|
Young White Men Abuse George Floyd Protests For Violence And Looting
Last night at times violent protests took place in some 30 U.S. cities.
The escalation of the protests is not being driven by people of color whose grievance about systemic police brutality and institutionalized racism is driving the original, and in most cases peaceful protests.
There are clear signs that other groups have joined and abuse the original protests for their own purpose:
Mayor Jacob Frey said the people who are coming to Minneapolis to protest are not residents and are "coming in largely from outside the city."
"Our Minneapolis residents are scared and rightfully so. We've seen longterm institutional businesses overridden. We've seen community institutions set on fire. And I want to be very, very clear. The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents," he said at a news briefing on Saturday.
He said the protests earlier this week that were mostly peaceful and were largely attended by those who lived in the city, but "the dynamic has changed."
"Gradually that shift was made and we saw more and more people coming from outside of the city. We saw more and more people looking to cause violence in our communities, and I have to say, it is not acceptable," Frey said.
"This is no longer about verbal expression. This is about violence and we need to make sure that it stops," he added.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said everyone who was arrested in his city last night was from outside the state.
"What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here," he said.
UPDATE: The mayor has since walked back that claim. END-UPDATE
Detroit has seen the same phenomenon:
Detroit Police Chief James Craig spoke in a Facebook Live video late on Friday evening.
“You know, I love this community and we work very well with this community, and we know that the individuals from outside the city of Detroit who converged at the protest location don’t represent this city. They’re not from this city,” said Craig. “And so I’m just asking for all Detroiters to continue to support us, let’s peacefully protest. But outside of that, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re not going to tolerate criminal acts.”
While mostly people of color were protesting the murder by police of George Floyd, the looting was often led (video) by white young men (video).
That the police infiltrate protests and political movements is the norm. But who or what is sending people from outside a city to vandalize it? Who put down a pallet of bricks at a bus station in a high end shopping street in Dallas during a time of protests? Who is supposed to use these?
One group suspected to be involved in this capture of legitimate protests are the "Boogaloo Bois":
On May 26th, crowds gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to protest the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police department. Floyd was black. Many of the protesters were people of color.
…
On the internet, meanwhile, a largely white, and far right movement publicly contended over what risks its members should take to support a black man killed by police.
…
On the Facebook page, Big Igloo Bois, which at the time of writing had 30,637 followers, an administrator wrote of the protests, “If there was ever a time for bois to stand in solidarity with ALL free men and women in this country, it is now”.
They added, “This is not a race issue. For far too long we have allowed them to murder us in our homes, and in the streets. We need to stand with the people of Minneapolis. We need to support them in this protest against a system that allows police brutality to go unchecked.”
One commenter added, “I’m looking for fellow Minneapolis residents to join me in forming a private, Constitutionally-authorized militia to protect people from the MPD, which has killed too many people within the last two years.”
These exchanges offer a window into an extremely online update of the militia movement, which is gearing up for the northern summer. The “Boogaloo Bois” expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States.
The Boogaloo Bois are mostly rightwing but the militia movement includes some African-American groups. They are armed and they seek conflict with the state.
The ruling oligarchy in the U.S. is behaving towards its own population no different than towards foreign ones. It looted the Iraqi gold reserves after the invasions of Baghdad. It is looting the oil of Syria. It is looting the money that was supposed to support the population during the pandemic:
In the ten weeks since the nationwide lockdown first began, the [Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)] calculates that billionaires have increased their wealth by $485 billion – equal to 16.5 percent. This half-trillion-dollar rise, for Chuck Collins, Director of the IPS’ Program on Inequality and the Common Good, is something close to looting the whole economy.
“The wealthy are economically distancing from the rest of society. Worse, some are pandemic profiteering, looting government stimulus programs and taking advantage of market monopolies,” he told MintPress News.
The looting by the oligarchs is one reason why I have expected protests and riots in the U.S. as a consequence of the badly handled epidemic. But I expected them for later in the summer, after July 31 when the federal unemployment insurance runs out. By then some 20 million of the 40 million currently unemployed will have learned that their old jobs are forever gone and that there are no new ones to find. By then mortgage defaults and evictions will have risen sky high.
Many of the affected people will not be from minorities but from the white lower classes. People who have lost their job and maybe even their home.
The social tensions will be extreme and will seek relief one way or another. Cornel West explains well (vid) why party politics in the U.S. can not be the way to solve this conflict. Something will have to give and it will not be the people – at least not without resistance.
Trump has asked the military to prepare to suppress unrest in Minnesota and elsewhere. Military police units have been put on alarm:
Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours.
…
The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
The shooting of unarmed blacks protesters would probably be welcome by Trump's core voters. He could even use that as an advertisement in his re-election campaign.
