Tag: Civil Disobedience

A New Word–Antifa

There is a new word that is making the rounds in news reports that the media is trying to slyly blame for the violence.

The word is “ANTIFA” (caps for effect only)…..

Read and learn

It came about in 2017 in Charlottesville when protesters clashed with bigot white boys….and the media went batcrap crazy with news of these clashes…..my thoughts on Charlottesville–2017…..https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/antifa-out-of-the-shadows/

Personally I was pleased to see these folks show up and take on the fascist scum….and now the word ANTIFA is once again in the news……and once again the old professor will help you understand these protesters.

The group that Donald the Orange has decided he will add to the terrorism list….a foolish threat from a foolish immature toad.

But who are these people/groups?

There many ways to tell who the people are and what they want….most of the definitions are not accurate but they will be used ad nauseum….like this one…

The anti-fascist protest movement known as antifa gained new prominence in the United States after the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in August 2017. In Charlottesville and at many subsequent events held by white supremacists or right-wing extremists, antifa activists have aggressively confronted what they believe to be authoritarian movements and groups. While most counter-protestors tend to be peaceful, there have been several instances where encounters between antifa and the far-right have turned violent.

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/who-are-antifa

Online battles between far right groups and anti-fascists – or “Antifa” – are now regularly spilling out onto the streets of America. But who are Antifa and what do they represent? Anisa Subedar and Mike Wendling went to the West coast of America to find out for Seriously… podcast Political Violence in America. Here are seven facts you need to know.

1. How long have Antifa been around?

Some Antifa groups date the origins of their movement to fights against European fascists in the 1920s and 1930s. Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, says the modern American Antifa movement began in the 1980s with a group called Anti-Racist Action. Its members confronted neo-Nazi skinheads at punk gigs in the American Midwest and elsewhere. By the early 2000s the Antifa movement was mostly dormant – until the rise of Donald Trump and the alt-right.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/X56rQkDgd0qqB7R68t6t7C/seven-things-you-need-to-know-about-antifa

There is lots of disinformation about Antifa circling the social media accounts.

A compilation of arguments addressing some of the claims and conspiracy theories that have been circulating about “outside agitators” and “ANTIFA” in recent days. These were originally posted as social media threads by Crimethinc and It’s Going Down.

https://libcom.org/news/outside-agitators-antifa-conspiracy-theories-disinformation-01062020

This is another example of the far right’s attempts to discredit Antifa….

As if tensions weren’t high enough with the George Floyd protests taking place across America, an ominous message circulated Sunday night that seemed to hint at more violence to come—and it appeared to be linked to antifa. “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” the @ANTIFA_US account said in the tweet. “Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas … and we take what’s ours.” That account has since been suspended by Twitter, and NBC News reports that it was fake. It wasn’t tied to anyone involved with the antifa movement, but to Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group that Twitter has had to contend with before regarding fraudulent accounts, per a Twitter spokesperson. “This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts,” a Twitter rep tells Axios.

“We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter rules,” the rep adds. NBC notes there was other misinformation that started circulating Sunday night revolving around a supposed “cover-up” or “blackout” of DC protests, but that was also a hoax.

I have defended the actions of Antifa and now it is good to see someone else doing the same…..

Antifa is once again being attacked by elements of the right, elements of the Left and the center. Those on the right see an anarchist anti-capitalist bogeyman. The critics on the left see nihilism and a misunderstanding of the definition of fascism. Those in the liberal/conservative center see an undefinable and unquantifiable element in the body politic that prefers violence to debate and vandalism to voting. All of these criticisms are both wrong and right. Precisely because it is not an organized group and has no politics beyond challenging those it considers fascists or very sympathetic to fascism, Antifa opens itself to these and other misunderstandings. There is no single spokesperson or committee to defend and explain it. Because it so loosely defined, it opens itself up to multiple definitions, many of which are lies.

In Defense of Antifa

By the way…..all that crap Trump spouted about Antifa last week was just, like most of his stuff, bullshit…..

