Not So Peaceful Protests

Question: When is a "Peaceful Protest" not peaceful?

Arson - Looting - Shootings - Murders Accompany 'Peaceful Protest' ........

Answer: When it involves, Shootings, Murder, Arson and Looting ....

Or so most of us would think. However for the African American community in the USA, the answer is the apparently not so certain, and possibly just the opposite. We have to assume that from the latest round of mayhem, that is accompanying the 'peaceful' black protests at the unlawful killing of a black man by Minnesota police in May 2020.

The man killed, George Floyd, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill or cheque in the Cup Foods store. The known facts are that court records indicate that Mr Floyd had two minor drug possession busts in 2002 and 2005, but which had both resulted in fairly lengthy prison sentences of 8 and 10 months. He also had prior convictions for criminal trespassing, serving 30 days in jail in 2002 and had served time for a theft in August 1998.

So he wasn't any sort of saint, but nothing violent. However in 2007 he committed an armed robbery in Texas, when entered a woman’s home, pointing a gun at her stomach and searching the home for drugs and money. He was apprehended for that robbery and pleaded guilty, and was imprisoned for aggravated robbery. But he had moved to Minneapolis in 2014, to make a fresh start after being released from prison in Houston and had no criminal convictions since.

So he was not wanted for any other crime at the time he was stopped and arrested in Minneapolis, and in fact was working as a security guard at a Latin American restaurant called 'the Conga Latin Bistro'. The police who arrested him said he had "physically resisted officers" while "possibly under the influence of either drugs or alcohol".

The Police Appear To Use Excessive Force Arresting Mr Floyd

 

However they continued to physically restrain him, even after he was handcuffed, and this restraint included an officer continually kneeling on his neck, despite Mr Floyd repeatedly telling the officer "I can't breathe." This situation remained unchanged even when he was heard asking the officers to stop, saying "Don't kill me!" before he became motionless with his eyes closed and unresponsive. He died without regaining consciousness, and after a video of the event was made public, Derek Chauvin, the police officer kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

The Now Normal Shrine Has Been Built ......

All this is not in dispute, and the arrest of the officer concerned with the kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck seems to be perfectly correct. I also understand the concern in the black community that:

• The police had acted like this in the first place (especially for a fraud / forgery offence), with apparently four officers required to arrest an unarmed suspect (even if he had resisted).
• The amount of force and restraint used, after the suspect had been handcuffed and posed no obvious threat or danger to the officers.
• The low level of the initial criminal charges against Mr Chauvin, after Mr Floyd had clearly indicated to the police officers that he couldn't breath with an officer kneeling on his neck.

 

But where I and others lose any sympathy with these legitimate concerns, is the response of the wider black community (and their white supporters), which appears to be to use these concerns, and this event, as an excuse to loot, kill and commit arson (never mind ignore the coronavirus regulations). 

National Guard And Curfews Across USA ......

 

As I have discussed before, I just don't understand why this is seemingly always the response in this community? All these chants of 'Black Lives Matter' look like a pretty lame excuse when its always accompanied by violence, looting, mayhem and murders. In this latest round of 'peaceful protests' a police officer was shot from a crowd in Las Vegas and is in a grave condition. Four police were also shot in St Louis (though their injuries were not described as life-threatening), while a retired police officer was shot and killed outside a looted store. 
  
How this violence and robbery is supposed to help black people, or assuage white Americans fears of black lawlessness is beyond me, but then again I don't think those carrying it out really care for that either. All it results in is yet more claims of amenity deserts across ethnic areas of the USA's cities, as its claimed that legitimate businesses move ever further out of black areas to avoid looting and robberies, leaving in their wakes, what some call 'food deserts' or 'amenities apartheid'. But this disputed claim, if true, appears to simply be local businesses responding to the threat of, or actually being, regularly robbed or occasionally looted in predominantly black ethnic city areas.

As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said in relation to the recent events, "The violence and the looting has been bad for the city, the state, and this entire national movement, undermining and distracting from this righteous cause."

Its not as though some black voices aren't aware of the damage this violent response does to any legitimate grievances the community may hold .... The Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. recently told the black community the truth of it, but was roundly condemned for his temerity and honesty.

President Trumps Election Picture - Boarded Up Church And Bible Black .........

 

President Trump has probably found one of his two election winners for November with this violent outburst, as his mainly white supporters watch all this, as their cities burn or are looted, and silently decide that Coronavirus (and its claimed Chinese origins), isn't their only election concern this year.