But how will this evolve when Trump sends in the troops and recognizes that the conflict is with mostly white working class people who probably voted for him in 2016 but are now inclined to shoot back?
someone else is always to blame. “outside agitators”. MN-StP are big areas. the plunge in the price of Corona beer is China’s fault. suspicion about authorities saying this kind of crap is a must.
2 goals: 1) bring every US troop, spy, “diplomat”, business man (sic, start over) home, every missile, every dollar. 2) dismantle every nuclear weapon the US has in the world; 3) this means the destruction of the USG. sorry if you don’t understand. get your head out of your ass.
as the US uses corona as a bio weapon, the faux concern about property destruction is worth a big yawn. every organ of the state w/o exception is 100% behind “reopening the economy.” fuck all these people. live by the sword, get ready to have it shoved up your ass. “total dismantlement of the Roman imperial state…” dismembered, piece by bloody piece.
but as a more practical matter, work stoppage, cessation, complete cessation, will do wonders and, if violence must be expressed, the banks are a good place to start. and most likely to stop. this is a heavily armed nation w/ deep traumatic wounds. there’s nothing the elites do not deserve. unfortunately, we really are all in it together.
and the capitalists will gleefully allow us all, ALL, to shoot each other while the planet burns. I was at a volunteer drop in center in the Pacific NW yesterday, all women and children naturally, as capitalism runs on the theft of women’s labor, and lo and behold, deputy dog sheriff has to pop in. why? one wag noted that “criminals” show up at places like this. horrific indictment of US society. yes. so do other “illegals.”
but I suspect the copper was there to check on the self-organization of the bugs at that church hall. make sure it isn’t getting out of hand.
money as the abstract value, a fiction, around which our society is organized and by which it is tyrannized will change as society changes. hastening the collapse of the dollar by refusal to participate in any way in dollar exchanges might also be great (I know, i’m still waiting on my stimulus check…) might keep people from being tortured to death over $20 if we just agreed that none of it was worth shit. like gold, whose value, except in science, is nothing more than a reflection of social values, belief.
bringing the undocumented into the light via marriage and childbirth, family building, is an idea. fuck any person, any institution that says you cannot love someone and offer him or her the protections that come from your commitment to that person.
unfortunately, all of the institutions of ideological control in this society are in the hands of the state. w/some small exception in the place where conflict w/the society regularly erupts: the black community. thus the drug war and police state concentration on that community. but churches, academia, the media, entertainment, all that bs called “civil society” are all behind “reopening the economy,” contrary to all medical evidence. the disease running rampant thru this nation is the truth: we are diseased.
logos is common to all, but each acts as if he had a common sense all his own-Heraclitus. medical science, STEM stuff, all of it is common to all. the whole of officialdom in this society is completely lost in own its sick cultural delusions.
Posted by: jason | May 30 2020 22:00 utc | 53
First off, long time reader, some-time commenter since the Billmon days. Really appreciate all the author(s) have to contribute to the discourse. b gets it with regard to the United States and how Americans think. It’s crazy to see so many comments that can’t process his analysis. Indeed, Americans are in general a thick headed bunch on their “pet” issues – nobody is going to change their minds on the issues of race, the environment, party politics, guns, science, religion, police violence against citizens, abortion, foreign interventions unless something happens directly to them forcing them to re-think the *years* of constant programming and propaganda.
I honestly never thought I’d live to see the day that b linked to bellingcrap (the Boogaloo Bois blurb). WOW! However I did read that story and cross-checked some of its claims using my own social media accounts and all that I was able to find checked out. Still….I’m shocked, b – Bellingcat…..REALLY?!!!
But my main point in breaking my silence to make a comment here is the general tone and closed-mindedness of so many of the recent commenters on this thread and the COVID-19 threads. This one in particular jumped out because so much misinformation is being spread. Here’s a short list, going from memory without naming names or attempting to belittle anyone.
1. To the point that “white people don’t riot when one of us is killed by a cop” – Whites in general have more avenues for redress than blacks in the USA. That is just undeniable. Whether it’s access to money, influence, business ties/campaign donors or just connections in their communities who themselves have influence. The woman killed in Minneapolis was an Australian national. Yes it took 8 months for the city to fire and charge him, but only because her family back in Australia pulled many strings and worked really hard to get justice. American whites had no real connection to her and there hasn’t been a history of black cops shooting or strangling or intimidating or harassing white people and getting away with it. It obviously was not provably racially motivated in the case of the Australian woman, but one needs to focus on the forest and not the trees when considering the claims of racism/racially motivated police abuse of the African American community through the entire history of this country to properly place the (media generated in some cases) high profile killings of black men who were shown, on video to pose no threat to the offending officer. PLUS – in the case of white cops killing black people, I can literally count on two hands the number of times said cop has been charged, much less sentenced.
