not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime.
WTF? I'm hoping that they left out the 'yet'. Or maybe 'because they ran out of paper printing the list of charges'. This nugget brain should be held financially responsible for every nickel of damage and shackled with the debt and resulting servitude for all time.
Corresponds to exactlyw what I would expect reading from a distance.
I am not a fan of political violence but from the strikes and massive protests I have attended/helped organize or the ones I have observed from afar, rarely are innocent civilians at risk unless they attempt to stop looters and vandals.
...or the innocent civilians who may be protesting peacefully, observing the protests, providing medical assistance to injured protestors, or in some other way are in a place where the the police or paramilitaries decide to attack them.
Right now you couldn't pay me enough money to set foot in NYC with or without Trump being there at the same time.
Or Portland or Seattle or Chicago or ... I do not have a death wish.
Clearly you have no idea what's happening in Portland, and I can only guess it's because of your chosen sources.
You think the stormtroopers are going to snatch you at the airport? Don't go near the Federal Building. Especially not with legitimate business. Even in broad daylight. Check out Filipe Nystrom (court interpreter) story.
And the protests? Here's something from a friend who lives in Portland. Someone you know personally. But do call her a liar.
A few family members and friends have reached out to me in the last couple of weeks, concerned for my safety regarding the protests in Portland. I thanked them for thinking of meâand then decided it was time to mindfully set the record straight in case anyone else is worried. What I'm about to impart is what I know to be true, not taken from any news source, but from what I've witnessed and from the accounts of friends and acquaintances who have been to or near the protests. - Portland is not under siege or torn apart by riots - and protests are not disrupting daily life
- The looting and initial violence happened just after the Floyd killing - and much of it was done by trouble-makers unaffiliated with any political group (this was even reported by the BBC), but who were seizing the opportunity to come into town and loot - and some of these people, along with "professional anarchists," were likely responsible for the graffiti on the federal buildings downtown
- When you see pictures of boarded up windows and storefronts in Portland, many of them are businesses that had to shut down during the Covid quarantine and have not yet re-opened.
- Before the federal agents were sent in, the protests going on were peaceful ones, with people calling for social justice and speaking out against police brutality - in other words, exercising their First Amendment. The downtown protests were actually starting to dwindle. I know people who went almost nightly, including members of a Zen Buddhist community. No one was endangered. Only graffiti on buildings, which was likely the result of the aforementioned anarchists, not peaceful protesters. Because peaceful.
- When federal agents were sent in without being summoned and unleashing tear gas on peaceful protesters (and the mayor and members of the press) and beating them and shooting rubber bullets at their heads (one young man was hospitalized with a fractured skull) - it triggered an escalation. That's what spurred the "wall of moms" because their peacefully protesting kids were getting injured. The violent people â who then started coming back into town - were and still are in the minority.
- The protests are only happening at night in the few blocks surrounding the Justice Center downtown when the federal agents and some police come out to form a protective perimeter and then start pushing the crowds out.
- Certain news agencies are sensationalizing this and making it look far worse than it is - so I caution you to choose your sources judiciously - maybe seek out neutral ones
Interesting perspective of Portland. I tend to agree with his conclusion, neither side is innocent, both are guilty.
I still don't understand the silence/acceptance of the agitators among the protesters, regardless of whether the majority are peaceful. I know it can be a tricky line to draw, speaking out against the violence, without appearing to speak out against the aims of the movement, but it can be done.
But the second part of Trumpâs plan isnât working as well as the first. The president has succeeded in sowing chaos in Americaâs cities. But somehow, the fact that Trump is now presiding over mass unrest has not convinced swing voters that keeping him in office is the best way to prevent mass unrest.
Asked which candidate they trusted more on the issue of âcrime and safety,â respondents to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll backed Biden over Trump by a margin of 50 percent to 41 percent. Late last month, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found Biden boasting an identical edge over Trump on the question of which candidate could be trusted to âmaintain law and order.â And an Economist/YouGov poll released last week found Americans disapproving of Trumpâs performance on âcrime and criminal justice reformâ by a 47 percent to 38 percent margin.
Meanwhile, with regard to the issue that lies at the heart of the past two months of protests, Bidenâs advantage over Trump is even larger. A recent Fox News poll found that Americans believe Biden would do a better job handling ârace relationsâ than Trump by a 52 to 31 percent margin.
Corresponds to exactlyw what I would expect reading from a distance.
I am not a fan of political violence but from the strikes and massive protests I have attended/helped organize or the ones I have observed from afar, rarely are innocent civilians at risk unless they attempt to stop looters and vandals.
Right now you couldn't pay me enough money to set foot in NYC with or without Trump being there at the same time.
Or Portland or Seattle or Chicago or ... I do not have a death wish.
Clearly you have no idea what's happening in Portland, and I can only guess it's because of your chosen sources.
You think the stormtroopers are going to snatch you at the airport? Don't go near the Federal Building. Especially not with legitimate business. Even in broad daylight. Check out Filipe Nystrom (court interpreter) story.
And the protests? Here's something from a friend who lives in Portland. Someone you know personally. But do call her a liar.
A few family members and friends have reached out to me in the last
couple of weeks, concerned for my safety regarding the protests in
Portland. I thanked them for thinking of me—and then decided it was
time to mindfully set the record straight in case anyone else is
worried. What I'm about to impart is what I know to be true, not taken
from any news source, but from what I've witnessed and from the accounts
of friends and acquaintances who have been to or near the protests.
