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Civil unrest rages in Minneapolis over racially charged killing by police

42 Comments
By Carlos Barria and Eric Miller

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42 Comments

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"A riot is the language of the unheard." - MLK

“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” - Malcolm X

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season.” - MLK

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” - Benjamin Franklin

2 ( +8 / -6 )

I sympathize with those rioting against this grave injustice and despicable murder of George Floyd.

If people want to sympathize with protesters in Hong Kong, then they can most certainly sympathize with these protesters across America.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

Its good to see people exercising their rights and holding officials accountable. I dont get the looting part; how is Target or Auto Zone responsible for you? Why not a march to city hall?

Also, the protesters who went into the state capital armed, seemed many here were calling them racist and Trumpites.

What about these looters, what are they?

-4 ( +9 / -13 )

I saw the video as well and must say, the police murdered George.

18 ( +20 / -2 )

@Michael.

Yes, they have been doing that for awhile now. There was a cop who murdered a guy in a hotel, who was waving a toy guy, acting stupid like we used to do back in the day. He was in the prone, and begging for his life; the cop told him to put his hands behind his back, he obeyed then was executed. Disturbing stuff and I still have not processed how that cop was exonerated. People arent taking that mess no more.

Im not here to take their side; its enraging. I fail to see how attacking private sector business help the cause though.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

The whole country knows but I doubt the officer will be charged or found guilty if it goes to trail. Like the case of six officers when a black guy died in the back of a police van.

Its not only white cop black offender, its white or black cop, any offender. I think allot of it started when Bush deputized most of the para military establishment and the creation of many agencies, who started treating US citizens like the enemy. It created a culture of "us vs them" Just my observation and opinion having watched this for several years as an outsider.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

Reports are just now coming in, the protesters have captured a central Police Station in Minneapolis and are setting it ablaze.

The police dont seem so tough anymore.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

Protesters are taxpaying citizens.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

What about these looters, what are they?

The difference is they're thieves in response to years of wrong doing by racism. They're not initiating a kill because of racist behavior, like the policemen did.

The looting is a by product of racist behavior that continues on, and has a president who thinks, like in Charlottesville with obvious white supremacy racists there...'well, there's good people on both sides'. A statement so racist, I never believe him or his followers that they're not racist, if they can't admit Trump is one.

Racists and Trump are racists. Those who are just continue on with incidents like this killing.

The old saying if it smells like a rat, looks like a rat, it probably is holds very true with racist behavior in America. The Minnesota arrest had very much if not everything to do with racism. Anyone who doesn't believe that isn't looking for the truth.

Looting is not a great thing, but the response is going to happen as one to wake up the status quo if the people in power are unfair, and it wouldn't happen if a violent murder by police, due to racism, did not occur. I don't adhere to the idea of looking at the murder of a man by police, countering that action with looting as a subject to complain about. They're not equal in loss of life nor initiation of wrong doing.

Simply put, the police killed a guy they shouldn't have and they caused a riot. If this was without precedent...it'd be slightly different...but this stuff has happened a lot. If white policeman are too dumb to figure out racist acts of violence that end up murdering a black unarmed man will cause rioting and looting, they're lost in their racism and stupidity.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Trump's chosen his words carefuly and with great consideration. He's demonstrated his compassion and empathy... just kidding, he's called the protesters "thugs".

What about these looters, what are they?

Human beings, who because of the color of their skin have had to deal with the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, peonage, segregation, institutionalised racism and of course, a PotUS who calls protesters "thugs", "SOBs" and has a well-documented history of antagonism and bigotry towards black people.

It's time.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

The fastest way to end the protests is to arrest the former police who were responsible for the death of a restrained unarmed man. They were guilty enough to be fired so clearly there is cause for arrest and prosecution based on video and witness evidence. Continuing to allow police to get away with manslaughter or murder will do nothing but spur the people to protest and at times riot.

I would not want to be American in this decade or the next. I would not want to be a black American at any time.

