2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

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chaos
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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#226 Post by chaos » Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:21 pm

Xizen47 wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 7:09 pm
Doesn't the rioting/looting essentially render the protest/message ineffective? I'd honestly like to know how "peaceful protesting" is solving any problems right now. I'm not even sure I understand what they want, half of them probably don't know, they're out there yelling Death to America? Abolish the police? Equity? Donald Trump's a fascist lol... Someone needs to come up with a clear, well stated message.. Blms lack of leadership is going to be it's downfall.
I don't even know where to begin with this. WE DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. (We need an emoji that throws its hands in the air.) I responded to your hypothetical in a previous post. The one above is essentially a general rant.

Are you referring to the protests in Portland or nationwide? If Portland - who do you think is doing the rioting and looting?

By "them" are you are referring to people affiliated with BLM or everyone who is protesting?
I'd honestly like to know how "peaceful protesting" is solving any problems right now.
You got me there since cops have continued to kill black people, on tape no less, since the death of George Floyd.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#227 Post by mockbee » Thu Sep 03, 2020 2:39 pm

I went down to the Portland Federal Courthouse today, where the majority of the "newsworthy" protesting and associated riots have taken place over the last couple months. I went there for a SOLVE (typically beach cleanup org)/Central Business District litter clean up. It was not what I expected. At the same time it was what I totally expected for general "volunteers" to be doing.

The entire area was close to pristine when I got there, right as the clean up started. The entire park in front of the courthouse was completely cleaned up. Not a speck of garbage, not a hint of residual tear gas or pepper spray, no broken glass (outside a single whisky bottle), no wrappers, no discarded tents, no people, no police, very little graffiti, no nothing. Just a regular city park in front of a gigantic Federal Courthouse that was 95% cleaned up from the graffiti and broken glass that had adorned it just a month prior. There were maybe 2 tents and a couple "street people" in the park. On a normal day a year ago it would seem really strangely empty on a Thursday morning.

I understood pretty quickly that I was just a photo op prop for the local news. A TON of news people interviewing volunteers etc. I spent about 45 minutes and I picked up about 18 cigarette butts, 5 small scraps of paper and a broken whisky bottle. It's all I (or anyone there) could find. I went home feeling much better. Somehow the city/police cleared the area without it making it on the news. I don't know how they did it, but I am guessing Wheeler just allowed the tactics that other major cities use to clear out "undesirables" without being noticed. It's no coincidence that other major cities have concentrated areas where the "undesirables" congregate. It's typically places where I like to check out. I am not typically in favor of this sanitization, but we need a big reset. :bigrin:

Not saying by a long shot that our troubles are over, but that stuff is happening. TV and the interwebs is all a show. Believe nothing you see/hear on the TV and the web. Many things are plausible, but the vast majority is just patently not true.

The truth is always WAY too boring for the "news."


:bored:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#228 Post by kv » Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:23 pm

Yup

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#229 Post by mockbee » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:01 am

If anyone had any notions that there is someone better waiting in the wings to take over Portland. Iannorone is your only option.....
:neutral:

I'll take Wheeler anyday, even though he is a putz.

:noclue:


Your typical Portlamd voter:
Readers respond: Iannarone fails this voter
Today 6:30 AM
By Letters to the editor

I intended to vote for Sarah Iannarone for Portland mayor. Then I watched Laural Porter’s “Straight Talk” interview with Iannarone on KGW. Porter asked Iannarone five times if she would denounce the violence that has marred the protests. Porter pointed out that these non-protesters started a fire with people in the building. She told Iannarone that some of the damage was to Black-owned businesses. She also said the Black Lives Matter leaders and other Black community leaders had condemned the rioters, saying they distracted from the movement. Iannarone refused five times to denounce the violence, saying at one point that peaceful means might not be adequate.


Iannarone’s campaign tried the next day to walk back Iannarone’s position on violence. As Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler is honest. He has apologized for his handling of the protests and the rioters, accepted the blame, and is correcting course. He works well with the City Council. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, with whom he has publicly disagreed, has endorsed him for re-election. Wheeler is not the perfect candidate we dream of. We don’t have that option, but a choice between two people. I choose Ted Wheeler.