- Portland is not under siege or torn apart by riots - and protests are not disrupting daily life
- The looting and initial violence happened just after the Floyd
killing - and much of it was done by trouble-makers unaffiliated with
any political group (this was even reported by the BBC), but who were
seizing the opportunity to come into town and loot - and some of these
people, along with "professional anarchists," were likely responsible
for the graffiti on the federal buildings downtown
- When you see
pictures of boarded up windows and storefronts in Portland, many of
them are businesses that had to shut down during the Covid quarantine
and have not yet re-opened.
- Before the federal agents were sent
in, the protests going on were peaceful ones, with people calling for
social justice and speaking out against police brutality - in other
words, exercising their First Amendment. The downtown protests were
actually starting to dwindle. I know people who went almost nightly,
including members of a Zen Buddhist community. No one was endangered.
Only graffiti on buildings, which was likely the result of the
aforementioned anarchists, not peaceful protesters. Because peaceful.
- When federal agents were sent in without being summoned and
unleashing tear gas on peaceful protesters (and the mayor and members of
the press) and beating them and shooting rubber bullets at their heads
(one young man was hospitalized with a fractured skull) - it triggered
an escalation. That's what spurred the "wall of moms" because their
peacefully protesting kids were getting injured. The violent people —
who then started coming back into town - were and still are in the
minority.
- The protests are only happening at night in the few
blocks surrounding the Justice Center downtown when the federal agents
and some police come out to form a protective perimeter and then start
pushing the crowds out.
- Certain news agencies are
sensationalizing this and making it look far worse than it is - so I
caution you to choose your sources judiciously - maybe seek out neutral
ones
My party always stood for principled dissent, not lawless chaos.
By Ted Van DykJuly 26, 2020 2:12 pm ET Democrats’ response to the continuing round of urban disturbances makes one think that, yet again, they will snatch electoral defeat from the jaws of victory.
After President Trump’s dispatch of federal officers to protect federal facilities in Portland, Ore., some Democratic politicians characterized the officers as “storm troopers” or “secret agents” bent on sending “peaceful protesters” to concentration camps. I watched attacks on the Portland federal building on television as they were happening. The officers were uniformed and clearly identified. The perpetrators weren’t peaceful protesters but black-clad thugs using hammers and baseball bats to damage the building. Others attempted to set fire to it.
Local and state officials objected to the federal presence, saying it “made things worse” in the city. On the same evening, a group in Seattle paraded to a police precinct headquarters, breaking shop windows along the way. Several officers were injured. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio was forced to evict occupiers from City Hall Plaza.
Meantime, violent crime is on the rise in cities around the country. Chicago has been experiencing a murder plague visited on mostly minority residents over many months. It seems incredible that elected Democrats are supporting initiatives to defund the police, releasing prisoners from local jails, and even removing law-enforcement officers from schools.
Democrats should forget President Trump for a second. The current round of violence isn’t being undertaken by civil-justice or other reformers but by radicals using Jacobin street-violence tactics. The idea is to provoke confrontation and violence with constituted authority so as to discredit it, counting on a few gullible local residents to see police as oppressors. The pretense of peaceful protest is rapidly disappearing. Deaths, serious injuries, arson, public and private property damage, and economic dislocation have resulted.
The longer this continues, the greater demand to see it stopped will grow among wage-earning families, small-business people, homeowners, taxpayers and voters. Families of public safety and emergency personnel already have been alienated.
Any president dating back to Franklin D. Roosevelt would have taken action under these circumstances. First, there would be denunciation of the violence. Then the president would ask local officials if they needed federal help. If the answer was yes, it would be sent immediately. If the answer was no but disorder continued, the president would no doubt dispatch officers to protect federal buildings and otherwise restore order as authorized by the Constitution. He would know that the country at large looked to the president as the ultimate guarantor of public safety.
I can’t imagine Joe Biden, as vice president or a senator, hesitating to denounce lawlessness. Nor can I imagine past congressional, state and local leaders condoning such destruction. Democrats have always supported dissent, not disorder.
Many of Mr. Trump’s policies deserve criticism, but this isn’t one of them. Democrats are presenting a pro-chaos caricature of themselves, which will discredit them with the public if they maintain it. Especially at the local level, elected officials must recognize that a majority of Americans want to live normal lives without threat of violence or harm.
Mr. Van Dyk was active in Democratic national policy and politics for 40 years. He is author of “Heroes, Hacks and Fools” (University of Washington Press, 2007).
Good article!
The Democrat politicians have gone all-in on these protests, assuming the violence & destruction will hurt Trump. Unfortunately for them, just the opposite is occurring. Maybe not among the liberal population of Seattle & Portland, however everyone else is appalled. And they don't want that shitshow in their communities. Too late. These memories and the abundance of video evidence produced every night won't be forgotten before the voters arrive at the ballot boxes. And now I'm reading that maybe mayor Ted is having second thoughts...
The world's sh*tt*est violin, KK: and it's playing for you. Maybe you should lurch your way to Twitter and stay there:
The world's sh*tt*est violin, KK: and it's playing for you. Maybe you should lurch your way to Twitter and stay there: https://twitter.com/search?q=%...
We'll flush twice just to make sure you get there! AMF!