The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN last Monday, May 25

[Economizer]

The police are doing their job in trying to protect the lives, liberties
and properties of everyone concerned.
In return they get compensation, limited legal protections, and rights to defend themselves and other concerned persons and personnel. They are successful in their manners of action 99.9999 % of the time. That is the way we do things in the U.S.A. And, whether you are a citizen or not you get their best efforts. Even the
provocateurs of disorder are most likely to seek out the best police protection coverage for their possessions and their selves as they do their disruptive deeds!

[Bonnie]

One of the ironies here is that this current wave of protests was touched off despite the police department in question acting promptly, for once, to deal with the offending officers.  This is an URGENT wake-up call for police departments around the country to clean house.

But Mike Freeman did not act quickly. He needed rebellion to charge a lesser than appropriate charge against one of four officers. So not really ironic. Video of a minutes long murder, multiple officers assisting, onlookers pleading for the officer to stop, and Freeman needed rebellion to make an inadequate charge.

[spork]

I just saw a video identified as from somewhere in Minnesota, I presume a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis. Detached homes, trees, lawns. The only people walking down the street were police in riot gear randomly screaming "Get inside!" The person filming was sitting on their front stoop. A few of the police officers stopped, one of them yelled "Light 'em up!" and another fired some kind of anti-riot/crowd dispersal weapon several times at the person behind the camera, who had to scramble inside through their front door.

Edited to add: I found it online. Whittier neighborhood. The newscasters identify the weapon as paint canisters (I guess paint balls), the people being fired at were sitting on their front porch as part of a neighborhood watch:

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/light-em-up-video-appears-to-show-law-enforcement-shooting-paint-rounds-at-citizens-on-their-porch/.

Edited a second time: some people are identifying the uniformed, armed individuals shooting at people on their own private property as members of the MN national guard.

[mahagonny]

The police are doing their job in trying to protect the lives, liberties
and properties of everyone concerned.
In return they get compensation, limited legal protections, and rights to defend themselves and other concerned persons and personnel. They are successful in their manners of action 99.9999 % of the time. That is the way we do things in the U.S.A. And, whether you are a citizen or not you get their best efforts. Even the
provocateurs of disorder are most likely to seek out the best police protection coverage for their possessions and their selves as they do their disruptive deeds!

They won't always get it. The police have some amount of option to take sides. One example: somebody's car is vandalized.  Then somebody else gets a bunch of threats over the telephone, accusing them of the damage and threatening retaliation. The threatened party then goes to file a complaint. The police magistrate then has the option to make the charge of criminal harassment, or to ignore it, figuring the threatened person will be getting what he deserves.

[Bonnie]

I just saw a video identified as from somewhere in Minnesota, I presume a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis. Detached homes, trees, lawns. The only people walking down the street were police in riot gear randomly screaming "Get inside!" The person filming was sitting on their front stoop. A few of the police officers stopped, one of them yelled "Light 'em up!" and another fired some kind of anti-riot/crowd dispersal weapon several times at the person behind the camera, who had to scramble inside through their front door.

Edited to add: I found it online. Whittier neighborhood. The newscasters identify the weapon as paint canisters (I guess paint balls), the people being fired at were sitting on their front porch as part of a neighborhood watch:

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/light-em-up-video-appears-to-show-law-enforcement-shooting-paint-rounds-at-citizens-on-their-porch/.

Edited a second time: some people are identifying the uniformed, armed individuals shooting at people on their own private property as members of the MN national guard.

I think I saw the same video (one that sounds a lot like it). It is worth noting that the curfew order allowed for being on one's porch.

[Wahoo Redux]

The police are doing their job in trying to protect the lives, liberties
and properties of everyone concerned.
In return they get compensation, limited legal protections, and rights to defend themselves and other concerned persons and personnel. They are successful in their manners of action 99.9999 % of the time. That is the way we do things in the U.S.A. And, whether you are a citizen or not you get their best efforts. Even the
provocateurs of disorder are most likely to seek out the best police protection coverage for their possessions and their selves as they do their disruptive deeds!

