WASHINGTON (AP) — After six straight days of unrest, America headed into a new work week Monday with neighborhoods in shambles, urban streets on lockdown and political leaders struggling to control the coast-to-coast outpouring of rage over police killings of black people.
In Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday night was pretty ugly. Sunday, however, protesters asked the police take a knee with them. They did and the protesters left at curfew.
In Flint, the Chief marched with the protesters.
Hopefully some law enforcement agencies are paying attention.
It fills me with a strange pride that so many turn out. The Radical Right should be afraid - they’re outnumbered 25 to 1, minimum.
Republicans: we killed our way into this mess, and we will kill our way out of it.
throughout all of this Trump is comprehensively proving himself to not be up to the job.
Trump is failing to be the leader of the nation.
The only thing that it looks like he is able to do is follow the instructions of his handlers & destroy and spread hate … through omission and commission.
Maybe one day the police will learn that when you create tension by making bullshit curfews (4pm in Santa Monica), order people around, and start firing rubber bullets and tear gas… That it’s not going to end well, and riots and fires and looting will happen. Because unless the crowds start attacking the cops, they’re going to take that anger out on something.
It’s really stuck with me through this whole thing. Almost all the damage across America can be directly linked to police brutality and stupidity in inciting peaceful crowds into action.
Interestingly enough, the US military in now asking congress for the power to expand the recall of retired service members to active duty- whether they want to or not.
https://fas.org/man/eprint/ndaa-2021-prop/050420-retired.pdf
I heard that 300 people were arrested Saturday night in downtown Houston. Some are still being processed into the Harris County Jail. Haven’t heard any damage reports yet. I visited a historic cemetery near downtown Houston on Saturday afternoon and drove by the central Houston Police Department station not thinking about what was going on nationwide. As I was leaving,they were barricading streets near the police station. Didn’t see any crowds. Don’t think the action started until nighttime.
Cops know that. They also know that riots and massive property damage scare the crap out of the Powers That Be more than anything else.
Its a massive, raw show of power by police agencies across the country.
One might even call it an attempted coup, when acts like this happen.
A post of mine from another thread
["The Big Con is always the most obvious.
Trump World has done a masterful job of turning 35% of the population into what appears to be a majority. There is a daily assault by Trump every day on the legal, moral and normative bases of our society. The U.S. Senate, representing about 20% of the population, is in the hands of the worst collection of Right Wingers in 100 years.
Trump is, himself, a huge WWF (Wrestling-for-entertainment) figure, one who divides and repulses but one who generates attention . This is important. Trump’s instincts are totalitarian and fascist, but there have been legions of dictators who have been low-key and mostly unseen.
We have been put in a wringer by Team Trump.
The difference NOW in his “presidency” from all the days and weeks and months before is that the death of George Floyd has presented him with a crisis worse than even COVID. So far, Trump has gotten the rubes and minions to suppress the horror of this virus. George Floyd, however, has unleashed emotions pent-up from not only the racism of Trump himself, but the racism the United States has always possessed.
@redpill thanks for your glimpses of New Zealand and UK…highlights racists here even more"]
Unrelated. Note that it’s limited to 1,000 people, and is meant for “low density” things. Like doctors and nurses.
And expires in 2022. This was a response to covid, not some military adventure to crack down on people.
That’s what he’s always done:
Follow the script.
Trump’s a pitch-man who gets the added bonus of satisfying the demons in his psyche… Imagine someone like Pence working the same pitch.
Or McConnell
Or Barr
“The whole world is watching” was a chant by antiwar demonstrators outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel the evening of August 28 during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
This was true then… but it NOW even more fitting The United States of America is hidiously disgracing itself … largely through the continously compounding ineptitude of the ignorant sociopathic egomaniac currently in the Presidency … but also thought the greedy enabling of those (GOP) who could stop the madness and cruelty- but choose not to -because they benefit from the destruction being done to the nation …
THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING … and judging … and is disgusted…
Oh, I know they know. It’s just I don’t understand what their end game is. They already know they don’t have the numbers to beat the population, and since this is happening everywhere, it’s not like you can just call in unlimited reinforcements.
I am scared for when the crowds decide they’re no longer satisfied with water bottles vs. tear gas and batons, and decide to fight back.
Really fear we could see a massacre somewhere.
I caught an episode of Joy Reid yesterday. There was a session of presentations of the MN Guv, Mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and various LEO and Nat’l Guard figures.
I understood what they were trying to do as they were patting themselves on the back. But I was one of those youngsters in the streets in 1967 and 1968, and, putting myself in the position and mentality that I had then, was not overly impressed with their presentation.
Its not well thought out on a national level, but its the same as every other authoritarian attempt at seizing power.
They have the guns, the military hardware and the inherent fear people have of crossing the police. Oh, and they have the legal system, too. They also have the massive destruction of private property they are inciting. Cops are essentially pushing the concept “If you don’t have police, you lose everything. So you can’t get rid of us, you had better accept we call ALL the shots”.
This isn’t a play against protesters, this is a play against city and state government officials.
You mis-read. The request is to REMOVE the cap on 1000 retirees.
Waiving the 1,000 member limitation on this temporary recall authority and the authority’s expiration date in time of war or of national emergency will increase the Department of Defense’s flexibility and agility in generating forces with the expertise required to respond rapidly and efficiently during such a period.
Given the unpredictability of war and national emergencies, such as the COVID 19
pandemic, waiver of the 1,000-member limit will better posture the Department to respond to unpredictable and rapidly evolving situations. The Office of the Secretary of Defense will ensure the amount of recalled retirees does not exceed the number warranted by mission requirements.
JFC, quit burning buildings! Think of the carbon and all of toxic pollutants you’re releasing into the atmosphere.
Shoot, you’re entirely correct. Missed that it’s specifically lifting that. Still a response to covid, though, vice rioting.
Other countries get these protests/violence too and from what it looks like the US was way overdue to hit reset.