Civil Unrest Check-in Thread

We are fortunate and only peaceful demonstrations here, so far.

former520 said:

I think we need more guys like these. https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/business-owner-defends-store-during-scottsdale-looting/75-785f1952-bf9f-4899-84e3-6b66f7f51643

Stood in front of there store armed.  Caused the protesters to stop and peacefully protest as shown in video.  Maybe more armed shop owners will keep guard of their buildings, there will be less carnage.  If it is legal to shoot someone walking to your car during road rage, how could it not be legal to shoot them trying to break your windows and attack you where you stand?  

I had lunch around the corner and the salad shop that was vandalized (vandalize a salad shop, that will show the cops) is a regular lunch stop from the office.  

If you look at the people rioting (meeting at the local Mercedes dealership), they are all white privileged kids.  

 

Maybe another peaceful solution would be to give out the addresses of all of the arrested rioters/ protestors like they do with guys caught with hookers.  People could 'peacefully' protest at their homes.  Loosing the cover of being anonymous might change the way they behave.  

I'm sorry I prefer the situation here in Minnesota. Neighbors near the rioting areas got together with baseball bats and golf clubs. Using yellow do not cross plastic tape  stood watch.  
While several had guns locked up in their homes they didn't want to escalate the tension with firearms.  Besides we all know a Don Knotts type guy who gets overly aggressive with a gun in his hands.  Go into any gun club or target range and there is always somebody people shake their head at and don't want around.  

frenchyd said:

former520 said:

I think we need more guys like these. https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/business-owner-defends-store-during-scottsdale-looting/75-785f1952-bf9f-4899-84e3-6b66f7f51643

Stood in front of there store armed.  Caused the protesters to stop and peacefully protest as shown in video.  Maybe more armed shop owners will keep guard of their buildings, there will be less carnage.  If it is legal to shoot someone walking to your car during road rage, how could it not be legal to shoot them trying to break your windows and attack you where you stand?  

I had lunch around the corner and the salad shop that was vandalized (vandalize a salad shop, that will show the cops) is a regular lunch stop from the office.  

If you look at the people rioting (meeting at the local Mercedes dealership), they are all white privileged kids.  

 

Maybe another peaceful solution would be to give out the addresses of all of the arrested rioters/ protestors like they do with guys caught with hookers.  People could 'peacefully' protest at their homes.  Loosing the cover of being anonymous might change the way they behave.  

I'm sorry I prefer the situation here in Minnesota. Neighbors near the rioting areas got together with baseball bats and golf clubs. Using yellow do not cross plastic tape  stood watch.  
While several had guns locked up in their homes they didn't want to escalate the tension with firearms.  Besides we all know a Don Knotts type guy who gets overly aggressive with a gun in his hands.  Go into any gun club or target range and there is always somebody people shake their head at and don't want around.  

IIRC Minnesota is a duty to retreat state so showing up armed is an automatic no no. I won't even get into the ridiculousness of that. 

I'm safe in small town Ohio, some Facebook rumors of violence spreading from Columbus or ft Wayne too here but so far clean and clear. Was a small group of peaceful protesters in front of our courthouse this weekend. Other then some people being shiny happy people and yelling at them it was a quiet display.

It's interesting (and kind of scary to think about) how different things can be less than a 100 miles apart.

The Dancer and I headed downtown last night and joined in the protest in Downtown Lexington- I couldn't get a truly solid feel for just exactly how many people were there but there were at least a thousand and probably closer to 2k. Despite the number of people and what looked like the better part of the Lexington-Fayette police force being out in riot gear it was without any violent incidents. The biggest problem IMO was that the organizers/leaders of the protest didn't have a good PA system or other means to be able to tell everyone what was going on and what the plan was- I spent half the time trying to come up with a better way or coordinating everything in my head.

Yet an hour West on the highway in Louisville an aerialist/dancer friend of ours got flash-banged and tear-gassed by the police 40 minutes before the curfew was supposed to go into effect and there was one shooting death there. 

The Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Bay in Tampa was burned down during local riots. My wife and her co-workers eat there every Friday during the school year. On a positive note, a GoFund me campaign to help them rebuild has already grown to over $50K. The owner's son, Ricky, is a car guy. Note his signature line on the GoFund me page.

crankwalk (Forum Supporter) said:

02Pilot said:

My parents had people banging on their car as they went through one of the smaller cities not too far from home yesterday, but said it wasn't too bad. FWIW, my father inadvertently drove into the Rodney King riots back in 92 (in LA on business) and nearly got pulled out of his car by the same group that killed Reginald Denny, so I guess his standard for "not bad" is perhaps a bit different than others.