The FBI’s Washington Field Office “has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence” in the violence that occurred on May 31 during the D.C.-area protests over the murder of George Floyd, according to an internal FBI situation report obtained exclusively by The Nation. That same day, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would designate “Antifa” a terrorist organization, even though the government has no existing authority to declare a domestic group a terrorist organization, and antifa is not an organized group. Following the president’s tweet, Attorney General William Barr said in a statement, “The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”

The FBI report, however, states that “based on CHS [Confidential Human Source] canvassing, open source/social media partner engagement, and liaison, FBI WFO has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence.” The statement followed a list of violent acts like throwing bricks at police and the discovery of a backpack containing explosive materials, which were flagged by the FBI under a “Key Updates” section of the report. The FBI has been issuing such reports daily since the weekend, according to a Bureau source, who added that none of these documents contained any evidence of antifa violence.

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/antifa-trump-fbi/

One last thought…take the word “antifa” and turn it around to “fitna”….kinda cool the definition of the word in Arabic….Fitna (or fitnah, pl. fitan; Arabic: فتنة , فتن‎: “temptation, trial; sedition, civil strife, conflict…….

Kinda fits huh?  (This should give those idiot conspiracy theorist something to work with)

Time to be a by-stander is over….either join the move or learn to live on your knees with Donald the Orange…..the choice is yours….I have made mine.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

So You Want To Protest?

A small how-to post…..in case you are feeling froggy…..

As an old fart that has several protests under his belt from many years ago in response to war……I think I need to help these so-called protesters out with some valuable advice about protesting……the one thing that I see missing for the most part are Protest marshals and needed medics (I am sure they are there just not very visible to the cameras)……

But here are some of the things you need to put into place before to step out to confront especially the police.

There are many ways to protests and nit all involve confrontation….

  • Rally – Protest event where people gather in large numbers to make a statement.
  • March – Protest event where a gathering of people walk together en masse.
  • Burma Shave – Holding signs by the side of a busy road with a message that people will read as they drive by.
  • Street Theater – Acting out a scene or dramatic interpretation in public.
  • Flash Mob – Showing up with many others in a public place at a designated time and doing a choreographed dance or song or action together, then quickly dispersing.
  • Banner Drop – Hanging and dropping a banner with your message from a prominent or symbolic place.
  • Blockade – Denying access to a building/place/street by putting many bodies in front of it and locking arms.
  • Guerrilla Action – Any kind of unconventional method (including flash mobs and street theater) used to disrupt the status quo or promote an activist message.

Now that the reason and type has been agreed upon we need to assign roles….

  1. Decision Maker & Communications – People who decide what should happen in a march
  2. Marshalls – People who will keep the marchers safe from police and other aggressive elements  (plus all security people need cameras to record those around them)(set up “spiders”…special independent detachments that will do what is necessary to defend protesters.)
  3. MCs and Speakers
  4. Media spokespeople (read this and make sure you send a press release in advance)
  5. Accessibility
  6. Police Liaison and Street Medics
  7. People flyering on the streets and gathering contacts
  8. Filming and photographing for yourself

People you will need to be as sophisticated as those that will oppose you.

This is a printable handbook for protesting…..http://www.toolsforchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rally-zine.pdf?4c19cd

Another guide that could be helpful……https://front.moveon.org/rally-organizing-guide/

Then dealing with tear gas…..

Image

There are other ways to protest for change….if street action is not your style then maybe you can find your voice in these types of change action…..

https://www.autostraddle.com/tag/be-the-change/

Keep in mind that your opponent has the “law” on its side….if you must confront heavily armed cops use your head….do not let emotions get in the way of working for change and justice.

Click to access Antifa,%20The%20Anti-Fascist%20Handbook.pdf

Be Informed….Be Safe…..Be Cautious……Above All….Be Heard!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Fool On The Hill

This Hill would be Capital Hill……

Donald the Orange has been beating his flabby chest like a sex crazed primate (my apologies to most primates) making sounds like a pathetic dictator searching for approval……

He has been making threats all to influence what is left of the morons that support him…..threatening to shoot….to declare Americans as terrorists….etc…..

… the leader of the entity that expects my pledge of allegiance threatened to shoot—specifically—looters. Before we go into what happened last night and Saturday morning and is on track to continue through the week, let me remember some historic milestones in looting.

“You Loot; We Shoot”

Trump invokes memories for me of COINTELPRO (look it up)….when he wants to label Americans as terrorists…..

