[News] Protests Against Police Violence After Death of George Floyd

Discuss police violence, the victims of police violence (including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), the Black-led protests against said violence, and related topics.

Super long thread live-tweeting Portland protest and Tear Gas Ted last night:

https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/st...

Op-Ed, The Atlantic: Trump Is Putting On a Show in Portland

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Why has this been allowed to happen? Any rank amateur could have predicted that unprepared troops with guns would increase tension and prolong the crisis. The people in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security who have sent employees of ICE and the Coast Guard into Portland surely knew that they would make people angrier. But although the administration’s behavior makes no sense as law enforcement, it makes perfect sense as a new kind of campaign tactic.

I finally forced myself to watch the actual video of the murder. I told myself I couldn't handle it. It's just so gross. I can't even. I knew it was that.

I've been watching Robert Evans' live feed (@iwriteok) tonight from the protests here in Portland. It's f*cked up.

Oh my god. The protesters just hit them with silly string.

Sweet jesus. The irony of federal officers taking a cue from the protesters to use leaf blowers to blow tear gas back into protesters is f*ckING insane.

This is not okay.

Riot Ribs, the homeless-operated, donation-based free bbq pop-up that’s been feeding the Portland protests for most of July announced last night that they are no longer taking donations because in the two and a half weeks they’ve been in operation they’ve raised over 300k and can’t possible spend all that money on food. They are planning on using the money to expand their operations beyond just the park in front of the Justice Center.

This is my town and it's painful to see the violence against the peaceful protests. I'm not going to debate the criminal few in the protests because the nightly violence against the mass of peaceful protests outweighs it a hundred fold. I found this video and thought it did a good job of capturing many of the images I've seen from my friends and neighbors who've been out there many nights.

I hope you might share it too.

Quoting from the Portland Mercury:
"Cecilia Brown is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Portland. She recently finished producing season four of Listeners Podcast, and in 2020 was named Best Oregon Filmmaker by the McMinnville Film Festival for her short documentary Root Shocked. She's also interested in stories related to immigration, race, and health, and in this short video, Cecilia documents night 54 of Portland's protests that went down on Monday, July 20. There's a beautiful, lyrical quality to Cecilia's work that's rarely seen in ordinary protest coverage, which makes this video one to watch."

Link to the video of Night 54 at the Portland Protest

A fire was started at the construction site of the youth jail. Police shot tear gas and flash bombs down a empty street nowhere near the jail. I have no idea what that was about. A couple of stores were damaged. A few people were beat up. Large amount of peaceful people marching. Mail is no longer being delivered to safe streets for reasons. Seattle

Oh you might be wondering what the deal is with safe streets. Well since people and kids have to stay home the officials thought it would be a good idea to declare some streets no car zones except for locals and business. The Post Office has now decided not to deliver mail to homes and businesses on these streets. People are MAD.

So on the police twitter feed they said explosions damaged the police station. Of coarse this is the same police department that claimed candles were explosives and the candles were from a display they destroyed.

Well there was the fake pipe bomb. And terrorists trying to destroy a the federal courthouse with ... fireworks. Who can believe anything they say.

I'm not sure what the hell they're doing in Portland or Seattle, but I don't find a lot to disagree with in what ED Mondainé is saying here.

Can’t speak for Seattle but that’s been a criticism since day one here and I think it has to do more with how the protests are being covered more than the protests themselves. People here have done a fairly decent job of keeping black voices at the forefront of the protests and the atmosphere and demands during the peaceful moments hasn’t fundamentally changed, yet most of the stories hitting the national media have really only been about white and white-passing people. That’s probably partially caused by how homogenous Oregon is, but its mostly just about passive racism in the media.

Also, and this is a total tangent, but I only learned recently that the March on Washington had many of the same tensions around it that you're seeing replicated today in various BLM protests. Specifically, that some thought it was too conciliatory and weak, i.e. - "If you're asking the police/government for permission to demand equality, you've already failed," etc.

No real take there, just interesting to learn that these dynamics aren't new.

The birth of a militia: how an armed group polices Black Lives Matter protests

Utah Citizens’ Alarm has since organized regular military-style trainings for its members. Robertson says he has been tipped off “by secret sources within the government and law enforcement” that underground organizations like antifa are being funded by Isis, and are using groups like BLM to wreak havoc in the community to destroy American cities and ideals. Even if none of these theories stand up to scrutiny, he is dead set on not letting it happen.