Mickey Harnage, Portland

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#230 Post by chaos » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:31 am

Why? Because he is dead, that's why. :eyes:

Michael Reinoehl, the man who killed Aaron “Jay” Danielson, was shot and killed by Thurston County Sheriff officers over three hours before The President tweeted this.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#231 Post by chaos » Fri Sep 04, 2020 1:51 pm

According to The US Crisis Monitor, the nationwide protests have been largely peaceful.

The US Crisis Monitor is made possible by support from the Bridging Divides Initiative at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination.

Via the link to their website, you can either scroll down the page or read the pdf version. It's easily readable, has topic headings to help you scan for more specific info, and has some interesting charts and maps. (It will probably be all over the news today that 93% of the protests were peaceful. That is based on this report.)

https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demons ... mmer-2020/

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#232 Post by Pandemonium » Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:16 am

mockbee wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 2:39 pm
(snip)

Not saying by a long shot that our troubles are over, but that stuff is happening. TV and the interwebs is all a show. Believe nothing you see/hear on the TV and the web. Many things are plausible, but the vast majority is just patently not true.

The truth is always WAY too boring for the "news."

:bored:
Hey Mockbee, is this guy overstating what's still going on in Portland even as of Friday night or what?

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/with_replies

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#233 Post by Xizen47 » Sat Sep 05, 2020 11:50 am

Numbers from August aren't in yet, but July saw Portlands highest monthly homicide rate in 30 years, and almost triple the shootings from a year ago. Coincidently, Portlands Anti Gun Violence task force was dissolved at the beginning of July.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#234 Post by mockbee » Sat Sep 05, 2020 4:20 pm

Pandemonium wrote:
Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:16 am
mockbee wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 2:39 pm
(snip)

Not saying by a long shot that our troubles are over, but that stuff is happening. TV and the interwebs is all a show. Believe nothing you see/hear on the TV and the web. Many things are plausible, but the vast majority is just patently not true.

The truth is always WAY too boring for the "news."

:bored:
Hey Mockbee, is this guy overstating what's still going on in Portland even as of Friday night or what?

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/with_replies
I guess it all depends on what you feel is still going on in Portland?

Did all those snippets of video really happen? Sure.
Did all those snippets of video tell a totally accurate story? No.
Did all those snippets prove that all protesters are violent hooligans? No.
Did it prove that protesters are mostly peaceful and just get jacked by the police? No.
Did it prove that all cops are bastards? No.
Did it prove that most all cops are only out for the greater good and rarely, if ever, overreact? No
Do I fear for my safety? No.

Am I very frustrated and want this shit from all sides in its current incarnation to end? Yes!

There is no way to answer those questions in a general sense. Even for a specific instance. You'd have to be there. And even then, you'd have to have multiple sides of the story, with backstories of events.

Simple as that? No way. Extremely complex. We (Americans) no longer have the patience for nuance.

Funny, the scenes on the street at the Chevron/7-11 I drive by most every day. It's literally 8 blocks from my house. Honestly, I don't even pay attention to it anymore. 100 days of being glued to the local news, no thanks.....after about 40 or 50 days I was out.

Do you think Andy Ngo is overstating what is going on in Portland?
:noclue:




Oh, and do I think that any of these protests/riots in the last month or two (since the dust up with the Feds at the courthouse) have ANYTHING to do with BLM? Absolutely not.

Sure there are are BLM signs and some local groups with historic BLM connections have been associated with protests that turned into riots. But I am pretty certain that any of the pre-violent BLM people/groups were NOT envisioning this as the movement.They've been jacked by the anarchists, who are real, and have had a strong historic connection with the Pacific NW (Seattle/Portland/Eugene).

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#235 Post by mockbee » Sat Sep 05, 2020 4:55 pm

Heh.

It's ironic isn't it.