Civil liberties advocates and progressive voices threw up immediate flags of alarm on Sunday afternoon after President Donald Trump threatened to officially designate “ANTIFA”—a moniker that stands for anti-fascist but is not, as informed people were forced to point out, an actualorganization—as a “terrorist organization.”

In recent years, the term ANTIFA has become a broad stand-in phrase used to describe certain left-wing activists—including some anarchist and anti-fascist groups or networks. As protests and uprisings have occurred in cities nationwide over recent days in the wake of last week’s killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Trump and other officials have blamed so-called “Antifa instigators”—mostly without providing any solid evidence—with stoking violence or carrying out property destruction.

After Trump tweeted Sunday that “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” critics immediately saw it as a blatant effort to use the authority of such a designation as a way for Trump to target lawful and constitutionally-protected free speech and the right to assemble.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/31/incoherent-it-dangerous-trump-threatens-designate-antifa-which-isnt-actual-group

As white America losses some of its support for social movements because of the protests….there is a reason according to shrinks that is….

New research indicates that extreme protest tactics tend to undermine a movement’s popular support in the United States by alienating both neutral observers and supporters. The findings have been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

“I’m interested in social change and progress, and was curious what social movement strategies might be most effective at influencing popular opinion,” said Matthew Feinberg, the corresponding author of the new study and an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto.

The researchers conducted six experiments with 3,399 participants in total, in which they assessed how different types of protest behaviors influenced support for a variety of progressive and conservative social causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the anti-abortion movement. They found that more extreme behaviors — such as the use of inflammatory rhetoric, blocking traffic, and vandalism — consistently resulted in reduced support for social movements.

https://www.psypost.org/2020/05/new-psychology-research-finds-extreme-protest-actions-reduce-popular-support-for-social-movements-56906

That findings can explain why then extremists are infiltrating the protests…..

As officials warned that extremist groups may have infiltrated the protests over George Floyd’s death, President Trump on Sunday asserted that the US would declare antifa a terrorist group. “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” he tweeted, after days of tweets about “LAW & ORDER!” and “ANARCHISTS” and the need to use the “unlimited power of our Military.” The New York Times notes Trump has no clear authority to actually do that, seeing as antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is not an organization but “a diffuse movement of left-wing protesters.” Even if it were an organization, there is no law granting the federal government authority to declare a domestic group a terrorist organization; it can only do so for foreign entities. (Politico has more on the ins and outs of this.) After Trump’s tweet, Attorney General William Barr said the FBI would partner with state and local police to identify domestic terrorists who are instigating riots.

The AP reports that federal officials and experts who track extremist groups have both warned that far-left and far-right groups appear to be at work “stoking violence” amid otherwise peaceful protests, and that foreign agents might be behind a disinformation campaign on social media aimed at increasing political tensions. One expert explains to the Washington Post that while the role of outside groups is likely being exaggerated by the administration, it is true that some people simply use situations like this as an excuse to loot stores while others infiltrate the protests in order to turn them violent and thus discredit them. That’s what some Minnesota officials think is happening, warning, per CNN, that white supremacist “agitators” appear to be attending protests in the state. But one expert says she sees evidence of groups hoping to start a second civil war: “They want to co-opt [the protests] in order to start their war. They see themselves as being on the side of protesters and that the protesters themselves are useful in causing anarchy.”

All this smacks of authoritarian policies and thinking…..and the protesters are not impressed or intimidated by the Orangeman’s bluster…..

Curfews, mass arrests and police terror have not quelled the powerful movement of youth and workers of all races and ethnicities in response to the May 25 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If anything, Trump’s fascist tirade from the Rose Garden on Monday, in which he asserted dictatorial powers and threatened to illegally deploy the military to crush the protests, has stiffened the resolve and heightened the anger of the hundreds of thousands marching in cities across the country.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/03/poli-j03.html

Society Was Warned……https://lobotero.com/2017/09/26/society-was-warned/

Final the words of the Beatles…..”The Fool On The Hill”

Day after day
Alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he’s just a fool
And he never gives an answer

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Only A Few Bad Apples

That is what some mental midget that works for Donald the Orange had to say on the news over the weekend…..I got to thinking seems that there is possibly more bad than good.

