Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

My friend specifically posted that looters should not target small businesses akin to what man alive said, and got taken apart for it, but i agree with the overall sentiment.

It's hard to tell who even is doing most of the looting

ums's posts yesterday were sobering in that regard, regarding the only supermarket left in town

I spent a good chunk of Monday night slightly anxious because a crowd was burning stuff near the shop - but when I watched the livestreamed videos, I doubt anyone involved was past their very early 20s and really why would they have any investment in the city/state/country/society. They're the cohort most likely getting fucked right now by the COVID depression, police fuck with them and kill them with impunity, they're never going to own a home and most likely will spend the next 50 years on a treadmill of chasing whatever shitty options are semi-affordable to rent.

Burning shit is what happens when people have nothing to lose and judging their choice of what to smash and burn feels like having an argument with gravity.

It's possible to both understand the impetus and recognize the negative impact of the act itself.

have not been feeling great about not protesting yet though I did monitor the scanners for friends who did the other day; that said, I have been surprised by at least some of my family's support for all this (there was one call yesterday I quite frankly was dreading but it actually was almost totally free of horrifying shit said)

I've been making donations to various bail funds.

Burning shit is what happens when people have nothing to lose and judging their choice of what to smash and burn feels like having an argument with gravity.

― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Wednesday, June 3, 2020 10:09 AM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I very much agree with this take, I just don't think it's to be celebrated, nor do I think anyone should expect that it brings us closer to dismantling capitalism. The people who will suffer most are also poor. The people who will suffer least are the better-heeled owners who have fat insurance policies and the better off residents who can flee for the suburbs, taking their money with them. We've seen this play out before.

Minneapolis City Council member:

I don’t know yet, though several of us on the council are working on finding out, what it would take to disband the MPD and start fresh with a community-oriented, non-violent public safety and outreach capacity.

— Steve Fletcher - Minneapolis Ward 3 (@MplsWard3) June 2, 2020

also FYI, Minneapolis has a "weak mayor" system so a councilman saying this really means more than if Frey did

On the mpls topic, here’s a good attempt at summing up the arson scene:

https://naomikritzer.com/2020/06/03/minneapolis-outside-agitators/

This video has been geolocated to the corner of Avenue X and W. 3rd Street in Gravesend - 6.5 miles from the main Brooklyn protests and 9.5 miles from the nearest serious looting in Manhattan. https://t.co/BiuUM47rHq https://t.co/SlXl5H6kH7

— Evan Hill (@evanchill) June 3, 2020

cops are such fucking herbs

Lmao Avenue x

I don't even know what to think about that location. Isn't it mostly Russian/Ukrainian/Orthodox there? What are they gonna loot, the schnitzel place?

these fuckers got caught with their pants down because they didn't have intelligence on the groups of kids of discord who did smash and grabs so rather than admit they dropped the ball, they've decided they're gonna blame protestors because why not

lmfao

Similarly when I go out to bars I take off my wedding ring, as a gesture of respect to my wife. https://t.co/SK2JZWwcGj

— TinyShortBunkerInspectionHat (@Popehat) June 2, 2020

I mean that is just straight up trolling, de blasio is truly a punk

the unmitigated fucking gall

looks like someone was hoping their demolition trash would be picked up for free

okay i flat out couldn't believe that so i dialed back and that tweet is from april 16, which is still unbelievable but obviously if that happened in the past few days i would take it as open warfare
i mean it likely was then too but

well it's open warfare anyway

"Sorry guys, there is literally no one other way possible for us to honor our fallen colleagues than by black bands that fit perfectly over the part of our badge with the number. That's our only option, so sorry."

okay i flat out couldn't believe that so i dialed back and that tweet is from april 16

Doesn't matter when it was posted, it's still bullshit that cops cover their badge numbers for any reason.

of course! simply saying that context matters. You understand what I'm typing and I understand what you're typing.