I live 8 blocks from this and I'm not really worried about it.
I dont think we are on the brink of societal collapse and I don't, for an instant, fear for my safety on a daily basis. If I was at N Lombard and Denver Ave at 1am in Portland last night would I fear for safety? Hell yeah! But wouldn't that be true at any location where general crimes are being committed, as they have been on a nightly basis for that last couple hundred years of US history? Hell you KNOW exactly where and when these crimes will take place!! Easy to avoid! :lol:


Yet........whats happening 8 blocks from me, that I am just sort of annoyed about, will be cited, by all sides, for re-electing Trump as the leader of the Free World.

:noclue:

:jasper:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#236 Post by mockbee » Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:46 pm

We liberals are not "safe" in our neighborhoods here in Portland anymore. :neutral:

If you "support" BLM you had better be marching, at night, terrorizing neighborhoods. Otherwise you will be called out. This is now the "official" BLM Portland nightly march.

Our main challenger for Portland Mayor supports and is involved with these marches. They pick a new neighborhood each night..

Effective....?

We'll see....

:bored:

Some Protests Against Police Brutality Take a More Confrontational Approach

The protests are moving into white residential neighborhoods, where activists demand that people choose a side.


Image
A march through a residential area in Portland, Ore., this month. Protesters have argued that not enough has changed quickly enough to prevent and punish police misconduct.



By Nellie Bowles
Sept. 21, 2020
Updated 2:09 p.m. ET


PORTLAND, Ore. — Terrance Moses was watching protesters against police brutality march down his quiet residential street one recent evening when some in the group of a few hundred suddenly stopped and started yelling.

Mr. Moses was initially not sure what the protesters were upset about, but as he got closer, he saw it: His neighbors had an American flag on display.

“It went from a peaceful march, calling out the names, to all of a sudden, bang, ‘How dare you fly the American flag?’” said Mr. Moses, who is Black and runs a nonprofit group in the Portland, Ore., area. “They said take it down. They wouldn’t leave. They said they’re going to come back and burn the house down.”

Mr. Moses and others blocked the demonstrators and told them to leave.

“We don’t go around terrorizing folks to try and force them to do something they don’t want to do,” said Mr. Moses, whose nonprofit group provides support for local homeless people. “I’m a veteran. I’m for these liberties.”


Nearly four months after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, some protesters against police brutality are taking a more confrontational — and personal — approach. The marches in Portland are increasingly moving to residential and largely white neighborhoods, where demonstrators with bullhorns shout for people to come “out of your house and into the street” and demonstrate their support.

These more aggressive protests target ordinary people going about their lives, especially those who decline to demonstrate allegiance to the cause. That includes a diner in Washington who refused to raise her fist to show support for Black Lives Matter, or, in several cities, confused drivers who happened upon the protests.

But the tactics are dividing supporters of Black Lives Matter, with some worried that the confrontational approach will antagonize people who would be otherwise be receptive to the message, or play into conservatives’ critique of the protests, which have been largely nonviolent nationally.

Others, frustrated that little has changed since Mr. Floyd was killed, say that sitting idly and watching a protest without participating nowadays is to show tacit support for racism.

“We don’t need allies anymore,” said Stephen Green, an investor and entrepreneur in Portland who is Black. “We need accomplices.”

In Rochester, N.Y., protesters have confronted people at outdoor restaurants, shaking dinner tables. Marchers in Washington also accosted people eating outside, urging everyone to raise their fists to show their allegiance to the movement.

The more personal tactics echo those being used against elected officials, with activists showing up not only outside mayor’s offices but their homes as well. The apartment building where the mayor of Portland lives has been vandalized. Protesters lit fires outside, ignited fireworks, and broke into one of the businesses in the building on his birthday. In San Jose, Calif., demonstrators graffitied and egged the mayor’s house and lit an American flag in front of it, according to the police. In Rochester, people have recently posted police officers’ home addresses and information about their families, according to a police spokeswoman.

In Portland, Jessie Burke, who is white and owns a coffee shop in the city, said the message of the movement is getting lost as the protests escalate and target ordinary residents in their homes.

“Everyone was looking for solutions at first, but now it’s just a nightly fight that has gotten progressively more violent — and every neighborhood worries that the fight will come to their neighborhood,” Mr. Burke said. “It’s: ‘Wake up, wake up, you need to be in the street protesting if you stand for this.’”

