The Murder of George Floyd and the Response To It

[elengil]

I was just thinking how absolutely insane this year has been in so many ways. Like... Who remembers the impeachment? Who remembers Australia's wild fires? If not for actually being under stay-at-home or some variant of, would we even remember COVID right now? Honestly, I'm just waiting for the news "and that's when the asteroid hit"

[Sunsilver]

The liar-in-chief in the White House, who claims he has NO PROBLEM with peaceful protest, just tear-gassed a bunch of peaceful protesters, so he could do a photo op with a Bible at a church across the road. He also violated curfew to to get there. The Episcopal (Anglican) church is furious, and so is THIS Anglican!

[Dave_LF]

Honestly, I'm just waiting for the news "and that's when the asteroid hit"

DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT. It at least looks like a hurricane will hit first.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The liar-in-chief in the White House, who claims he has NO PROBLEM with peaceful protest, just tear-gassed a bunch of peaceful protesters, so he could do a photo op with a Bible at a church across the road. He also violated curfew to to get there. The Episcopal (Anglican) church is furious, and so is THIS Anglican!

I was so appalled by that, Sunny, and I am not even a Christian. I can't imagine how anyone who is any Christian denomination could not stand up against this type of conduct.

[Sunsilver]

Of course, it was front-page news on Fox...

[Impenitent]

What is happening for Halofiriens? Your environs? Your families? What the hell is happening?

I'm watching and reading, and it looks like the gates of hell have opened, though I hope media hype is involved.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[yovargas]

For some reason I thought the tear gas statement was some kind of hyperbolic joke or something but then I see the news and, nope, that really happened. Silly me. Never underestimate Trump's ability to sink ever lower.


Can we please get the riot posts moved to its own thread now?

[Inanna]

Repeating Yov’s request. And Yov, I had exactly the same reaction when I saw that headline!

Imp, you know where I live. We are fine. JC has had peaceful protests. Our mayor marched with them yesterday (man, I love our mayor). Life is totally normal here - people are out, construction is on etc.

I *am* asking my friend, who lives in midtown in NYC, and stores near her are being looted to move to her in-laws in PA for a couple of weeks.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For some reason I thought the tear gas statement was some kind of hyperbolic joke or something but then I see the news and, nope, that really happened. Silly me. Never underestimate Trump's ability to sink ever lower.


Can we please get the riot posts moved to its own thread now?

I'll try split off the posts when I can.

[yovargas]

I wasn't thinking like a joke joke, I thought it was more of an exasperated "what's he going to do next, tear gas people by a church??”.

[elengil]

I wasn't thinking like a joke joke, I thought it was more of an exasperated "what's he going to do next, tear gas people by a church??”.

I understand what you mean - you think there is some limit that they won't cross, something too sacred for even them to touch, but it's probably best to put that concept out of your mind now. There is literally nothing they won't consider at this point to hang on to the power they can feel slipping away. Deploy military? Cancel elections? Declare martial law? Cordon off entire neighborhoods, entire cities? Shut down media companies? I literally cannot think of anything that would honestly surprise me to read at this point. Sicken me, anger me, terrify me... but not surprise me. .

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I understand what you mean, too, and I took out my comment (though probably not before you saw it).

[yovargas]

I understand.

[Sunsilver]

Dear God, this is heartbreaking.... :'(

Broadcaster Lawrence O'Donnell 'tells it like it is' and says without that 17 year old woman filming the police officer with his knee on Floyd's neck, charges just would have been dismissed, because they claimed he was 'resisting arrest'. He also gives more information I hadn't been aware of, how a bystander with medical training pleaded with the officer to check Floyd's pulse to make sure he was still alive. When paramedics at last got to him, he was indeed already dead - they could not find a pulse. I hope the jury uses that video to lock the officer, and his 3 buddies up, and throw away the key!!


https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/wat ... 6GpkwNziSQ

[Sunsilver]

Yesterday, I saw a post on FB that had been reposted because FB had censored it and taken it down. It had originally been made by someone who went to the St. Paul demonstrations to render First Aid, only to be attacked, beaten and chased away by police.

Apparently, the media was censoring posts like this as being too incendiary, and after posting the information here, I took it down, as I was unable to find the name of the original poster, or verification from media outlets other than the original FB post.

Well, today I've got the verification I was looking for. Militarized police attacked and wounded medics working at a First Aid station in Minneapolis. Other people acting as medics were also attacked, even though they identified themselves as medics:

https://www.btrtoday.com/read/featured/ ... nneapolis/

According to a public Facebook post by Matt Allen, volunteers in the first aid station clearly identified themselves as medics and put their hands up as military police approached. Police fired anyway, shooting rubber bullets and tear gas into the first aid station at will. Allen was hit “multiple times” as he held his hands up. A man with a severely wounded leg was nearly trampled, and police kept firing as Allen and his fellow medics fled the scene. Those who saw the incident described it as brutal.

[elengil]

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/202 ... ws-videos/

Y'know, if you want to criticize people for not voting, criticize those who are taking away their voting rights.
If you want to criticize people for not standing with police, criticize police for escalating violence.

[Dave_LF]

What is happening for Halofiriens? Your environs? Your families? What the hell is happening?