For a nation that has so much potential it seems America continually shoots itself in the foot. Do not look to the US for leadership when it is so unbalanced, unfair and unwilling to work together internally.

Make America sane again! Someone.....anyone......please.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

The police dont seem so tough anymore.

Bullies tend not to be when they're the target.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Sunfunbun,

The cop is wrong but you have to prove he was racist. He could have also been a cop with a chip or has a tempermant problem. Can't just say someone is racist.

Looters should be arrested. Cops fled because their only choice would have been to shoot everyone and that wouldn't have solved any problem.

You made a lot of blanket statements without proof.

Proof14,

Chicago?

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Racism isn't getting worse, it's getting filmed.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

"A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it’s lowest ones."

- Nelson Mandela

6 ( +8 / -2 )

I watched the whole video and it was heartbreaking watching him being murdered like that. It was so obvious what was happening and going to happen with that much pressure on the man's neck. I wanted to jump through that video so bad and push that chubby chump Asian cop out of the way and throw that murdering police office off the guy. Both cops had their hands in their pockets during the whole murder. Rioting is the least some that this police dept deserves.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

The cop is wrong but you have to prove he was racist. He could have also been a cop with a chip or has a tempermant problem. Can't just say someone is racist.

Let's say he has form, then

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1215691

1 ( +8 / -7 )

I wanted to jump through that video so bad and push that chubby chump Asian cop

There's a sad irony to this. Direct anger at what they did/didn't do, not their appearance or ethnic heritage.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

The cop is wrong but you have to prove he was racist. He could have also been a cop with a chip or has a tempermant problem. Can't just say someone is racist.

Are you sure? Let me try.

The cop who murdered a black citizen on camera with no thought that there would be consequences and who has a history of abusing and killing people of color is a racist, and his actions reflect his racist beliefs.

Hm, seemed easy enough.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

reports stating that the two knew each other from long ago:

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1266235536701710341

could be a personal vendetta which makes this whole thing look even worse

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Time the cops were brought to order and made accountable for their actions !

One more blatant murder by police this time caught on camera, they cannot continue to deny they act outside the law when its in plain view for all to see.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Derek Chauvin needs to swing for murder, and Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and the looters need to be locked up for awhile.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Derek Chauvin needs to swing for murder, and Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and the looters need to be locked up for awhile.

Lynching?

Are you serious?

The answer is to address the inherent racist system that operates in your country. Not just blather on about it online, but to do something and show solidarity.

Right now, rioting makes sense. The elite are paying attention because property and materialism is under attack.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

The cop is wrong but you have to prove he was racist. He could have also been a cop with a chip or has a tempermant problem.

Regardless of 'proving' or 'disproving' his racism, the former officers can all be arrested for at the very least manslaughter, if not murder.

As pointed out above, if the situations were reversed and a black man had knelt on a white man's neck for 9 minutes and the man died, there would be no doubt that said man would be arrested and be sitting in the county jail at this time. Racism, temperament problem, chip on his shoulder wouldn't matter... he'd have been arrested already, if not at the scene.

Instead, the 4 former cops are merely on the unemployment line. A far cry from jail, awaiting arraignment or trial.

If anyone wonders why there's protests and even riots... that's why.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

As pointed out above, if the situations were reversed and a black man had knelt on a white man's neck for 9 minutes and the man died,

True. But it never happens, does it? It is always the black guy that dies in these cases, never some white guy.

My advice to anyone in the US who finds themselves in any disagreement with the police is, "don't be black."

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Wait does Donald have to say about all this?

"When the looting starts, the shoots starts." So poetic, he's really rallying Americans. /s

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

George Floyd, fired officer overlapped security shifts at south Minneapolis club

https://www.kstp.com/news/george-floyd-fired-officer-overlapped-security-shifts-at-south-minneapolis-club-may-28-2020/5743990/

1 ( +2 / -1 )

True. But it never happens, does it? It is always the black guy that dies in these cases, never some white guy.