Still, Mr. Green argued that the tactics are working, even as they inconvenienced him and his family. He described the smell of tear gas and wail of sirens as the marches came to his neighborhood, which he said kept his 7-year-old daughter awake.

“It’s one thing if you can see something on TV, but if you can hear it and you can smell it in your house, that brings it home,” said Mr. Green, who grew up in Portland. “We need people willing to say, ‘I’m down to lose this friend because stuff needs to change. I’m down to make my neighbor uncomfortable.’ Being nice wasn’t changing anything.”

Lindsey E. Murphy agreed. She marched with the protesters through one of Portland’s wealthiest neighborhoods on a recent night and found it deeply moving. She watched white demonstrators shouting at white residents that Black lives matter — and the residents joining in with the chant.

“The crowd was — I won’t even say mostly white — I’ll say it was an almost exclusively white crowd marching through the whitest neighborhood in Portland shouting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Black Lives Are Magic’,” said Ms. Murphy, who is Black and hosts an educational children’s YouTube series. “What I was witnessing was a lamenting prayer, a cry of remorse and shame among the white people. That’s what I saw. It was healing.”

The American flag that generated controversy is displayed in Kenton, a neighborhood of Portland with small bungalows, lush front gardens and ripe fruit trees. Weeks after the confrontation, the husband and wife who fly the flag said they were fearful of retaliation from the roving protesters, who had found their phone number.

But they say they will not be intimidated into removing the flag.

“I will not take my flag down,” said the husband, who declined to provide his name in a brief interview.

The same night the protesters came to the couple’s door last month, they marched into Kenton’s commercial district and used restaurant picnic tables as fuel for fires. They collected the colorful wooden dividers the neighbors had recently built for outdoor dining and set those ablaze as well. Mr. Moses and others in the community ran into the protests with fire extinguishers.

Protesters that night broke into the Portland Police Association building and set it on fire. A man was later seen scrubbing the sidewalk graffiti — a popular message was “PPB = KKK,” meaning that the Portland Police Bureau is the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Green said that he opposed the destruction of property, but that he also understood it. And he believes, generally, that the more direct protest tactics in residential areas are working because they make the movement more personal, and reveal who truly supports change. If someone is against the movement, they keep their lights off or refuse to raise their fist, he said, adding that taking the debate into homes and to families is essential.

Some residents in Portland say the tactics are escalating as the protests become increasingly dominated by white people, including anarchists and supporters of antifa, the diffuse collection of militant left-wing activists that has a strong presence in the region.

The movement is splintered in Portland between more mainstream Black Lives Matter marches and the more aggressive, sometimes chaotic antifa or black bloc protests, where demonstrators dress in black and wear motorcycle helmets or ski masks to make it difficult to identify — or later prosecute — them.

One night this month, there were two protests promoted on the Black Lives Matter Portland Events page: a “nonviolent protest” in the city center and “an autonomously organized direct action march.”

No one appeared to be at the city center protest. But around 200 people were at the other event.

They gathered in an unlit park in a residential neighborhood around 8 p.m. Everyone wore black, including some protesters who had on body armor and motorcycle helmets. They hastily set up picnic tables and supply booths in the dark, using cellphones for light to showcase their goods. There was a food table overflowing with protein bars and Monster energy drinks.

A small free literature selection was set up on the grass and overseen by three people in ski masks. It was a popular offering, and people crowded around, craning to see the pamphlets.

Titles included “Why Break Windows”; “I Want To Kill Cops Until I’m Dead”; “Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms”; “In Defense of Smashing Cameras”; and “Three-Way Fight: Revolutionary Anti-Fascism and Armed Self Defense.”

The energy was something like a carnival in the dark.

“Paint balloons, get your paint balloons,” someone barked.

But around 9:30, the group was in some organizational chaos. They had decided that the neighborhood close by was too racially diverse for them to protest in. They needed to go somewhere whiter.

So the protesters caravaned 20 minutes away to Alberta, a more affluent neighborhood that began being gentrified in the 1990s. They reassembled and marched through the streets.

