A thread to discuss the police killing of George Floyd and the protests that have arisen in the wake of his death. No trolls.
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The Killing of George Floyd: Open Thread
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
The authorities are holding a press conference as I write this. They’re saying the investigation is still ongoing and encouraging anyone who might have information to come forward. It’s frustrating, but the city does need to build a case against these guys before it can charge them.
In somewhat happier news, protesters are gathered outside the killer officer’s house. At least three separate food delivery people have come to the house, learned the killer was the one who placed the order, and left without delivering the food. Ha!
@Ooglyboggles
Is that the unmodified cartoon? Or is the context different? I just can’t imagine Ben Garrison being on the side of a black person.
@Naflgar
Yeah seems to be from conservative news sites and his official facebook.
https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2020/05/badge-of-dishonor-ben-garrison-cartoon/
https://www.facebook.com/RealBenGarrisonCartoons/photos/a.731915903535389/3051599494900340/?type=3
And comes with this text blurp
MN AG Keith Ellison is on MSNBC right now and he just talked about the video of that shady looking guy and warned he didn’t look like a legit protester. It such a pleasant surprise to hear someone in that position be real with the public.
@Naglfar
Assuming whtm doesn’t eat my post for having links, it’s there on his official facebook page.
@ big titty demon
This is doing the rounds; and cites the relevant sources.
My opinion, what happened to Floyd was terrible and the officers involved in his death should be fired, tried, sentenced and jailed for his murder.
However, vandalism, looting, arson, threatening innocent people and their homes and businesses who had nothing to do with this, is not justice and no way to gain support or sympathy.
If rioters showed up to destroy and loot my home or business and endanger me and mine because of an injustice we had nothing to do with, their personal grievances definitely wouldn’t be my first priority.
@Alan
Ah, thanks! So he IS a serial killer. With the gradual escalation from group killing under pressure with a distance weapon to solo killing by hand and everything.
@Ooglyboggles
I see. Still surprised, but I understand a bit better.
Something worth noting is that in Chauvin’s previous murders, the prosecutor who declined to bring charges was none other than Amy Klobuchar. If she had pressed charges George Floyd might be alive today.
A really depressing and disturbing feature of this latest murder is, that like mass shootings, they seem to occur so frequently that there’s no time to process the latest one before yet another one comes along.
As well as the emotional aspects; it’s the impact on justice. I feel so much for the families. Each case just gets bumped from the news cycle; and I’m sure that allows perpetrators and their accomplices in power to bury things under the carpet. It’s like there’s no time to fully give each case the attention they deserve.
That really hit home as a friend had only just finished this.
I’m still on mobile so I’m not going try to link this time–there’s an article on AlterNet titled Far Right ‘Boogalo’ militants have embedded themselves in the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.
@ lindsayirene
Here you go:
https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/far-right-boogaloo-militants-have-embedded-themselves-in-the-george-floyd-protests-in-minneapolis-they-want-their-civil-war/
If our mansvoice friend is lurking; this is virtue signalling.
@Alan Robertshaw
Some part of me feels like this is a feature not a bug. The system is designed to constantly distract with new things so nobody finds justice for victims of the prior instances. By constantly distracting with new cases nobody fixes the underlying problems.
It also desensitizes people to the violence. If only one shooting happened per year, people would see it for what it is and try to fix the system, but with many people become desensitized and accept it as a part of life so fewer people take action.
The article mentions that antifascists are warning not to try to make common ground with the far right. This is a very important message that much of the left seems to be struggling with. Nazis are not our friends, and inviting them into left wing spaces does not deradicalize them. It just makes the spaces more toxic and unsafe for marginalized groups, which are a key part of the left. It’s like pissing in a bucket of water: you aren’t cleaning the piss, you’re polluting the water.
@Alan
Thank you!
There’s chatter on Twitter that the Auto Zone window smasher has been identified… as a St. Paul cop.
LindsayIrene,
Link
https://twitter.com/dyllyp/status/1266107862918377472?s=20
It definitely looks like the same guy.
Yup. It really does look like a positive ID. Good.
I live in a small town roughly 15 minutes outside of St. Paul. As I was walking home half an hour ago, a man on a motorcycle drove down my street yelling the n-word. For a small Minnesota town, my neighborhood is surprisingly diverse, so he knew what he was doing. Not long afterward, some idiot set off firecrackers, because that’s what our nerves really need right now.
I am so sorry to report this, in light of the comments re: “keep the killings coming so that none get justice” – there has been a suspicious cops-in-attendance death in Toronto of a black woman:
“Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit announced late Wednesday night that they have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death, which occurred while Toronto Police officers were inside her apartment at 100 High Park Avenue.”
Content warning (text, video): [not graphic but still upsetting – cousin’s video is near the crime scene]
https://www.blogto.com/city/2020/05/regis-korchinski-paquet-protest-toronto/
@Naflgar
And Amy Klobuchar is presumed to be possibly Joe Biden’s VP. I’d rather she not.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/4569647-protesters-breach-minneapolis-polices-3rd-precinct-set-fires-inside/amp/
Yep them police stations are burning.
@LindsayIrene
And now St. Paul police are claiming on their Twitter that the ‘rumours’ are false.
https://twitter.com/sppdmn/status/1266202225677910022
Trump is threatening to send in the national guard, tweeting that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” so that’s super great.
In a less grizzly but just as infuriating incident, I recently was with about a dozen of arabian in a train for Paris. I was the only one that cops didn’t check for movement authorization. That’s the same fucking problem in my opinion.
I am aware of at least two civilian killed by french cops because of obviously racist reasons in the last twenty or so year. In both cases, the cops got a slap on the wrist even through a rather universal public pushback against it (local riots plus general population disapproval). In France, the problem isn’t so much the judges protecting the cops than the central governement, because the minister dealing with cops have few to no reason to do anything but pandering to cops
That was the minute “the situation in at least one other country is at least the same general level of bad”.
@Ohlmann
Did you present the cops with your movement authorization? If you force them to check it “because they are checking everyone’s”, and insist that they really inspect, you can let them know it is noticed and not appreciated without direct confrontation (unless they choose to be directly racist and state that only Saudi Arabians need to show it), while wasting their time and temporarily keeping them from hassling other people.
@BTD : I will try to remember doing that next time I see smething like that, it’s a good idea !
Sweet Jesus. That’ll be like throwing gasoline on a fire. I don’t think the Day-Glo Dotard can be removed from office fast enough. Especially with fresh rumors also that he might want to have a “short, victorious war” (bitter chuckle) with Iran soon to bolster his reelection chances.
@Alan Robertshaw:
In the 1930s, the shirts were brown.
Freikorp -> 3%ers
SA -> boogaloo
I don’t think there’s much time left before it really hits the fan, based on the progression of events. Years at most; most likely, months, especially if there’s any major shenanigans with the election and/or with acceptance of a Biden victory.