Oh no that wasn't meant in response to you ulysses, I think I was confused about why Karl was repeating that particular line.

weird for popehat to tweet that. i'm still not sure exactly who that is (i follow them because lots of other people do also and i figure there's probably a good reason). but they are surely smart enough to know that plenty of people would take it as evidence that "NYPD are currently covering their badges in the name of covid19 while violently suppressing riots". of course, 99% of that is true, but introducing weird fake "evidence" from months ago only adds confusion to any discussion about it. it makes things worse

and i was repeating that particular line, because actually, it DOES matter when it was posted

it's not a huge deal, i don't think anyone has bad intent or that popehat should be canceled or anything

i'm just saying, there is so much fucking nonsense and misinformation at the moment - i am not going to start pretending that context doesn't matter or that if you get kind of close to the truth it's good enough

Lotta people have been quote-RTing the @NYPDShea tweet, so I wouldn't assume that Popehat dug it up.

right, that's the concern. Anytime misinformation becomes common coin, we all end up looking like fools. they are corrupt enough as is, come at them with immediate truths and don't let them ACTUALLY you

"NYPD are currently covering their badges in the name of covid19 while violently suppressing riots"

Thing is, it doesn't matter when it was posted, because it still means "NYPD are currently covering their badges in the name of covid19 while abusing and murdering black people".

i guess the question is if that's still the case in the current state of circumstances and that's absolutely worth asking because if it is the case holy fuck

i don't know how many of these stupid Soros’s bricks conspiracy theories I've seen but they are all stupid as fuck

That's why I was underscoring that point, I swear I saw photos on Twitter of NYPD with these bands on their badges during the protests.

i don't know how many of these stupid Soros’s bricks conspiracy theories I've seen but they are all stupid as fuck

A particular favorite of mine is that Antifa uses Soros money to pay for the bricks, which are manufactured by Warren Buffett but somehow the proceeds go to Bill Gates' vaccines.

popehat & friends should retweet those pics, then

xp

Sources say former officer Derek Chauvin, recorded on video kneeling on Floyd's neck as he begged for air on May 25, will now be charged with second-degree murder. Other three officers will be charged w/aiding and abetting second-degree murder. #GeorgeFloyd

— Ryan Faircloth (@RyanFaircloth) June 3, 2020

Anyone else ever consider that "Soros" is spelled the same way both forwards and backwards, just like "Satan?"

I've seen shitloads of photos with US police covering their badges. They do it over here, too. When they made up the excuse doesn't matter, the fact is that "we do it out of respect" is a terrible lie covering up abuse. I mean, that's also the reason it's been retweeted so much, it's such a fucking bad lie it's absurd.

Karl, I'm as against misinformation as you are, but this seems a really weird thing to get mad at. Calling out the NYPD for publicly stating their intention to cover up their badge numbers is totally legit in and of itself. It's not like he made this up whole cloth, he's tweeting the NYPD themselves!

honestly not mad (tone is hard to tell on the internet - but i'm just sitting here making little fart noises with my cheeks), just surprised others don't agree. oh well, it happens

"And for the first time ever, there is plurality support for Black Lives Matter among whites. The protests have been an amazing successful educational experience for white America. These results are updated daily."

— Markos Moulitsas

https://civiqs.com/results/black_lives_matter

there's a name I haven't etc

popehat is a somewhat-libertarian lawyer who mainly tackles free-speech issues (i think he's called ken white off of twitter)

Naomi Kritzer otmfm throughout that blog post linked about 30 posts above, including this about the white supremacist arsonists that came to Minneapolis:

So why aren’t the cops catching more of them? I think it’s because they don’t want to.

Got called "stupid" today by a white Christian QAnon follower who believes George Floyd is alive and hiding in a luxurious hotel.

Wearing that as a badge of honor.

Xpost they totally don't want to

Antifa, why are they so bad and hated

Antifa is an organization in the same way that "people who hate the Dave Mathews Band" is an organization

— somecommandante gizmo (@somegizmo) June 3, 2020