Neighbors in impressive Craftsman-style homes pulled down their shades and turned off their lights, though many could be seen peering out of dark windows. One woman stepped out of an expansive home looking angry; upon seeing the crowd, she quickly retreated indoors. A few young couples stood in their doorways. A Black woman driving past honked and cheered.

One white man stepped onto his patio clapping and hollering in support of the passing march. The group called for him to join. He smiled and waved them on, still clapping. They began to chant that he was spineless. He looked worried. But the march moved along, and he went back into his house. :eyes:

“You’ll never sleep tight, we do this every night,” the protesters chanted.
:bored:

Nellie Bowles covers tech and internet culture from San Francisco for The New York Times. Before joining The Times, she was a correspondent for “VICE News Tonight.” She has written for California Sunday, Recode, The Guardian, and the San Francisco Chronicle. @nelliebowles

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#237 Post by Hokahey » Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:45 pm

mockbee wrote:
Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:46 pm
We liberals are not "safe" in our neighborhoods here in Portland anymore. :neutral:

If you "support" BLM you had better be marching, at night, terrorizing neighborhoods. Otherwise you will be called out. This is now the "official" BLM Portland nightly march.

Our main challenger for Portland Mayor supports and is involved with these marches. They pick a new neighborhood each night..

Effective....?

We'll see....

:bored:

Some Protests Against Police Brutality Take a More Confrontational Approach

The protests are moving into white residential neighborhoods, where activists demand that people choose a side.


Image
A march through a residential area in Portland, Ore., this month. Protesters have argued that not enough has changed quickly enough to prevent and punish police misconduct.



By Nellie Bowles
Sept. 21, 2020
Updated 2:09 p.m. ET


PORTLAND, Ore. — Terrance Moses was watching protesters against police brutality march down his quiet residential street one recent evening when some in the group of a few hundred suddenly stopped and started yelling.

Mr. Moses was initially not sure what the protesters were upset about, but as he got closer, he saw it: His neighbors had an American flag on display.

“It went from a peaceful march, calling out the names, to all of a sudden, bang, ‘How dare you fly the American flag?’” said Mr. Moses, who is Black and runs a nonprofit group in the Portland, Ore., area. “They said take it down. They wouldn’t leave. They said they’re going to come back and burn the house down.”

Mr. Moses and others blocked the demonstrators and told them to leave.

“We don’t go around terrorizing folks to try and force them to do something they don’t want to do,” said Mr. Moses, whose nonprofit group provides support for local homeless people. “I’m a veteran. I’m for these liberties.”


Nearly four months after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, some protesters against police brutality are taking a more confrontational — and personal — approach. The marches in Portland are increasingly moving to residential and largely white neighborhoods, where demonstrators with bullhorns shout for people to come “out of your house and into the street” and demonstrate their support.

These more aggressive protests target ordinary people going about their lives, especially those who decline to demonstrate allegiance to the cause. That includes a diner in Washington who refused to raise her fist to show support for Black Lives Matter, or, in several cities, confused drivers who happened upon the protests.

But the tactics are dividing supporters of Black Lives Matter, with some worried that the confrontational approach will antagonize people who would be otherwise be receptive to the message, or play into conservatives’ critique of the protests, which have been largely nonviolent nationally.

Others, frustrated that little has changed since Mr. Floyd was killed, say that sitting idly and watching a protest without participating nowadays is to show tacit support for racism.

“We don’t need allies anymore,” said Stephen Green, an investor and entrepreneur in Portland who is Black. “We need accomplices.”

In Rochester, N.Y., protesters have confronted people at outdoor restaurants, shaking dinner tables. Marchers in Washington also accosted people eating outside, urging everyone to raise their fists to show their allegiance to the movement.

The more personal tactics echo those being used against elected officials, with activists showing up not only outside mayor’s offices but their homes as well. The apartment building where the mayor of Portland lives has been vandalized. Protesters lit fires outside, ignited fireworks, and broke into one of the businesses in the building on his birthday. In San Jose, Calif., demonstrators graffitied and egged the mayor’s house and lit an American flag in front of it, according to the police. In Rochester, people have recently posted police officers’ home addresses and information about their families, according to a police spokeswoman.