Just a very few of the cops gone bad…..but you will not know of it if you believe that morons that work for this White House.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1266963846649933824
 

Trump keeps talking and keeps inciting the violence to escalate…..

Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of working people and youth who have turned out in nearly 100 cities to protest the murder of George Floyd have themselves become the target of violent assaults by massively armed squads of police, backed by national guardsmen.

The nationwide violence unleashed against protesters is a continuation and escalation of the murderous assault that cost the life of George Floyd. The police are acting with impunity, fully aware that their violent attacks on protesters are supported by the Trump administration.

It is hardly a coincidence that Floyd’s murder occurred in Minneapolis, where President Donald Trump delivered a fascistic tirade last October at a rally attended by hundreds of cops. He denounced “far left” and “socialist” politicians, including the city’s mayor

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/01/pers-j01.html

Speaking of Minneapolis….since 2015 the choke hold has been used 237 times…..

Minneapolis police officers have used neck restraints at least 237 times since 2015 and have left people unconscious 44 times in the same time period, according to analysis of police reports from NBC News. The report states people lost consciousness in 16 percent of the incidents. Although some U.S. police departments have outright bans on chokeholds, the Minneapolis Police Department’s policy manual allows the use of neck restraints that can leave people unconscious. NBC News reports that almost half of those who lost consciousness were injured, but the records don’t state how severe the injuries were. The data also showed three-fifths of those of those subjected to neck restraints and who then lost consciousness were black—about 30 percent were white. The Minneapolis Police Department did not comment on the data. Last month, Officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes before the 46-year-old died. He was charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Read it at NBC News

Shades of Kent State…or so it would seem…..

A man was shot dead in Louisville after police officers and the Kentucky National Guard “returned fire” while clearing a large crowd early Monday.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said in a statement that at around 12:15 a.m. his officers and the National Guard were sent to a parking lot to break up a crowd.

“Officers and soldiers began to clear the lot and at some point were shot at,” Conrad said in a statement. “Both LMPD and National Guard members returned fire, we have one man dead at scene”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/one-dead-louisville-after-police-national-guard-return-fire-protesters-n1220831

We are asking ourselves….how did society get to this point?  And there is an answer…..SCOTUS (I have written on this previously)……

Focusing on racial bias also risks obscuring the fundamental problem: the Supreme Court has effectively given police a license to shoot, pummel, or falsely arrest ill-fated citizens across the nation.

In the wake of the Civil War, freed southern blacks were terrorized by lynch mobs and other attackers. Congress responded to Ku Klux Klan violence against freed southern blacks by enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to authorize lawsuits against any person acting “under color of” law who causes a “deprivation of any rights… secured by the Constitution and laws.” But in a series of decisions beginning in 1967, the Supreme Court gutted that law by permitting police and other government agents to claim they acted in “good faith” when violating citizens’ rights. In 1982, the Supreme Court granted government officials immunity unless they violated “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

The Supreme Court effectively added an asterisk to the Constitution that expunged much of the Bill of Rights. In a 2018 case absolving a reckless shooting that killed a motorist, Justice Sonia Sotomayor angrily dissented that the court’s decision “tells [police] officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.” 

Cops Kill Because We Gave Them The Legal Framework to Do It

This cannot be explained away as “a few bad apples”…..those “apples” have been fermenting since the 1860s….

Time for analysis is over…..solutions need to be found and words are not that solution.

Sadly Tribalism will keep this from happening….a party that depends on tribalism and a people that cannot see past their own white noses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump–This Is What Nazis Would Do

Yesterday Donald the Orange had to go outside and show his fascist tendencies and venture to a church for a photo op and use a Bible as a prop…..

After President Trump’s dramatic threat to bring out the military to quell protests, he walked from the White House to the nearby “Church of the Presidents” to pose for photographers while holding a Bible. He also invited his attorney general, national security adviser, chief of staff, press secretary, and defense secretary to join him for photos before he walked back across Lafayette Square Park to the White House. Some faith leaders weren’t happy with the move. The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, to which St. John’s Church belongs, said she was “outraged” by the moment and noted that Trump didn’t pray during his visit. “He took the symbols sacred to our tradition and stood in front of a house of prayer in full expectation that would be a celebratory moment,” Budde told the AP.