A lot of this depends on who and where you are.

Sure, we have literally millions of interactions with police every year.

Personally the police and DA in my state of origin helped my family out a great deal and saved my aged mother's estate from the predation of one of our own family members.  I have always been very grateful.  I even got a phone call from a detective who noticed my mother's heating system had broken down.  Great people.  We are white and middle-class.  Still, for us the police worked exactly as they were supposed to, even to the treatment of the poor, mentally-ill, drug-addicted family member going after my mom's checking account.  They protected and served.

At the same time, we cannot forget the egregious, atrocious abuses and simply pretend these are not symptomatic of an essential problem in our society.

[mahagonny]

President Trump has been advised that the most injurious and provocative of the "demonstrators" are the "ANTIFA". It has been supposed in the press that term means "anti-Facists". So who the heck are the Facists?

Anyone Antifa dislikes, by definition.

Well, the future. They believe that it's like the frog in boiling water. Once the fascist doctrine shows its real face, it's already a forgone conclusion.
I have a friend who says 'if trump is reelected in 2020, say goodbye to elections.'
If Trump had lived in 1930's Germany, he would have risen through the ranks of government.

[Wahoo Redux]

If Trump had lived in 1930's Germany, he would have risen through the ranks of government.

Military parade, anyone?

Thank God America is stronger than that.

We hope.

[Parasaurolophus]

They believe that it's like the frog in boiling water.

FWIW, those frogs were lobotomized. If you put non-lobotomized frogs into a pot of water and slowly heat it, they jump out long before it boils them to death.

[mahagonny]

They believe that it's like the frog in boiling water.

FWIW, those frogs were lobotomized. If you put non-lobotomized frogs into a pot of water and slowly heat it, they jump out long before it boils them to death.

didn't know that, thank you.

Shouldn't attending a second Trump rally count as a lobotomy?

[Diogenes]

The police are doing their job in trying to protect the lives, liberties
and properties of everyone concerned.
In return they get compensation, limited legal protections, and rights to defend themselves and other concerned persons and personnel. They are successful in their manners of action 99.9999 % of the time. That is the way we do things in the U.S.A. And, whether you are a citizen or not you get their best efforts. Even the
provocateurs of disorder are most likely to seek out the best police protection coverage for their possessions and their selves as they do their disruptive deeds!

I'll start by saying that I do not condone the fringe activity of the looters and vandalizers.

But the police are not doing their job- in most cases they are escalating the conflict in their approach rolling in with military gear. And causing more of a scene.

When the police treat the protestors with respect and carve out a space for them to do it safely, less violence and vandalism happens. They don't start flipping cop cars when the police take their helmets off and treat them with respect.

[Parasaurolophus]

The police response has been nothing short of horrific. I assume you've all seen and heard about it already, but it's worth posting for anyone who missed it: in NYC, the police drove SUVs into the protesters (mercifully, it seems that nobody was seriously injured). De Blasio was all for it, too, until moments ago.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, someone drove a tanker truck into a crowd of protesters. Some protesters surrounded the driver to prevent his being seriously hurt and escorted him to the police, who then promptly pepper-sprayed his rescuers.

In St. Louis, a FedEx truck tried to drive through a blockade and dragged and killed one person.

[mahagonny]

l

[mamselle]

I was heartened, in the midst of the terrible things reported above, to see this:

   https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/06/01/amanpour-houston-art-acevedo-george-floyd.cnn

This is the police chief of Houston, where the Floyd's family still live.

Such a difference.

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

Addendum: I'm seeing reports that in addition to NYC, police in Boston, LA, and Lakeland (OH) drove vehicles into crowds. (I've not yet found a news source directly confirming the Boston and Lakeland incidents, just others referring to them and some Twitter videos.)

I just can't even.