Yes, I know that there is a lower percentage of black people than white in the U.S. but there has been more white people killed by police than any other race. Killing a defenseless person is wrong person unless the person starts shooting first.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

While I was in college, I went with a couple of buddies to 7-11 to buy slurpees because I had a craving. My friends and I were talking as we bought them and there was a cop standing on the side looking at magazines. We drove back towards college and suddenly the sirens came on behind me. The cop came up to my window and said I went through a red light. I knew the light was green which I told him. He then said what were we doing at 7-11 having a good time. My friends and I looked at him in disbelief. He pulled me out of the car and made me lay face down on the wet pavement. Just before he was going to do what he was going to do, he got a call from the radio in his car to go somewhere. He told me to get out of here and drive safely. My friends and I are about as white as they come. I have disliked the police ever since no matter what country.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The Cop's neighbors had no idea he was a cop.

https://twitter.com/Perpetualmaniac/status/1266142235914985472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1266142235914985472&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftruepundit.com%2Fwatch-minneapolis-cop-at-center-of-george-floyds-street-murder-has-gone-missing-neighbors-say-they-didnt-even-know-he-was-a-cop%2F

Neighbors ALWAYS know if a neighbor is a cop, unless he's an undercover cop, which he clearly was not in the video.

In the videos of this there are major problems.

You can tell when the ambulance arrives and the officer gets off the victim there was no pressure being applied.

When the ambulance arrives, rather than tend the victim, which the official reports states the ambulance was warned he needed medical attention and was unresponsive, they did not tend to him immediately on the ground, instead they loaded him onto the gurney without checking a damn thing, pushed him into the ambulance and drove off. There's a HUGE problem with that.

Standard EMT procedure in this case is FIRST to take his pulse and administer CPR if needed RIGHT WHERE HE IS FOUND LAYING. EMT's do not load people onto the stretcher first, they first get the person stable if possible and then load them. No one at any point, no officer and no EMT ever checked the guy's pulse.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Interesting how trump can threaten violence against the protesters. Pouring gasoline onto the fire. Twitter didn't like that, and has hidden his tweet. But we all know it's there.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/twitter-remove-donald-trump-protest-tweet-a4453971.html

Has he condemned the cops behind the murder yet?

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government." -- Thomas Jefferson

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Annnd America thinks it has moral high ground to lecture China on human rights LOL

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Just like that: masks and social distancing and the climate being poisoned by all those buildings on fire- all don’t matter.

it totally takes the focus away from what happened to this man.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

If that was a black perpetrator who committed the same action he would already be clapped in irons and thrown into the dungeon without legal representation.

That’s not true.

The whole country knows but I doubt the officer will be charged or found guilty if it goes to trail. Like the case of six officers when a black guy died in the back of a police van.

I disagree, I think they will be charged especially the officer that killed Floyd.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Where were all the other cop cars? In real scenarios they mob a scene like this.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

It takes a special kind of viciousness to put your body weight on the neck of an already subdued man. And the police already had complaints against him ... yet remained on the force.

And America thinks it has moral high ground to lecture China on human rights LOL

The USA does not put thousands of Muslims in concentration camps like the Communist Chinese.

When looters are identified, if ever, I bet many are not from that neighborhood. Shops were looted and destroyed; shops that already had been driven to near bankruptcy by the pandemic lockdown. One tear for those ruined entrepreneurs if you please.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Interesting how trump can threaten violence against the protesters.

He’s not, he’s threatening rioters and looters. These criminals breach a police station and riot there? This is madness and should never be tolerated under any circumstances and if you don’t get order the cops should use reasonable force to stop the lawlessness.

Pouring gasoline onto the fire.

That is exactly what they’re doing, they’re making it worse and they’re making it about themselves and not about Floyd.

Twitter didn't like that, and has hidden his tweet. But we all know it's there.

And now under Trump’s new executive order twitter can be sued.

Has he condemned the cops behind the murder yet?

Yes, from the very beginning.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

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