DenoPenno
Level 9
May 29, 2020
3
@SeaGreenEyez
I will be surprised if there are any.
@SeaGreenEyez
I'm glad to see you posting. Hope you're doing better.
Rioting and violence is the dumbest way of expressing anger. It is easily exploited by the usual people who will now say: "see, black people are thugs, arsonists and violent that is why police was afraid" and the racism will continue ad infinitum. We all saw the criminal behavior of that cop and the inaction of the other three officers that stood there oblivious to the pleas of Mr. Floyd. The fact that there are no indictments is reprehensible. The stupid declaration of the prosecutors "there is other evidence that may be exculpatory" is typical lawyer cover your ass bullshit. The anger is understandable but violence, rioting and stealing is counterproductive, because innocent people and fellow black business owners are penalized for no reason whatsoever. We all want justice for Mr. Floyd and his family. Violence is not it.
Mofo1953
Level 9
May 29, 2020
3
@SeaGreenEyez protest peacefully like MLK or Ghandi, violence begets violence and for black and latinos like me it is counterproductive.
@Mofo1953 they have been protesting peacefully for decades and it hasn’t worked. They started protesting peacefully Wednesday night, yet police still used tear gas and rubber bullets. There is strong evidence it was a cop who broke into the autozone store and started it on fire, to make the protestors look bad and escalate things
Here’s what MLK said about riots
@Marcie1974 This as a rumour or fact is unacceptable. In my experience, it is others that are brought in that urge the starting of fires and robing the stores. Gets the protestors bad press and gives an excuse to shoot more people.
@Marcie1974 you think rioting, arson and violence will? I know that the national guard is going and things could get ugly. I don't see how burning shit up and stealing from businesses will solve anything.
@SeaGreenEyez i am outraged by the situation too. But arson, looting and violence will not solve anything and will result in more repression by the national guard and then who benefits?
@Marcie1974 so because you found one apologist for violence online that makes it right? Nazis and white supremacists also put their shit online. The reality is that the national guard has been called, they will get thete and probably curfew the crap of everything and things will escalate but at the end rioters can't do shit against tanks. What advantage was achieved? What was gained for their cause? Just the scorn of people that could have supported them had they kept their cool and listened to the family of the murdered victim calling for non violence. Not a smart move. Just irrational and animalistic. Good luck with that "strategy."
@Leontion, @SeaGreenEyez right. As I said, good luck with tbe looting and tbe arson. Let's see the results in a few days.
@creative51 nothing there to disagree. It's always the few who incite but unfortunately the incited are usually the one that end up footing the bill.
@SeaGreenEyez not really. I have been in the discriminated side many times because I am latino. And I've felt and experienced racism too plus I have seen all the killings that have gone unpunished all over the US includind the one here in Florida Trayvon Martin killed by that nutcase Zimmerman. That doesnt change my opinion on the results of violence...which always results in more violence.
@SeaGreenEyez not pulling anything, you said or implied that I had not watched a black man suffer, I told you that I did and that I also experienced it myself.
@SeaGreenEyez we agree on that.
@Mofo1953 no one in power will ever give up power peacefully. read Ward Churchill's book on pacifism
you think Hitler or Stalin or the current dick in the whitehouse would ever give in to peaceful importuning?? And what happened to MLK?
@Healthydoc70 this is not about taking power from the turd, that should happen in November, it's about justice for the victim's family. MLK was killed by some supremacist nutcase but his ideals could not be killed and remain intact until today and will endure forever. You can't kill ideas. But you can kill people. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth only outcome is tons of blind toothless people. The Minnesota National Guard is out now and I hope sanity prevails to avoid more violence. The cases of Hitler and Stalin that you put as example are completely irrelevant to the situation we are discussing here.
ameriKKKa.
GipsyOfNewSpain
Level 9
May 29, 2020
3
@SeaGreenEyez Shithole Leadership... let us not forget the Unpresident... Citizen Zero.
I was watching MSNBC late this afternoon while talking on the phone with my girlfriend as the crowds were beginning to mass for the protest in the area of Floyd's murder. I told her that I had a feeling that the crowds were only going to grow much larger by dark and that things were going to get very ugly tonite. Sometimes I really hate being right..
TomMcGiverin
Level 8
May 29, 2020
2
Organizer Calvetta is running against Ako who is risking his life in the middle of rioters & cops
And Donald says he cannot stand watching it, he is going to send in troops if the governor won’t stop it. I wonder why he didn’t send in troops when armed white folks are the perpetrators?
Jolanta
Level 9
May 29, 2020
7
@creative51 Yes he can if its to uphold federal law.
@creative51 I hate to argue about facts. All you had to do was look it up on Wikipedia like I did. I don't correct people unless I know what I'm talking about. Federalizing National Guard. Using the power as commander in chief to deploy a State's National Guard..
On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students—Vivian Malone and James A. Hood—successfully enrolled. In September of the same year, Wallace again attempted to block the desegregation of an Alabama public school—this time Tuskegee High School in Huntsville—but President Kennedy once again employed his executive authority and federalized National Guard troops. Wallace had little choice but to yield.
****Wikipedia
@creative51 not arguing it's not arguable
@creative51 If I'm mistaken I'm man enough to admit it but I'm not mistaken. [chicagotribune.com]
@SeaGreenEyez Lincoln ruled by Martial Law 4 years
@SeaGreenEyez Lincoln had dozens of Native Americans hung by the neck until dead
@SeaGreenEyez Minnesota Governor Ramsey happened to.be in the White House when Ft Sumter news arrived and siigned his militia orders on Lincoln's desk that very hour ....Iowa CONSTITUTION still reads he right to declare war against any other state or nation .....genocidal Ramsey paid 200 dollars per scalp of Native Americans.....Minneapolis murderers go way back before Chauvin in Minnesota uniforms
I understand the frustration and anger. I can even understand rioting. I can't understand looting and burning down businesses in your own neighborhood.
barjoe
Level 9
May 29, 2020
1
I saw that some business owners were writing graffiti on their windows that they were a black or minority-owned business, but I can see how that would make little difference to some violent people.. I agree with you on that barjoe, it is senseless. Makes much more sense to burn cop cars or a police station, both of which they did...
Greed.
@TomMcGiverin Many of the looters don't care about what makes sense. They stole a lot of merchandise and liquor. Some not most but some looters don't even care about George Lloyd they used this tragedy as an opportunity to steal.
@barjoe I know. It's been going on ever since the history of riots..
MLK Quote
@linxminx Saw plenty of white faces in the crowd in Minneapolis. That is encouraging.
Burn baby burn!
davknight
Level 8
May 29, 2020
2
I can't in good conscience support that, but I sure do understand it.
There could b innocent people being held in there.
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