Hmm, are they accepting applications from people in Ireland?
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The goal is a state of perpetual outrage. This is clearly by design, because there is no set of circumstances anyone can explain where the outcomes people are rioting over will be eliminated. The anger over bad outcomes is real and justified, but I no longer have any doubt that justified anger is being leveraged to harm the country. I canât say by who, exactly, but I find it deeply concerning that weâve already responded to the violence in such a meek fashion and we have so many leaders siding with an angry mob, either by word, action or lack of action.
We canât have our cities being burned to the ground whenever someone gets upset. Some might find the notion of countering this with government force concerning, but the only alternative is giving the mobs âroom to destroyâ, which is a phrase Iâd never imagine hearing a US elected official utter.
Protesters in the 60âs were, among other things, working to establish equal protection under the law. Thatâs something most people will still agree on, and it has been achieved. There are not, to my knowledge, any laws remaining on the books that discriminate against blacks unless you count affirmative action and similar race-based laws and regulations designed to combat racism (whether they âworkedâ or not is another discussion).
That goal has been met. It was a clear goal, easily-understood and easy to pick a side on. If you were for institutional racism, youâd support black codes and Jim Crow laws. If not, youâd want them off of the books. There was not much room for rhetorical wiggle room or a nuanced view. The laws were that bad.
The problem is no longer the laws, but the behavior of individuals. This will never be corrected. As long as police and criminals exist in America, there will be outcomes that people will be unhappy with. This cannot be avoided. Thatâs not to say we canât improve, we can, but utopia will remain out-of-reach and a deeply problematic point of comparison for real-world outcomes involving violent, often intoxicated individuals.
As long as comparisons to utopia are considered reasonable and justified, there will always be an event right around the corner to riot over. It will never go away. If our leaders believe that âroom to destroyâ is the best option, society will unravel. It may be unraveling right now.
Once the mob takes over, thatâs it.
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There once was a height requirement for officers in my city. That was done away with due to alleged discrimination so I gather. Although it would have prevented me from joining the department, Iâm not necessarily against that sort of thing.
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The UK used to recruit 6 foot tall bruisers from the navy and army to swell the ranks of the Plod.
Combine that with the threat of the gallows for attacking an officer, and people did not mess with cops. Hell, you used to have UK bank robbers check co-conspirators for weapons lest they all go to the dock.
Edit: Mind you, the gallows were the compromise to ensure that our cops didnât carry firearms. Iâm pretty sure theyâll be armed in the future, which will possibly mean the UK will see higher incidences of police violence.
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Thereâs a protest planned this week here. The Chief has advised business owners not to open that day. There are rumors people are headed here in buses. Since the office I work in downtown has decided to close for the next 2 days (after just reopening due to the virus goddamnit) should I:
A) Sit on my front porch with my AR-15 âtacticool blacked-out assault rifleâ in anticipation of looters moving into the suburbs or
B) go fly-fishing?
Decisions, decisions.
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stupid entitled kids. police brutality happens and is dealt with.
What do you think should be done at a local and federal level right now? Should all protests be crushed under the boot of the military? Should protests be violently shut down by the military/police as soon as violence/destruction breaks out? wont that cause even more violence/destruction? We can only arrest a small portion as there is no where near capacity in jails and the court system right now.
Once a protest is shut down, when should the protests be allowed to peacefully commence again?
Its a mighty fine line that we are walking as a country right now between anarchy and martial law.
The basic, bare-minimum of what we ask government to do for us, the people and businesses who pay taxes. The same reason people organized governments for in the first place. To pool our resources so we can effectively respond to threats to our safety, security and prosperity.
Not unlike how I expect governments to keep the public streets free from feces and medieval diseases that can be eradicated by sanitation. Crazy, I know.
The riots must be met with force. There is no other way to end violence unless you allow the mob to run itâs course and stop the violent destruction whenever it peters out. Innocent people are getting beaten in the street right now, unlikely to ever get justice. Whatâs the death toll from the riots up to? Does anyone even know?
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So let the peaceful protests continue and have the riot police try and play wack-a-mole with the groups that turn violent and destructive? That is what is currently happening, but by the time police/natl guard respond the damage has been done.
The other forceful option would be to just immediately and forcefully shut down all protests. Which has its own set of very serious issues.