Every night since Saturday, there has been a significant riot with vandalism and looting in a different mid-sized Michigan city near me. Grand Rapids on Saturday, Lansing on Sunday, Kalamazoo on Monday. It's anyone's guess whose turn it will be tonight. Each disturbance started between 11pm and midnight in the aftermath of a peaceful rally that occurred in the same place earlier in the afternoon. The rioters I've seen on video have almost all been young and white; mostly men, but quite a few women too. Grand Rapids has charged two people with inciting so far, and they're both white women in their early 20s; one from in town, one from across the state. The national guard has been stationed in Grand Rapids for the past two nights with a curfew in effect to prevent a repeat of Saturday, and while there's been more trouble there on both those nights, it hasn't been anything like the original. If I wanted to be optimistic (and lord knows that's hard right now), I'd point out that each of the three riots I mentioned has been smaller than the one the night before before.

There was a peaceful march in my city on Sunday afternoon that thankfully did not have any followup of the other kind. But the city is too small to have more than a few police officers, so if whoever's behind the other riots decides to target us next, there won't be much to stop them.

Edit: Here is one of our big, bad, rioters, for example

[Sunsilver]

Here's a first-hand account of what happened at St. John's church, so Trump could have his photo-op. I am copying and pasting from FB because the article in the Washington Post that quotes the church's priest is behind a paywall:

My dear friend Gini is the Rector of St. John's Georgetown (we share in campus ministry together!). Here's her words from tonight from her first-person perspective on the patio of St. John's Lafayette Square (across from the White House).
Gini Gerbasi is with Julia Joyce Domenick.
1 hr
Friends, I am ok, but I am, frankly shaken. I was at St. John's, Lafayette Square most of the afternoon, with fellow clergy and laypeople - and clergy from some other denominations too. We were passing out water and snacks, and helping the patio area at St. John's, Lafayette square to be a place of respite and peace. All was well - with a few little tense moments - until about 6:15 or so. By then, I had connected with the Black Lives Matter medic team, which was headed by an EMT. Those people were AMAZING. They had been on the patio all day, and thankfully had not had to use much of the eyewash they had made. Around 6:15 or 6:30, the police started really pushing protestors off of H Street (the street between the church and Lafayette Park, and ultimately, the White House. They started using tear gas and folks were running at us for eyewashes or water or wet paper towels. At this point, Julia, one of our seminarians for next year (who is a trauma nurse) and I looked at each other in disbelief. I was coughing, her eyes were watering, and we were trying to help people as the police - in full riot gear - drove people toward us. Julia and her classmates left and I stayed with the BLM folks trying to help people. Suddenly, around 6:30, there was more tear gas, more concussion grenades, and I think I saw someone hit by a rubber bullet - he was grasping his stomach and there was a mark on his shirt. The police in their riot gear were literally walking onto the St. John's, Lafayette Square patio with these metal shields, pushing people off the patio and driving them back. People were running at us as the police advanced toward us from the other side of the patio. We had to try to pick up what we could. The BLM medic folks were obviously well practiced. They picked up boxes and ran. I was so stunned I only got a few water bottles and my spray bottle of eyewash. We were literally DRIVEN OFF of the St. John's, Lafayette Square patio with tear gas and concussion grenades and police in full riot gear. We were pushed back 20 feet, and then eventually - with SO MANY concussion grenades - back to K street. By the time I got back to my car, around 7, I was getting texts from people saying that Trump was outside of St. John's, Lafayette Square. I literally COULD NOT believe it. WE WERE DRIVEN OFF OF THE PATIO AT ST. JOHN'S - a place of peace and respite and medical care throughout the day - SO THAT MAN COULD HAVE A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH!!! PEOPLE WERE HURT SO THAT HE COULD POSE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH WITH A BIBLE! HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO STEP OVER THE MEDICAL SUPPLIES WE LEFT BEHIND BECAUSE WE WERE BEING TEAR GASSED!!!!
I am deeply shaken. I did not see any protestors throw anything until the tear gas and concussion grenades started, and then it was mostly water bottles. I am shaken, not so much by the taste of tear gas and the bit of a cough I still have, but by the fact that that show of force was for a PHOTO OPPORTUNITY. The patio of St. John's, Lafayette square had been HOLY GROUND today. A place of respite and laughter and water and granola bars and fruit snacks. But that man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second. I am DEEPLY OFFENDED on behalf of every protestor, every Christian, the people of St. John's, Lafayette square, every decent person there, and the BLM medics who stayed with just a single box of supplies and a backpack, even when I got too scared and had to leave. I am ok. But I am now a force to be reckoned with.

[elengil]

Musing...

When this all first started, like the second day, someone on my facebook feed posted about white people dressing up in their nice 'churchy'est clothes and standing on the front line to protect the protesters, because the police weren't going to target, beat, shoot *them*

Even then it was thinking "I don't think that's going to be true anymore."

Now I'm sitting here thinking, man, if the police had followed that, there would probably be a whole lot less outrage out there because certain people could still think to themselves "See, if you're just peaceful..."

But when they targeted the media, the medics, the legal observers, the freakin priests... that's got the broad outrage going. People who would have dismissed it as "they asked for it by being violent" are having to face what is for them a new reality.

[elengil]

gr