Plus, American whites are generally (although this will surely change after the economic disaster of coronavirus) separated from the inner cities and policed differently than blacks. We are not inclined to assemble and we sit idly by when administrations like W. Bush and Obama make new orders/laws that prevent us from doing so. We should look at the peaceful protests of the (mostly) black communities with respect and support. Instead outside agitators, controlled opposition and other infiltrators almost always breach such movements once they reach a large enough scale and are the ones who almost always instigate the violence, looting, vandalism, etc. There are more and more videos coming out on this every day now. I’m not saying that African Americans NEVER loot or riot or what have you, but that brings me to the next point…
2. The US corporate news media ONLY reports on looting and violence when it is suspected to be committed by or affiliated with black-rights protests or natural disasters that primarily affect black people (ex. Hurricane Katrina). Where is the corporate media on this obviously white guy busting out windows at Autozone? There are tons of other videos out there as examples.
3. We have a problem with police lawlessness and violence and unaccountability in general in the USA. It mirrors, directly, the behavior of the Outlaw Empire US federal government and DOD. They can do what they want, when they want, and they have constructed a vast legal framework designed to strip regular people of our rights while granting themselves ultimate authority to eavesdrop, infiltrate, lie, cheat, steal and murder – Just like Mike Pompeo so proudly bragged at Texas A&M University not too long ago. This means that far too often white and other citizens will be murdered and treated wrongly as well. The way that I have always looked at it is in the framework of “First they came for the socialists….but I was not a socialist so I said nothing….” Well, first they came for the blacks and black communities (not to mention the Natives, but that’s another sordid story) and they continue to do so. And white America mostly said nothing. When police departments in the inner cities militarized and adopted military “forward operating base” tactics, it was only a matter of time before suburban and small town PDs would be sporting a new MRAP and a bunch of literal military assault gear and tactics. First cops killed mainly black people and got away with it. We let them (white people don’t “riot” remember?) and guess what – now they’re coming for us too, with zero accountability thanks to our long-time inaction. If you want to see something that will make you sick to your stomach, search the Web for “the shooting of Daniel Shaver.” Disgusting! There are others, including those NOT on video for all of us to see. Still, what did the white community in Arizona do when Shaver was brutally and cruelly murdered as he groveled and attempted to comply with confusing and much too hostile orders? Nothing as far as I know. Maybe a few family members went to City Hall, but the cop got off.
SWAT raids are out of control in this country too. They are used way too often and mostly for drug related warrants. The War on Drugs is another example of how law enforcement in the USA systematically went after blacks (and the left) and created this situation we’re in. And most of us said nothing because, well, we only used a small amount of weed and everyone knows it’s harmless right? White kid gets pulled over in the 80s or 90s with a few Js likely gets off every time in most places in the USA.
4. The idea that it’s George Soros or other “leftist” organizations and donors who are funding the BLM movement and sending in violent outsiders to commit the acts we’ve seen being done by the agent provocateurs is as silly as the thought that a few Facebook ads purchased by an entity called Internet Research Agency were sufficient to change the course of the US presidential election. How much money could Soros be funneling to this group? Enough to buy a few Facebook ads or sponsor a particular user in trying to organize protests? Even the latter sounds far fetched to me insofar as BLM or Antifa goes. I’ve seen them. To anyone who claims that it’s another of evil George Soros’ tricks to keep BLM or Antifa going, please try thinking about that as critically as you do the notion that Russia “hacked” our democracy in 2016. It’s ridiculous and it’s also a smoke screen. Israel was far more likely to have slanted the outcome to Trump and the USA media isn’t touching it. You will have to go to Times of Israel to find stories about it. In fact IIRC there have been some recently released (and heavily redacted) FBI documents that basically back this up. But RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA == SOROS SOROS SOROS!!!
5. Finally, claiming that the USA federal government *didn’t* totally botch the COVID-19 pandemic prep, response and dissemination of accurate information is something only a fool would believe at this point. B has done a very respectable job of covering the issue from the outset. Yes his mind has changed on some things, as is what a thinking human being does when new information comes to light. But the level of vitriol in the comments from obvious Trump supporters, once they find out that the author they enjoy reading when he’s talking about ME policy and the US empire, isn’t on the same brainwashed page as they are on every subject, is insane. I’m sure thousands of comments have been deleted over the past 3 months as a result.
Anyway keep up the good work, b.
Posted by: _K_C_ | May 30 2020 22:06 utc | 57
|