IMAGE(https://media.tenor.com/images/d5bf88bc9a61b4720efd6723611e0aaf/tenor.gif)

Yes, ISIL, the organization that blew up historic sites in Syria is now doing the same in America with... *checks notes*... paint.

I'm just trying to wonder where you'd have to reach a point in your brain to think that ISIL was funding Antifa and BLM. Like, it's paranoid bingo, and also the reason why QAnon is slowly becoming the norm for Republicans.

ISIL, which has its genesis in Abu Ghraib, funded by the hobby lobby folks buying looted artifacts, has finally decided to wreck havoc on Portland, a city they definitely know about.

I was always confused by the small towns in America who were sure that the local mall was a foreign terrorist target. (I'm pretty sure some of it was just for getting funding based on relabeled lists of Soviet cold war targets.) The World Trade Center made sense as a target from an international point of view (in New York, represents the US's position in world finance, etc.) But stuff that Americans see as significant doesn't really line up with what non-Americans see as important--it takes a homegrown white supremacist bomber to see Oklahoma City as a target.

Prederick wrote:

I'm just trying to wonder where you'd have to reach a point in your brain to think that ISIL was funding Antifa and BLM. Like, it's paranoid bingo, and also the reason why QAnon is slowly becoming the norm for Republicans.

The fluoride in the water, it makes people believe crazy things!

Gremlin wrote:

I was always confused by the small towns in America who were sure that the local mall was a foreign terrorist target. (I'm pretty sure some of it was just for getting funding based on relabeled lists of Soviet cold war targets.) The World Trade Center made sense as a target from an international point of view (in New York, represents the US's position in world finance, etc.) But stuff that Americans see as significant doesn't really line up with what non-Americans see as important--it takes a homegrown white supremacist bomber to see Oklahoma City as a target.

If there’s a mall (or community center, or decently-sized lake, etc) in a small town it’s probably the only thing to do in a few hours radius of that town so it’s given outsized importance by the locals because it constitutes most of their social life. When I was in high school my friend group drove three hours to Madison WI most weekends during the summer because it was the closest city with anything to do beyond sitting in a field and drinking.

This all is not going well.

This YouTube channel has some of the best legal analysis of police interaction video I have seen so far. This particular encounter really drives home how inadequate our investment in proper policing is. And how much we pay for all the wrong things.

Whoever had Ammon Bundy comes out as Pro-BLM and Defund the Police on your card, please come down and collect your winnings.

IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/1t8nCtSj/9-DE75234-AF56-42-CB-9-C09-15-CB033-B5-AFE.jpg)

*sigh*

Finally watched 13th on Netflix. Knew most of it which is why it took us so long to watch, and I knew it was gonna be brutal. It's really rough to watch. I think I mentioned I finally watched the full murder of George Floyd recently too. It's so incomprehensible. Yep. Nope. Bleck.

This should have been, “fired.” More proof that all of these, “acting” roles are a load of BS.

DHS official to be reassigned after intelligence collection on journalists

Brian Murphy, who served as the acting under secretary for the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, was summoned to acting Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf's office Friday night, as speculation grew that he would be moved out of his role, according to another source familiar.

So, uh, there’s this lady-type person who used to be Border Patrol. She has a Tweetzer and, well, she’s not so big a fan of her former colleagues and bosses.

She’s quoted in a Guardian article talking about “Bortac,” the border patrol tactical unit deployed to Portland:

Jen Budd wrote:

They don’t exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement. They view people they encounter in the military sense as enemy combatants, meaning they have virtually no rights.

Fun fact from the article I had not previously known: the CBP’s remit gives them power within 100 miles of any border, including either coast.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

So, uh, there’s this lady-type person who used to be Border Patrol. She has a Tweetzer and, well, she’s not so big a fan of her former colleagues and bosses.

She’s quoted in a Guardian article talking about “Bortac,” the border patrol tactical unit deployed to Portland:

Jen Budd wrote:

They don’t exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement. They view people they encounter in the military sense as enemy combatants, meaning they have virtually no rights.

Fun fact from the article I had not previously known: the CBP’s remit gives them power within 100 miles of any border, including either coast.

Including airports, and the Great Lakes.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

Fun fact from the article I had not previously known: the CBP’s remit gives them power within 100 miles of any border, including either coast.

Another not-so-fun fact is that about two thirds of all Americans live within 100 miles of any border, including either coast.