Is there an alternate ending where Reginald Denny was killed? I seemed to remember he lived and moved away from LA to get away from the craziness.

My mistake. My recollection centering around a rather more personal connection, the other details are obviously a bit fuzzy. Apologies.

First off I mean no disrespect to what happened to the victim.

 But What blows my mind is why is this deemed an racist act?

I asked several of my black co workers this question today. All had same answer, because it's a white guy that did it.
Ok, but why does that make it racist? Just because this sick berkeley killed someone doesn't mean it's racist, he's a sick berkeley.

I told them I feel the news and social media are the ones screaming it's racist and controlling the narrative. Most people understood me and recognized the only reason they felt this was racist because that's what they've heard about what happened. Some think I'm nuts, because it's a white guy that killed black guy he's racist. 
 It was sickening as berkeley hearing some of the guys explaining how they were raised. Parents teaching them to never trust white people, and to fear the police and government. 

And Being a father off half black children I wonder sometimes if I need to explain to my children what to do and how to act around the authorities. I really don't want to. I'm trying to raise them to see people as PEOPLE. 
 

Thankfully in my area that hasn't that much violence. Mainly a lot of white college kids.

Ive heard way too many crazy  stories today. Molotov cocktails, water, anti pepper spray being statshed in areas ahead of  rallies. 
Heard one story of a police officer that committed suicide in his patrol car because protesters had him trapped in his car. 
Sorry guys I'm rambling..

Hopefully one day people can just see people as people. We're all trying to survive to our best. 

Back from my bike ride.   Didn't see any of the looting that was reported on FB or the "local" Twitter "scanner" accounts, and I rode past several of the locations mentioned.    Home Depot and Target on 95th Street have both closed early, however, with a police presence at each.     There is a lot of misinformation out there.  Much of it intentional.

On the way home, I went through the Fifth Third parking lot to avoid the intersection at 95th and Cicero, and a black GMT Suburban without a rear plate came flying past me, around another vehicle waiting to turn west on 95th and immediately took a left on a partially blocked off side street to head south through a residential neighborhood.    Several police cars soon came through the parking lot, as well, but evidentially didn't see the second turn and went west down 95th.

As I was calling it in, a security guard came up who saw it all happen told me he thought the Suburban was going to hit me.   I personally don't think they were all that close.   Never did find out why they were being chased.


Stay safe, everyone.

Subscriber-unavailabile said:

First off I mean no disrespect to what happened to the victim.

 But What blows my mind is why is this deemed an racist act?

Would it have happened to a white man? Would that police officer have put his knee on the neck of a white man until he was dead? The prevailing wisdom - and I agree with it - is that no, he wouldn't have.

Marjorie Suddard said:

stuart in mn said:

Cooter said:

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I just want to remind everyone that this thread is more of a "check in and make sure you're doing ok" that a "let's fix race relations in the country". I understand anger and fear and that a lot of you are close to the events out there. We can't let this thread devolve into a political debate, not on GRM, it won't stay open if it does. 

Just think this needs to be repeated on this page of the thread.

Needs to be repeated again.

And again. This discussion is fraught with danger already. If you find yourself bringing other topics to this topic, then you are escalating it into an argument. Don't do it. 

Margie

One more time, in case people can't hear it on this page...

In reply to Cooter :

Eerily similar to where I live. There was a legitimate protest in ultra-conservative Longview (town next to mine, literally intermixed, they should be the same town) on Saturday that was calm and peaceful that a local facebook-based "news" organization kept trying to smear by saying that they were blocking traffic and moving towards retail establishments. Truth was they were marching around the civic circle in the middle of town and never blocked a street with multiple live videos to prove it (and prove where the "reporters" were and what they were doing).

Then last night the same "news" place started blasting that there were rioters in Kelso that had looted the Target and that the two Wal-Marts were shutting down out of fear. I drove around the Target this morning before my flood control meeting and not only did everything look normal, they were also open and doing brisk business. 