“There was nothing I could do but speak out against that.” She told the Washington Post the church was used as a “prop” and that she was not notified Trump would be visiting. And Rabbi Jack Moline, the president of Interfaith Alliance, slammed the fact that peaceful protesters near the White House were gassed and shot with rubber bullets before Trump held his photo op. “Seeing President Trump stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church while holding a Bible in response to calls for racial justice—right after using military force to clear peaceful protesters out of the area—is one of the most flagrant misuses of religion I have ever seen,” Moline said in a statement. “This only underscores the president’s complete lack of compassion for Black Americans and the lethal consequences of racism.”

Not to worry his words have been recorded for all to see in years from now……

In an act unprecedented in American history, Donald Trump has repudiated the Constitution and is attempting to establish a presidential dictatorship, supported by the military, police and far-right fascistic militia acting under his command. The Socialist Equality Party appeals to the working class and all those committed to the defense of democratic rights to oppose this criminal action.

Speaking on national television, Trump proclaimed: “I am your president of law and order… Our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, arsonists, looters, criminals, Antifa and others.”

Trump’s fascistic rant came only minutes after he ordered massively-armed military police to launch a violent attack on citizens engaged in a lawful and peaceful assembly outside the White House to protest the police murder of George Floyd.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/02/pers-j02.html

Is it me or did Trump look like his diaper was full while standing in front of the church….plus the Bible was upside-down…..if you cannot see any of this then you should not call yourself an American.

There is one problem with his lame ass threat……think 1878……

The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act places strong guardrails against a president using active duty military troops to uphold civil laws on US soil. Congress can waive the law, but it is not likely Democrats would cede such authority to Mr Trump given the politically and racially sensitive nature of the protests.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-george-floyd-protests-army-general-mark-milley-a9543496.html

What a douche bag…he still thinks that he was elected to have unlimited power with NO one to answer to…..and he surrounded himself with milquetoast sycophants that would rather spend time on their knees than tell the dumb ass the truth.

Look at this photo of Donald the Orange…..

Appears he is not sure what a book is used for….

(AP photo by Patrick Semansky)

Any Christian that supports this fool after this display is no more a Christian than I am…..enuff said!

One last question…what did they think would happen?

Did they really think that putting a man bereft of character, decency, and empathy in charge of the country wouldn’t make a difference?

Did they really think that dismissing each instance of his racism, bullying, fecklessness, megalomania, corruption, lies, and stupidity it wouldn’t have a cumulative effect?

What Did They Think Would Happen?

Here I want to throw a favorite Jefferson quote of those mentally challenged slugs in the Tea Party….”when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”.

I’ll bet your thought I was going to use the “Tree of Liberty” quote right?

Oh Hell I cannot disappoint…..”the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. it is it’s natural manure.“

Happy now?

We are witnessing a petty dictator trying to look like he is in control….being bully is not a strong leader…..it is nothing but a petty fascist struggling to appear to be in control.

Time to stand up or spend more time on your knees.

“lego ergo scribo”

Is It Riot Or Resistance?

American society has been once again awaken from the Dream by protests……and as normal it is because a black person has been killed by the police.

I am sure there are a wealth of opinions on why and most of them are out of the mouths of white people who have no idea on what it is truly all about.

So is it riot or resistance?

Let’s be honest…..your opinion will be formed by what you see and hear in the news….so basically the MSM decides which it will be….

The general public’s opinions about protests and the social movements behind them are formed in large part by what they read or see in the media. This gives journalists a lot of power when it comes to driving the narrative of a demonstration.

They can emphasize the disruption protests cause or echo the dog whistles of politicians that label protesters as “thugs.” But they can also remind the public that at the heart of the protests is the unjust killing of another black person. This would take the emphasis away from the destruction of the protests and toward the issues of police impunity and the effects of racism in its many forms.

https://theconversation.com/riot-or-resistance-how-media-frames-unrest-in-minneapolis-will-shape-publics-view-of-protest-139713

Now after about 2 weeks of violence the moralizing has begun….

The moralizing has begun.

Those who have rarely been the target of organized police gangsterism are once again lecturing those who have about how best to respond to it.

