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‘Mostly Peaceful’ Rioting And Looting Is Helping Trump’s Campaign
The Civil War of 2020 continues apace.
2020
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After three months of continuous clashes in Portland between Antifa rioters, who hide behind peaceful protests, and the police, the mayor is finally concerned about the damage:
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Wednesday he hasn’t done enough to focus on damages caused by some city protests over the last three months and the fallout from coronavirus. He called on the community to help him come up with better solutions to city issues.
During the last months the Magnificent Mile in Chicago was looted – twice. Yesterday new riots and looting occurred in Minneapolis after a rumor of another police killing incited some people:
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo tried to dispel rumors that spread on social media about the death of the unidentified Black man, who was suspected in a Wednesday afternoon homicide and fatally shot himself on the Nicollet Mall as officers approached several hours later. His death, which was captured on city surveillance video and released by police within 90 minutes, nonetheless sparked protests and unrest in the heart of downtown.
The video confirmed the police account of what happened and showed the man glancing over his shoulder before pulling out the gun and firing, then collapsing to the ground as a half-dozen witnesses ran away with their hands in the air. The officers, one of whom had his gun drawn, shooed a remaining witness away and kicked the suspect’s gun away before performing chest compressions.
Last Sunday police in Kenosha, Wisconsin proved to be too incompetent to arrest a man they had already had under control. They shot him 7 times into the back when he was trying to get into his car. Nights of rioting followed. Buildings were burned down and businesses were looted.
Yesterday a white teen with a semi-automatic weapon had the stupid idea to join others in 'protecting the businesses' in Kenosha from further looting. He ended up killing two people and wounding more after he was attacked by some of the rioters. The teen was arrested and he is facing charges but I doubt that he is guilty of more than sheer stupidity and manslaughter in self defense.
The cycle of violence will likely continue. There are too many racist in the police and the level of U.S. police training seems to be abysmal. There is also too much tolerance for violence within the general community.
Politically this plays into Trump's law and order campaign. The Democrats have lauded Black Live Matters and the protests but have hardly spoken out against the rioting and looting that comes with them.
This CNN chyron from yesterday evening is an expression of their position:
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'Mostly peaceful protests' are like the 'moderate rebels' in Syria – propaganda constructs that do not exist in the real world. The people who owned the burning cars and whose businesses were destroyed will not be relieved by such phrasing.
Joe Biden's attempt to swing Republican voters to his side has failed. At the same time he has rejected many of the issues progressives favored. This will hurt the election turn out the Democrats will need. Add to that the unrest which plays into Trump's hands. The Democrats who fear that are right:
“There’s no doubt it’s playing into Trump’s hands,” said Paul Soglin, who served as mayor of Madison, on and off, for more than two decades. “There’s a significant number of undecided voters who are not ideological, and they can move very easily from Republican to the Democratic column and back again. They are, in effect, the people who decide elections. And they are very distraught about both the horrendous carnage created by police officers in murdering African Americans, and … for the safety of their communities.”
Trump, of course, is positioning himself as the antidote to urban unrest. "So let me be clear: The violence must stop, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha," Vice President Mike Pence declared in his Republican convention speech Wednesday night, with Trump looking on. "We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color."
Republicans had chided Joe Biden and other Democrats for not calling out the violence in the aftermath of the Blake shooting. Biden immediately addressed the shooting, but didn’t condemn the ensuing violence until Wednesday in a video posted on social media.
Despite Trump's failure to bring the pandemic under control his job approval rating continues to be high while Biden's lead in the polls is shrinking. The United States seem to have a higher tolerance for avoidable death by guns or viruses than other societies have. It is not the only point that makes it exceptional.
Here’s the link for the complaint against Rittenhouse:
STATE OF Wisconsin vs. KYLE H. RITTENHOUSE – CRIMINAL COMPLAINT
DA Case #: 2020KN003907 Agency Case #: KPD 2020-00047360
Let’s admire this exceptional specimen of the libertarian heroes.