The weird thing was the police presence this morning was noticeably higher, along with really odd behavior. I saw four police cars this morning where normally I would see none, and six on the way home. Also on the way home, a young guy in a temp-plated Chrysler 300 passed me doing 90+ on I-5 after tailgating me so hard I thought he was going to bump-draft me, then slammed on his brakes in front of me (as I was cruising the speed limit the whole time in the middle lane). I called the police on the guy and he ended up taking my exit and as I was on the phone with them he blocked traffic on a bridge to get out and flip me off, and then he tried to ram me over a double yellow as he was coming back by.

I am starting to worry about what is going to happen tonight in my previously sleepy little suburb.

dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:

Subscriber-unavailabile said:

First off I mean no disrespect to what happened to the victim.

 But What blows my mind is why is this deemed an racist act?

Would it have happened to a white man? Would that police officer have put his knee on the neck of a white man until he was dead? The prevailing wisdom - and I agree with it - is that no, he wouldn't have.

The report I heard was that he was semi conscious sitting in his car (imminent health problem to begin with?) and someone called the police on him because he was about to do "something", so they responded by pulling him out of the car.

The fact that this happened barely a month after that guy got shot for jogging while black is just the icing on the cake.

I'm reminded of a story I read about growing up in the Great Depression. The author said frankly that they didn't know anything about it until they read about things later in life. Their father kept his job, and very little changed. I've personally talked to my parents about the civil rights movement in the late 60's and they said much the same thing, that they read about it in newspapers and saw it on the news, but those were the only effects on their lives and it was only later that they realized the scope of the struggle. 

Right now my heart goes out to everyone who is personally affected by this. To me and my family it's little more than images on a screen. Scary images, but far away ones. Please come to this thread for the support you need. All of you. 

... so... speaking of misinformation being spread around (!):

I heard that someone tried to run down a bunch of protesters on the freeway with semi-truck.

Looked at the tape.  Clearly the guy wasn't paying attention, came screaming up on the very thick crowd, did some maximum braking, had to stop to not run over some (tripped?).  Got beaten heavily for his efforts.

Lots of misinformation and distortions (see 2 above).

Word on the book of faces is that we have one protestor here in Podunk, KY. She's been walking around carrying a sign, in a sports bra.

I haven't seen it for myself, but it sounds like she knows how to get attention.

The unrest has gotten pretty ugly at times here in Columbus. The police are not doing a good job of managing the situation, and seem hellbent on escalating it. Instead of letting people express themselves they want to spray them with teargas and trample them with horses. The looters and smashers are doing a good job of targeting businesses and people that have nothing to do with why the protests are happening, including condos and apartments downtown. So far both me personally and my building have not been harmed. It's pretty weird to see the boarded up buildings and smashed glass on High St. I'm two blocks from High. Daytime people have done a heck of a job coming in and cleaning up the mess. I wish the trouble makers would just do their thing on separate days from the peaceful protesters. And I wish the cops would leave the protesters alone. Can we get a calendar up and running where the cops show up at the same time as the looters and the protesters get the city to themselves? I'd love that.

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

How do you know it doesn't happen to white men. When your only hear and told a racist white guy did this to black guy enough then that's all you believe.  There's plenty of times white people get treated the same way by cops, but the media can't run that story it doesn't make people angry. 
Im not saying there isn't racist acts out there and they don't happen. Just simply there's E36 M3ty berkeleyed up people that do bad things. 
Im just fed up with its always being a racist act. 

If a black guy calls my wife a stupid fat bitch and I punch him does that make me racist? No, but Id be willing to bet people would label me that.

Local rumor is that "they" want to have more protests where "the white people live"  and where "the police live"

As I said, online stuff, so trust appropriately.

I would not be surprised if some of "they" are sitting at computers in another country.

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

It makes me nervous about going to the rallycross, because I assume that columbus has a curfew like cleveland does, which makes things difficult.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

It makes me nervous about going to the rallycross, because I assume that columbus has a curfew like cleveland does, which makes things difficult.

Looks like they just extended it indefinitely.  I can't imagine it counts for passing through or the highways.

In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :

What is it?  Cleveland was 8 to 8 on the weekends, although I did see plenty of traffic on I-480 and I-71 at 8:30-9pm as I was heading home.

10pm to 6am. 270 still has plenty of traffic well past 10. Everyone is downtown anyway. 

dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:

....Can we get a calendar up and running where the cops show up at the same time as the looters and the protesters get the city to themselves? I'd love that.

OK, I hesitate to post this, but I was reminded of this:

Why to the cops show up early for the protest?

To beat the crowds.