Be peaceful, they implore, as protesters rise up in Minneapolis and across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd. This, coming from the same people who melted down when Colin Kaepernick took a knee — a decidedly peaceful type of protest. Because apparently, when white folks say, “protest peacefully,” we mean “stop protesting.”

Everything is fine, nothing to see here.

Protest, Uprisings, and Race War

Some are asking…”But why all the violence?”

Vox took a look at that question in an article over the weekend….

Of course the protests are about George Floyd’s death. Political leaders fear violence at the protests — and any destruction of property or bodily harm is, of course, worrisome — but their concerns actually demonstrate the fundamental asymmetry that the protesters are pushing back against. The state has a monopoly on legitimate violence, and it is often directed at young black people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice — the list goes on. When they die, the police officers responsible too frequently face no repercussions because they are protected by the law. If the men who killed George Floyd go to prison for their actions, they will be exceptions that prove that longstanding rule.

Yet if the anger and frustration from centuries of racial oppression causes a peaceful protest to become “violent” — and most of the reported attacks have been directed against property, not people, though one man was tragically killed in Detroit — suddenly that other kind of violence becomes the dominant story so far as political leaders are concerned, a disruption to the natural order that must be corrected. The systemic racism that has led to so many black lives being cut short becomes secondary.

But it shouldn’t, because that’s the real problem America must grapple with. Otherwise, sooner or later, this will all happen again.

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275507/minneapolis-george-floyd-protests-police-violence

The most logical next question was how did the police get authorized the use of these choke holds?

Ever hear of the City of Los Angeles v Lyons?

We can lay some of the blame at the feet of SCOTUS.

Lyons brought a federal lawsuit against the city and officers who assaulted him. But that case, City of Los Angeles v. Lyons (1983), did not end well for him. Decades later, the 5-4 decision still stands as one of the greatest obstacles to civil rights lawyers challenging police brutality in cases like George Floyd’s.

Adolph Lyons was not the only man choked by a Los Angeles police officer. Between 1975 and 1980, LAPD officers used chokeholds on at least 975 occasions.

As Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote in his dissenting opinion, “the city instructs its officers that use of a chokehold does not constitute deadly force.” Nevertheless, “no less than 16 persons have died following the use of a chokehold by an LAPD police officer,” 12 of whom were black men.

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21274697/supreme-court-police-chokehold-george-floyd-derek-chauvin-lyons-los-angeles

This whole ball of hate has been building since the video of the beating of Rodney King was posted for all to see…..and the results of the results of the police trials of the ones doing the beating.

But to worry our “president” has a plan to end these protest…..

President Trump, declaring himself a “president of law and order,” threatened Monday to deploy “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers” to American cities, claiming governors and local officials had “failed to take necessary action” to end civil unrest.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-01/trump-tells-governors-to-dominate-as-he-shrinks-from-crisis

Just a last thought from CNBC…..American police forces killed three people per day in 2019, for a total of nearly 1,100 killings

Learn Stuff!

Be Careful…..Be Safe……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Both Sides Of Floyd

I am sure that there is a wealth of opinions about these protests that have ignited across the global……my favorite was that George Floyd had been a porn star….now what the f*ck does that have to do with his death? To me it sounded like a white persons excuse.

All that aside…there is like I said a wealth of opinions and these are just a few of the published ones.

Did you see George Floyd’s death on TV and mutter “Oh, my God” in horror? To Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, that sounds pretty white. But “if you’re black, you probably leapt to your feet, cursed, maybe threw something (certainly wanted wanted to throw something), while shouting, ‘Not @#$%! again!'” he writes in the LA Times. Bottom line, he doesn’t want to see storefronts destroyed, “but African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer.” Blacks have been pushed to the edge by murder upon murder of innocent people like Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, so let’s try to empathize: “What I want to see is not a rush to judgment, but a rush to justice,” he writes. For more opinions:

  • Deroy Murdock: “What do smoke, scorched aluminum and shards of glass have to do with George Floyd’s needless, wasteful and hideous killing? Nothing,” writes the political commentator at Fox News. “Will this destruction help unify Americans in pursuit of justice for George Floyd? No.”
  • Christopher Mah: “The most important idea I learned from my students—many of whom have been personally affected by police violence—is that rioting is the language of grief,” the Minneapolis teacher writes at MinnPost. “There is anger, yes, but underneath it, people are grieving.”
  • Philip V. McHarris and Thenjiwe McHarris want funding redirected away from police to emergency response programs “that don’t kill” African Americans. “Now more than ever is the time to divest not only from police resources, but also the idea that the police keep us safe,” they write in the New York Times.
  • John Matisonn asks how rioting could happen in “liberal Minnesota.” But in the eight years after 1999, “Minneapolis paid $4.8 million in legal settlements related to 122 police misconduct incidents,” he writes at News24. “Police officers and county sheriffs were involved in 29 civilian deaths.” And former prosecutor Amy Klobuchar, now a senator, “chose not to criminally charge any fatalities involving law enforcement.”
  • Michelle Goldberg sees the protests as part of “a dystopian film about a nation come undone”—features nightmares like the pandemic, a frozen national economy, and armed lockdown protesters. “Some of the tropes are familiar, but we haven’t seen this movie before,” she writes at the Times.
  • Zaid Jilani wants people to “demand accountability for George Floyd’s death” without romanticizing rioters. At the National Review, he quotes Martin Luther King Jr: “I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt.”

MLK. Jr was right.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Violent Protesters

AG Barr stepped up and blamed most of the violence in the streets on Antifa Movement….about now most Americans will be asking….what the Hell is Antifa?

I have your answer…..https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/X56rQkDgd0qqB7R68t6t7C/seven-things-you-need-to-know-about-antifa

Or if that was not enough…..https://www.firstpost.com/world/antifa-explained-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-movement-donald-trump-wants-to-declare-a-terrorist-organisation-8432291.html

He as “Ball Boy” for Donald the Orange has stepped up to help make the protests political…..

As officials warned that extremist groups may have infiltrated the protests over George Floyd’s death, President Trump on Sunday asserted that the US would declare antifa a terrorist group. “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” he tweeted, after days of tweets about “LAW & ORDER!” and “ANARCHISTS” and the need to use the “unlimited power of our Military.” The New York Times notes Trump has no clear authority to actually do that, seeing as antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is not an organization but “a diffuse movement of left-wing protesters.” Even if it were an organization, there is no law granting the federal government authority to declare a domestic group a terrorist organization; it can only do so for foreign entities. (Politico has more on the ins and outs of this.) After Trump’s tweet, Attorney General William Barr said the FBI would partner with state and local police to identify domestic terrorists who are instigating riots.

The AP reports that federal officials and experts who track extremist groups have both warned that far-left and far-right groups appear to be at work “stoking violence” amid otherwise peaceful protests, and that foreign agents might be behind a disinformation campaign on social media aimed at increasing political tensions. One expert explains to the Washington Post that while the role of outside groups is likely being exaggerated by the administration, it is true that some people simply use situations like this as an excuse to loot stores while others infiltrate the protests in order to turn them violent and thus discredit them. That’s what some Minnesota officials think is happening, warning, per CNN, that white supremacist “agitators” appear to be attending protests in the state. But one expert says she sees evidence of groups hoping to start a second civil war: “They want to co-opt [the protests] in order to start their war. They see themselves as being on the side of protesters and that the protesters themselves are useful in causing anarchy.”

But you know how pathetic this action is…..why?

Department of Safety Commissioner John Harrington said they are contact-tracing the arrested and added that an investigation is underway about white nationalist groups posting online to encourage their members to use the protests as a cover to create chaos.

He said some of the 40 arrests made in the Twin Cities Friday night were of people linked to white supremacist groups and organized crime.

“The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. “They are coming largely from outside the city outside the region to prey on everything we have built.”

Minnesota Officials Link Arrested Looters to ‘White Supremacist’ Groups

For more on this occurrence….

Far-Right Infiltrators and Agitators in George Floyd Protests: Indicators of White Supremacists

And another source…..

White Supremacist Groups Have Been Urging Members To Loot Businesses In Minnesota

Quick to blame anti-fascist while the Nazis in this country get a pass on blame…..why is that?

For those interesting in the Antifa Movement …….

Click to access Antifa,%20The%20Anti-Fascist%20Handbook.pdf

I know why….do you?