I only see local leaders trying to engage the protestors peacefully and in a constructive manner. Maybe if the more senior leadership of the country tried the same tact instead of fighting fire with fire and inflaming emotions things would begin to change?
I donât believe they want the status quo to change (they being the executive and legislative branches). All of 'em preach a big game (say whatever riles their base to get votes) but very few put words into actions. Many introduce highly partisan bills they know wonât pass but makes it appear as if they are âdoing the right thingâ. No one is willing to compromise and again nothing changes.
I applaud a lot of the local leaders I have seen engaging with communities/protestors in the news (the sheriff from Flint, MI is a good example).
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Sad. And meanwhile the country suffers.
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I donât have the answer to this, but it seems we are creeping towards shutting down all protests, violent or not. It is increasingly difficult to siphon out legitimate protestors from Antifa and/or people who are just taking advantage of a situation to cause damage.
I agree, asking the rioters to stop in a polite, understanding and considerate tone should be option 1. If that fails for some unexpected reason, swift, decisive and proportionate force should be used to stop the mob participants from burning, destroying and assaulting with near-impunity.
I realize people want perfect outcomes, but thereâs nothing nice and neat about violence.
I donât mean to offend, but this is typical of the vague and completely undefined actions that so many people seem to be pleading for. Perhaps Iâm being unfair to you and others, but I keep hearing âSomeone needs to do something about the problemâ.
What can be done?
You are obviously not interested in exploring peaceful solutions no matter the validity, so i will again ask how you suggest we go about forcefully putting down the rioting?
Do we play wack-a-mole with the few causing problems and leave the peacful large majoritiy alone, or do we forcefully shut down all protests under threat of violence from the military? and for how long?
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Iâm a small government guy. I think the militarization of the police has gone too far in most cases. I think the war on drugs is a completely failure. Iâm 100% in favor of protesting and airing grievances.
That said, itâs really hard for me to get behind the movement (not the concept - I believe all human life matters equally) of âblack lives matterâ when 11 men have been murdered in Baltimore City since May 24th. A large percentage of those homicides are certainly black men based on historical data. Around 300 black men will be murdered in Baltimore City alone this year and thatâs been the case for at least the last 5-years if not 10+. In a city of 600k there are more murders of mostly black men than the total number of fatal police shootings of black men in the entire United States.
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Youâre making a character judgement about me because I canât explain a peaceful solution that youâve also failed to explain, eh? How very liberal of you.
How can a solution to burning down a Target be peaceful? The peace is already broken by the actions of the mob. What are you imagining might take place, in your best-case scenario that you are judging me for failing to explain?
Yes, we respond to violent mobs. Always. It boggles my mind that it is even up for debate. No, we need not suspend freedom of assembly to do this. Yes, there will be situations where violent people will be mixed in with non-violent people.
No offense taken. I think that it has to start at the local level (as it appears to be doing) and the concerns of the community affected (POC) must be passed directly up. The top down approach has not worked now or in the past.
I am ignorant of the problems faced by POC because I grew up in what is probably one of the most white bread of white bread places (my high school had 1600+ kids and only 5 African Americans that I can remember). So - before I comment what I think should be done, I need more education.
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Youve been a real arrogant asshole this morning with your belittling posts and insults. Im done.
This inability to explain a realistic desired outcome and a realistic path to achieving it is deeply problematic. Iâm not picking on you here, but this is why Iâm calling into question the actions of our âleadersâ.
We still donât know why that cop did what he did in Minneapolis. Perhaps he was an unrepentant racist with murder in his heart, ready to go to jail so he could have the pleasure of killing George Floyd with some of his last moments of freedom.
Maybe he cracked, like people in high stress jobs do all the time.
Maybe he thought he was doing everything right, and happened to be too stupid to realize he was not.
We donât know, but we do know that it wonât be long before another set of questionable circumstances comes up with a white cop and a black person. Will it turn out to be a case of good police work, like Officer Wilsonâs defense of self with his firearm? Or will it turn out to be a case of clear abuse, like what happened to George Floyd?
What weâre learning is that it doesnât matter. The narrative is what matters, and there is no set of circumstances where we can stop events from taking place that feed the narrative. All that is required is a black suspect and a white police officer. Thatâs proof enough of both motivation and guilt for any bad outcome that materializes.
Thatâs why the peaceful protesters in my town were chanting âhands up, donât shootâ yesterday. Facts be damned, the narrative is more important.