Minnesota Riots [may 2020]

If you want to know how the discussion started, reread the thread.

 

Um RJ would disagree with that. Many of his comments are of the philosophical nature discussing the purpose or the causes of rioting over the past two days.

We are trying to have a cordial discussion here and you are trying to make it personal.

 

Frankly I'm surprise more business owners aren't arming themselves and defending their property like the Koreans did in the Rodney king riots.

Probably many don't own firearms, have good insurance policy, were caught by surprise or didn't think it'd be worth it.

 

CNN calls it a "Violent protest"...it's riot. No need to sugar coat that.

 

I don't know how "violent protest" sounds any better than "riot". The word violent is pretty self evident.

 

Insurance policies almost always lack coverage for riots/civil unrest.

 

It's a shame the Korean business owners didn't focus more on the white leadership during those riots. Initially the police were dispatched to protect Koreatown area which was next to where the riots started. But then the folks in Beverly Hills got scared, made calls, and the police were all pulled away to protect Beverley Hills which wasn't as close and not really threatened by the mobs, yet that's where the police were ordered to go.

The power structure that failed the community of Rodney King also failed the Korean store owners. Again, addressing that problem would help serve the interest of everyone. Sadly, people are not proactive and wait until there are these problems before they do anything. Then after it's over they misdirect their anger in a way that won't fix the problem.

 

My previous business/property didn't cover it (afaik). But my current one definitely does. Riot, civil commotion, and vandalism are covered perils by my commercial policies while loss of income would be covered by my business income insurance. . They are covered causes of loss under both named perils and "all risk" policies.

Definitely agree that the problem was in no small part due to the actions and reaction of the lapd. But to say the koreans should have focused on the lapd instead of protecting their property and livelihood is odd to me.

Agree with the rest of your post.

 

I don't mean at the moment. Of course, it's too late then. I meant before and since the events. I am sorry about the confusion.

 

So? This isn't as simple as Republican equals bad. You can say your community isn't Ferguson but a lot of people that live in your community obviously strongly disagree. This also isn't the first time there have been police issues or racial issues.

If you didn't know, well you know now.

What should the reforms be? Lets start by having a police force that doesn't kill black men in literally the middle of the road in broad daylight.

Everyone is terrorized, kind of like minorities and poor people are of the police force and the power structure in your city? It sucks does it? Never knowing what is going to happen.

Peaceful protests have not been successful on this issue for many decades. You marginalize minorities and poor people, you treat them worse than animals and you pay lip service to their concerns..... well people lash out, and they destroy things because there isn't any other effective ways to battle the oppression.

All of this is coming from a former prosecutor....... you can dislike businesses being burned down, but you cannot be surprised. Solve the UNDERLYING issues and riots will become very rare. There is a reason we do not see riots in the wealthy areas of town.

 

I apologize for not giving you a faster answer. I haven't had time to read through the whole thread and have been dealing with many other things.
It's a fair and reasonable question.

My advance to black people really anyone is in this time and especially in this culture of social media nonviolent but attention grabbing statements are the way to go. As a cited nonviolent actions have produced change. The March on Selma and the Birmingham bus boycott changed far more things than Watts riots in 1968 or Rodney King in 1992. Building alliances and political capital too. As another Minnesotan the late Paul Wellstone said "ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!"

LEO Chauvin was going to get arrested. I'm certain of that. These protests might've sped it up but the cost of the burning and looting and now with the National Guard occupying the city isn't worth it. The city was united two days ago. It's now divided and more mistrustful than it's been in a long time.

 

It's OK. Yes many of my comments are of a philosophical nature but they are based upon my observations.

Obviously I have a pretty strong disagreement with some posters but that is point of Debate and Discuss. As I said before my history is available for anyone who wants to see it but as for other posters I don't have anything personal against them. It is hard to keep equanimity when you see your neighborhood literally burning and I apologize if I take that out on anyone here.

 

I can respect that opinion but I don’t think we can say for certain that Mr. Chauvin is was inevitably going to be arrested. Despite multiple eye witnesses and video evidence this man was allowed to live like a normal citizen for 96 hours. Mr.Chauvin had an army of police guarding his residence.....an average citizen suspected of murder wouldn’t be afforded that luxury.

I think the riots definitely led to his confinement. I think it’s reasonable to believe that had these riots not occurred, Mr. Chauvin would still be sitting in his living room ordering pizza. I don’t condone rioting and it’s absolutely sad that that’s what it took to get the authorities to begin to do the right thing (the other 3 former officers involved are still at home!).

The March on Selma and the Montgomery Bus boycotts did yield some results. I’d argue that despite the progress made as a result of those events that systemic racism, and to a lesser extent police brutality, are more of a social norm than an exception. Some people may also look at one of the main organizers of both events, MLK (who is often white washed and held up as an example of a good protestor) was consistently demonized, antagonized and brutally murdered while under surveillance by his own government.

I say all that to say that black people have been asking to be treated like the human beings we are for hundreds of years. Many of our prominent leaders who asked in the past are either dead or in prison. Some people have reached a point where they are tired of asking and receiving the same tired response to “be patient”. They want action. Leaders need to be sensitive to these concerns and not foster environments where corruption can flourish. When leaders fail to do this they open themselves, and the citizens they are charged with protecting, to riots.

 

Walked down to city hall to check out the gathering/protest... it seemed well attended and fairly orderly... some folks on bull horns being belligerent to LE but that's to be expected.

 

We can agree to disagree on whether Chauvin would've been arrested. I think the evidence was compelling enough to lead to an arrest and the authorities in MN showed with both LEO Noor and Yanez they are willing to arrest an LEO. In both cases it took weeks to make an arrest.

Regarding you last point. Who are these people who are tired and of asking and receiving the same tired response to be patient? Yes much of the people looting and burning were black (I didn't poll them to see if they African American or Somali) but many were white and other races. There were even a few Asians. How do those people factor into "the people" you speak of? For that matter most of the ones during the destruction were people that looked like they weren't even alive when Rodney King happened. Finally consider that looting has occurred far from where Floyd was killed in the 3rd Precinct. When the Target was looted at the same time miles away stores in Uptown were being robbed. Uptown is one of the trendy neighborhoods in Minneapolis with high end stores. Do you think that those people targeting Uptown were making a social statement?

 

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve disavowed rioting but let me make it clear once more: I. DO. NOT. CONDONE. RIOTING! I simply understand what riots truly are.....the language of the unheard. Riots aren’t logical, they are visceral violent response to oppression by people who feel utterly hopeless.

Who are the people tired of asking and receiving the same response? Those people are BLACK PEOPLE. While I have a few white and some Asian blood relatives, I’m black. My people are black people. I generally don’t concern myself with the activities of non-black people unless they affect black people.

 

Seems like defense will have a case depending on how intoxicated he was?