No Justice, No Peace

A reasoned discussion would be nice of course.

But there is no point in having a discussion when the other side are delusional nutcases.

Call your congressman and support the SHARE Act.

I don't find it at all difficult to talk about. It's difficult to progress because a lot of white people still believe racist stereotypes and won't admit to their own culpability in this.

I could not believe that a police officer would fire his gun into a car full of children. I was watching this video about car chases that end bad but when I seen this one I was shocked at the mother's behavior Then I was even more shocked at the cops behavior. Those kids will never trust a cop again. Can you blame them?

It starts at 9:40 and is 6 minutes long

BLM goons defeated again:

http://apnews.com/b0393e537dc7409ab731d578cc0caca4/2-officers-in-black-man's-fatal-shooting-won't-be-charged

Now that 57 Buffalo police on the emergency response team resign because two were suspended for knocking down a 75 year old man and sending him to the hospital, seems like an opportunity to find 57 new police officers who don't approve of assaulting senior citizens.

Its insane that they think we can't see and record what they do. I think its time to let those 57 cops go, period. In Buffalo and they're all white? Somethings wrong with that picture. I would also bet less than half of them actually live in Buffalo. They look like an occupying force. Cops should live in town.

The first official response by that police department was that in the confusion, the old man had tripped and hit his head. Clearly a lie. When the video of him being pushed went viral, they took action against two officers.

They've been arrested and charged with assault.

Good. I hope they replace the 57 other officers who quit their posts “in support “ of those two.

I didn't see one black officer in that "elite" group. Something stinks right there.

Dang, Bobsal. That’s a good catch. I just looked up the racial make up of Buffalo. Almost forty (!) percent black.

They look just like an occupying force.

Definitely a relevant point. But it also bears mentioning that part of the horror of the police behavior is that they very often commit their atrocities upon people who are compliant.

I've watched every moment of the George Floyd videos released. Other than about 30 seconds of mild resistance when the bald cop went to take him out of his vehicle, Floyd was 100% compliant for the last minutes of his life as a cop calmly and deliberately set out to murder him.

Floyd was moved a lot in the time after he was handcuffed, sat down and stood up walked to and walked back to one cop SUV to another to the side walk, to the wall of the store by the one security cam. The cops were calm. Just before they knocked him down and held him down the murdering cop moved his SUV up the street away from the security cameras. Thank goodness some people had the presence of mind to record the event from both sides of the cop SUV. Because what I didn't see originally were the two cops hidden by the SUV holding Floyd down while his life was being taken. That second video hadn't been released. I will be glad when they release the cop videos with sound.

Here’s a report about protesters locking arms to form a protective barrier around a cop from other protesters who were belligerent toward him...

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/06/06/breonna-taylor-protesters-protected-lone-lmpd-officer/3146530001/

Scant Evidence For Trump Claim That Antifa Is Behind Protest Violence

An Associated Press investigation into arrest records found that very few people were affiliated with organized groups.
Michael Biesecker, Michael Kunzekman, Jake Bleiberg and Alanna Durkin Richer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scott Nichols, a balloon artist, was riding home on his scooter from the protests engulfing Minneapolis last weekend when he was struck by a rubber bullet fired from a cluster of police officers in riot gear.

“I just pulled over and put my hands up, because I didn’t want to get killed,” said Nichols, 40. “Anybody that knows me knows I wasn’t out there to cause problems.”

Nichols, who before the coronavirus pandemic made his living performing at children’s birthday parties under the stage name “Amazing Scott,” spent two days in jail before being released on criminal charges of riot and curfew violation.

President Donald Trump has characterized those clashing with law enforcement after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer as organized, radical-left thugs engaging in domestic terrorism, an assertion repeated by Attorney General William Barr. Some Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, initially tried to blame out-of-state far-right infiltrators for the unrest before walking back those statements.

There is scant evidence either is true.

The Associated Press analyzed court records, employment histories, social media posts and other sources of information for 217 people arrested last weekend in Minneapolis and the District of Columbia, two cities at the epicenter of the protests across the United States.

Rather than outside agitators, more than 85% of those arrested by police were local residents. Of those charged with such offenses as curfew violations, rioting and failure to obey law enforcement, only a handful appeared to have any affiliation with organized groups

Those charged with more serious offenses related to looting and property destruction – such as arson, burglary and theft – often had past criminal records. But they, too, were overwhelmingly local residents taking advantage of the chaos.