Victim #1: Rosenbaum:
The video shows that as they cross the parking lot, Rosenbaum appears to throw an object at the
defendant. The object does not hit the defendant and a second video shows, based on where the
object landed, that it was a plastic bag. Rosenbaum appears to be unarmed for the duration of this
video. A review of the second video shows that the defendant and Rosenbaum continue to move
across the parking lot and approach the front of a black car parked in the lot. A loud bang is heard
on the video, then a male shouts, “Fuck you!”, then Rosenbaum appears to continue to approach
the defendant and gets in near proximity to the defendant when 4 more loud bangs are heard.
Rosenbaum then falls to the ground.
The picture here is clear: Rittenhouse was pursuing Rosenbaum, for a significant distance, because the latter threw a plastic bag (and probably told him some profanities) on him. Not self-defense. Rosenbaum was certainly not rioting, as he was clearly unarmed (i.e. no Molotovs, no knifes, no guns etc.).
The only eye witness, reporter McGinnis, confirms the impression given by the two videos:
Before the shooting, McGinnis was interviewing the defendant. The defendant told McGinnis that he was a trained
medic. McGinnis stated that he (McGinnis) has handled many ARs and that the defendant was not
handling the weapon very well. McGinnis said that as they were walking south another armed male
who appeared to be in his 30s joined them and said he was there to protect the defendant.
McGinnis stated that before the defendant reached the parking lot and ran across it, the defendant
had moved from the middle of Sheridan Road to the sidewalk and that is when McGinnis saw a
male (Rosenbaum) initially try to engage the defendant. McGinnis stated that as the defendant
was walking Rosenbaum was trying to get closer to the defendant. When Rosenbaum advanced,
the defendant did a “juke” move and started running. McGinnis stated that there were other people
that were moving very quickly. McGinnis stated that they were moving towards the defendant.
McGinnis said that according to what he saw the defendant was trying to evade these individuals.
So, the boy was teased and begun to pursuit the deceased-to-be like a school kid going to get revenge against his bully. By the way, the kid didn’t even know how to handle the AR-15 properly, as noted by McGinnis himself. But this is the prowess of the Libertarian redneck, nothing more to say.
The second armed man (who some commenters here were “attacking” the shooter), by the way, is Rittenhouse’s friend, as is also stated.
Rosenbaum definitely tried to get the AR-15 from Rittenhouse’s hands. But the context is not one of a Libertarian hero dramatically defending the properties of the good and great petite-bourgeoisie: it’s a boy who doesn’t know how to handle a gun falling from some cheap provocation by a common street thug (hence the guy having a criminal past) who, coincidentally, was wandering around the city at night (almost 00:00) probably fooling around. There’s no indication the dead guy was even rioting – let alone a member of the BLM or Antifa.
After Rosenbaum’s murder, people from the city who saw or were nearby begun to pursuit Rittenhouse, who fled northwards (page 4, ante-penultimate paragraph). So, he definitely was being chased because he shot Rosenbaum, and not for anything else (as videos 3 and 4 also demonstrate).
During the chasing, our Libertarian hero once again demonstrated his species’ physical prowess: he tripped and fell to the ground while fleeing like a rat. This fall cost another man’s life: a nearby skater (Anthony Huber) who also was stupid enough to try to get the AR-15 from the hands of the fallen (literally) hero.
But our hero didn’t try to get up and continue to flee. No, getting up is too difficult! Instead, he stayed in a seated position and shot a third person, probably one of the pursuing mob, Gaige Grosskreutz. Grosskreutz raised his hands (with a gun in his right one) while walking towards our Libertarian hero. That is clearly a peaceful position, as in the guy is signalling the other guy he has a gun, yes, but he doesn’t intend to use it.
The first shot caught Grosskreutz’s right arm (the one with the gun). Grosskreutz runs away, southwards (therefore, away from the shooter, in the opposite direction). He cries for a medic out loud.
So, here we have the overall scenario:
1) the 17-year old kid with an emotional IQ of a pea, killed a guy walking on the streets because he teased him;
2) the kid didn’t even know how to handle his AR-15 properly;
3) the kid fled like a coward when a bunch of people sought to apply good ol’ street justice for the death of the first guy;
4) he fell on his flight, in a show of both lack of preparation and of lack of physical fitness;
5) his puerile mistake cost the life of a second man, and injured a third, who was clearly trying to help (i.e. maybe he wasn’t even from the mob).
Posted by: vk | Aug 29 2020 0:14 utc | 346
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