Be Informed…..Be Safe…..Be Careful…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

Protests–Week 2

The death of George Floyd has re-ignited the racial tensions that have been smoldering under the radar……and protests have broken out coast to coast……

Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides during another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns. The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings, and ransacked stores, the AP reports. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands. More:

  • In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.
  • In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the city’s thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.
  • In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face charges.
  • In Los Angeles, protesters chanted “Black Lives Matter,” some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police SUV’s windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.
  • In Washington, DC, growing crowds outside the White House chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and other law enforcement officers, and at times pushed against security barriers. President Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the residence’s lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside with speaking to journalists.
  • In New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they made arrests and cleared streets. Another video showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects, knocking several to the ground.
  • In Minneapolis,state troopers and National Guard members moved in to break up protests after an 8pm curfew took effect, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to clear streets outside a police precinct and elsewhere. The show of force came after three days where police mostly declined to engage with protesters. It also came after the state poured in more than 4,000 National Guard members and said the number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.

Donald the Orange in true authoritarian fashion has issued warnings to the public……

Donald Trump has threatened people protesting the death of George Floyd with “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” if they had breached the fence outside the White House, where members of the US Secret Service are “waiting for action”.

In a Twitter thread posted after another night of protests and uprisings against police brutality across the US, the president suggested that US Secret Service members look forward to inflicting violence.

He also appeared to encourage counter protests, promoting “MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-twitter-george-floyd-death-protests-white-house-dogs-guns-a9540216.html

Then Donald is just begging for another Kent State (look it up!)

President Donald Trump’s controversial statement suggesting looters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will be shot by National Guard troops drew fire from critics, particularly from congressional leaders with previous battlefield experience.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-national-guard-troops-may-shoot-looters-2020-5

Then the Orange one goes to his sycophant in the DoD……

the AP reports that the Pentagon has taken the “rare step” of telling the US Army to deploy active-duty US military police units in Minneapolis. Sources say that includes soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Drum in New York, Fort Carson in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas. The orders were given verbally Friday after President Trump sought military options from Defense Secretary Mark Esper to curb the protests in Minneapolis.

Seriously?

It gets more like the authoritarian regimes he, Donald, so admires…..

How long before another “accidental” death happens within these protests?

Finally as long as we are talking about this authoritarian regime in the White House…..

A new study, however, suggests that the main threat to our democracy may not be the hardening of political ideology, but rather the hardening of one particular political ideology. Political scientists Steven V. Miller of Clemson and Nicholas T. Davis of Texas A&M have released a working paper titled “White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy.” Their study finds a correlation between white American’s intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule. In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-effect-new-study-connects-white-american-intolerance-support-authoritarianism-ncna877886

The future is anything but rosy……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Billie Eilish On Protests

I have been saying every time some protest breaks out that it ain’t over until a solution to the problems are found…..my words have been falling on deaf ears so when I saw this young performer let the words fly I was taken aback…..her words are marvelous……

As protests and violence continue to spread across numerous American cities in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Billie Eilish wrote an impassioned statement on Instagram to condemn white people who aren’t willing to engage with the Black Lives Matter movement. Or rather, people who don’t want to escape their White Lives Matter mindset. “I’ve been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately. I have an enormous platform and I try really hard to be respectful and take time to think through what I say and how I say it, but holy fucking shit I’m just gonna start talking,” Eilish wrote in all-caps. “If I hear one more white person say ‘All Lives Matter’ one more fucking time I’m gonna lose my fucking mind. Will you shut the fuck up? No one is saying your life doesn’t matter. No one is saying your life is not hard. No one is saying literally anything at all about you. All you [motherfuckers] do is find a way to make everything about yourself. This is not about you. Stop making everything about you. You are not in need. You are not in danger.”

(there is so much more….read more)……

https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/billie-eildeath.ish-instagram-on-george-floyd-and-all-lives-matter.html

Well said Billie!

These protesters are making the news about the violence and destruction and not about the issue of the death…..the MSM looks for chaos that they can analyze ad nauseum and seldom touch on the death/s….

I still wait for the real conversation on race in this country……so far we have NOT touched on the issue….we have analyzed it to death (no pun intended) and still it is a reoccurring problem.

Where does this end?

Well it does not….until the race question is addressed.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”