Social media posts indicate only a few of those arrested are left-leaning activists, including a self-described anarchist. But others had indications of being on the political right, including some Trump supporters.

The president has tried to portray the protesters and looters with a broad brush as “radical-left, bad people,” ominously invoking the name “antifa,” an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure. Trump tweeted last Sunday that he planned to designate antifa as a terrorist organization.

“These are acts of domestic terror,” Trump said in a Rose Garden speech Monday, moments before heavily armed troops and riot police advanced without warning on the largely peaceful protesters across the street from the White House.

Barr, put in charge of organizing the police and military response, activated the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force last weekend to target protest organizers.

“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” Barr said in a statement issued Sunday.

Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night. The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

“I don’t see any indication that there were any white supremest groups mixing in. This is an ANTIFA Organization. It seems that the first time we saw it in a major way was Occupy Wall Street. It’s the same mindset.” @kilmeade @foxandfriends TRUE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2020

There have been violent acts, including property destruction and theft. Police officers and protesters have been seriously injured and killed. But federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that antifa-aligned protesters could be behind a movement that has appeared nearly simultaneously in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Floyd’s death.

The AP obtained copies of daily confidential “Intelligence Notes” distributed this past week to local enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security that repeat, without citing evidence, that “organized violent opportunists — including suspected anarchist extremists — could increasingly perpetrate nationwide targeting of law enforcement and critical infrastructure.”

“We lack detailed reporting indicating the level of organization and planning by some violent opportunists and assess that most of the violence to date has been loosely organized on a level seen with previous widespread outbreaks of violence at lawful protests,” the assessment for Monday says.

The following day, the assessment noted “several uncorroborated reports of bricks being pre-staged at planned protest venues nationwide.”
Law enforcement officers stand in formation along Lake Street near Hiawatha Ave. as fires burned after a night of unrest and

“Although we have been unable to verify the reporting through official channels, the staging of improvised weapons at planned events is a common tactic used by violent opportunists,” the Tuesday assessment says.

But social media posts warning that stacks of bricks have been left at protest sites in Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles have been debunked by local officials who have explained that the masonry was out in the open before the protests or was for use in construction projects.

Nichols, the balloon artist, hardly fits the portrait of a radical.

He recently gained local notice for a giant balloon rabbit and other sculptures displayed in his front yard for Easter. He laughed when asked if he had any ties to antifa or other militant groups. A white man who lives less than a half mile from where Floyd was killed on May 25, Nichols said he protested to support of his neighbors, many of whom are black.

“It was the most insane thing I’ve seen in my life,” he said. “The city was going crazy.”

Nichols said he and a friend helped douse a dumpster fire that near a laundromat. He remembers getting a text from his mother saying that Minneapolis had set an 8 p.m. curfew, but he thought it would be enforced loosely.

“Had I known that being out after curfew would be such a severe penalty, I would have never done it,” Nichols said, adding that he missed his son’s high school graduation while he was in jail.

Lars Ortiz, a 35-year-old classical musician, said he was driving just blocks from his Minneapolis home on May 29 after visiting a friend recovering from COVID-19 when officers pulled him out of his car at gunpoint. He said he had been unaware of the 8 p.m. curfew enacted that night.

Ortiz and another friend in the car with him were put in zip-tie restraints and forced to wait on a bus for hours before police took them to jail, where he would spend the weekend.

“It was scary. It was confusing. I felt violated,” said Ortiz, a cellist who identifies as a biracial Mexican American.
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Ortiz was held on a riot charge and curfew violation. He said he was told when he was released from jail on Monday the more serious rioting charge was dropped.

Lt. Andy Knotz of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies were deployed from the suburban county north of Minneapolis into the city to help with the unrest, said it was a “chaotic scene” and that Ortiz was coming from the direction of the protests. Knotz said Ortiz was removed from his car by the Minnesota State Patrol, and an Anoka deputy took him to the police station.

“In chaos like that you can’t determine who is legit and who isn’t,” Knotz said.

Natalie Cook, 43, who’s white, said she had never before participated in a protest, but wanted to be there to support and protect her 24-year-old son, who’s black.

“Not only did I want to go to be an ally to black people, but I wanted to go to support my son,” Cook said. “Also, I was afraid to send him out by himself.

Cook said they were marching peacefully with about 100 protesters for hours when police started using tear gas and shooting rubber bullets. As they tried to get away, they were pepper sprayed and her son was hit at close range by a rubber bullet, she said. They were both jailed and released on Monday, charged with riot and violating curfew.

Cook said her son was deeply affected by Floyd’s death and she doesn’t have any regrets about going out to make their voices heard.

“My son was really struggling with it,” she said. “We couldn’t just sit by and watch.”

AP filed public records requests seeking arrest reports and other documents that might show what evidence law enforcement officers have against Nichols, Ortiz the Cooks and others arrested in Minneapolis. Those records have not yet been provided.

In Washington, the D.C. Metropolitan Police arrested at least 81 people last weekend, including some as young as 13. Most were charged with curfew violations and felony rioting, which could result in up to 180 days in jail and $5,000 in fines.

Among the highest profile arrests made by federal authorities in the last week was Matthew Lee Rupert. Prosecutors allege the 28-year-old Illinois man traveled to Minneapolis to participate in riots and then posted videos on a Facebook page showing him looting stores and handing out explosives.

In one video, Rupert, a convicted felon, says: “We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for!”

Though Rupert is alleged to have targeted police officers, there is no evidence cited in his indictment he is affiliated with any organized group. Among the few indicators of his political beliefs was a series of Facebook posts celebrating Trump’s 2017 inauguration. “Trump is my president but I’m not racist,” he wrote, adding that he loves Mexican food.

Rupert, who made an initial court appearance Friday, remains in federal custody. A federal public defender assigned to represent him did not respond to a voicemail message seeking comment.

Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said people often travel and cross state lines to participate in protests and that not all of them have peaceful intent. He said politicians and law enforcement often cite the presence of out-of-towners to justify greater police force against protesters.

“It’s an old tactic for law enforcement policing protests to suggest that the problems are being caused by outside agitators,” German said. “It opens up the opportunity for greater police violence in response.”

Among those who traveled to Minneapolis to protest Floyd’s killing was Tara Houska, a 36-year-old attorney and member of the Couchiching First Nation from northern Minnesota. An activist for indigenous rights, she was arrested in Minneapolis last Saturday night and charged with not complying with a peace officer.

Houska, who attended college and law school in the city, said she was with a group a couple blocks from where Floyd died when police told them they were breaking curfew. They replied they were going home, she said, and then the officers hit them with pepper spray and zip-tied their hands.

“Almost everyone that was in our holding tank with us was from Minnesota,” Houska said.

Sierra West, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, said she drove to Minneapolis with a friend because she is “so angry about what is happening” with police brutality and wanted to peacefully protest.

After marching for hours, West she broke away from the crowds and was walking back to her car through an alley alone when police arrested her early Saturday on riot and curfew violation charges. She said she did nothing to provoke the four officers who confronted her.

“They were hiding, and they literally jumped out of the shadows with guns drawn on me,” she said. “The street was completely empty.”

West, who is white and describes herself as a strong supporter of the Black Lives Movement, was freed from jail on Monday afternoon.

University of Minnesota Law School student Santana Boulton, 23, said a police officer pepper-sprayed her in the face on May 28 before she was tear-gassed two days later and then arrested on Sunday, charged with unlawful assembly and violating a curfew.

About 15 minutes before the 8 p.m. curfew, Boulton said she and her boyfriend joined a large crowd of marchers on Interstate 35. People linked arms and kneeled before two lines of police officers formed near the protesters. She said she never heard any orders to disperse.

“It was nothing like a riot. It was a sit-in,” she said.

Boulton, a white woman who moved from Michigan to Minneapolis to attend law school, was arrested and spent 16 hours in custody. She described herself as “philosophically an anarchist,” but “not a revolutionary.”

“Antifa isn’t even real,” Boulton said. “As an actual person who identifies with the political label of anarchist, the only thing anarchists do is have meetings where they argue for five hours and get nothing done.”

Progressives are the cause of their own problems. Progressive problems are no one else's problem.

If progressives attack other people, those other people should defend themselves.