In Portland, Jessie Burke, who is white and owns a coffee shop in the city, said the message of the movement is getting lost as the protests escalate and target ordinary residents in their homes.

“Everyone was looking for solutions at first, but now it’s just a nightly fight that has gotten progressively more violent — and every neighborhood worries that the fight will come to their neighborhood,” Mr. Burke said. “It’s: ‘Wake up, wake up, you need to be in the street protesting if you stand for this.’”

Still, Mr. Green argued that the tactics are working, even as they inconvenienced him and his family. He described the smell of tear gas and wail of sirens as the marches came to his neighborhood, which he said kept his 7-year-old daughter awake.

“It’s one thing if you can see something on TV, but if you can hear it and you can smell it in your house, that brings it home,” said Mr. Green, who grew up in Portland. “We need people willing to say, ‘I’m down to lose this friend because stuff needs to change. I’m down to make my neighbor uncomfortable.’ Being nice wasn’t changing anything.”

Lindsey E. Murphy agreed. She marched with the protesters through one of Portland’s wealthiest neighborhoods on a recent night and found it deeply moving. She watched white demonstrators shouting at white residents that Black lives matter — and the residents joining in with the chant.

“The crowd was — I won’t even say mostly white — I’ll say it was an almost exclusively white crowd marching through the whitest neighborhood in Portland shouting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Black Lives Are Magic’,” said Ms. Murphy, who is Black and hosts an educational children’s YouTube series. “What I was witnessing was a lamenting prayer, a cry of remorse and shame among the white people. That’s what I saw. It was healing.”

The American flag that generated controversy is displayed in Kenton, a neighborhood of Portland with small bungalows, lush front gardens and ripe fruit trees. Weeks after the confrontation, the husband and wife who fly the flag said they were fearful of retaliation from the roving protesters, who had found their phone number.

But they say they will not be intimidated into removing the flag.

“I will not take my flag down,” said the husband, who declined to provide his name in a brief interview.

The same night the protesters came to the couple’s door last month, they marched into Kenton’s commercial district and used restaurant picnic tables as fuel for fires. They collected the colorful wooden dividers the neighbors had recently built for outdoor dining and set those ablaze as well. Mr. Moses and others in the community ran into the protests with fire extinguishers.

Protesters that night broke into the Portland Police Association building and set it on fire. A man was later seen scrubbing the sidewalk graffiti — a popular message was “PPB = KKK,” meaning that the Portland Police Bureau is the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Green said that he opposed the destruction of property, but that he also understood it. And he believes, generally, that the more direct protest tactics in residential areas are working because they make the movement more personal, and reveal who truly supports change. If someone is against the movement, they keep their lights off or refuse to raise their fist, he said, adding that taking the debate into homes and to families is essential.

Some residents in Portland say the tactics are escalating as the protests become increasingly dominated by white people, including anarchists and supporters of antifa, the diffuse collection of militant left-wing activists that has a strong presence in the region.

The movement is splintered in Portland between more mainstream Black Lives Matter marches and the more aggressive, sometimes chaotic antifa or black bloc protests, where demonstrators dress in black and wear motorcycle helmets or ski masks to make it difficult to identify — or later prosecute — them.

One night this month, there were two protests promoted on the Black Lives Matter Portland Events page: a “nonviolent protest” in the city center and “an autonomously organized direct action march.”

No one appeared to be at the city center protest. But around 200 people were at the other event.

They gathered in an unlit park in a residential neighborhood around 8 p.m. Everyone wore black, including some protesters who had on body armor and motorcycle helmets. They hastily set up picnic tables and supply booths in the dark, using cellphones for light to showcase their goods. There was a food table overflowing with protein bars and Monster energy drinks.

A small free literature selection was set up on the grass and overseen by three people in ski masks. It was a popular offering, and people crowded around, craning to see the pamphlets.

Titles included “Why Break Windows”; “I Want To Kill Cops Until I’m Dead”; “Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms”; “In Defense of Smashing Cameras”; and “Three-Way Fight: Revolutionary Anti-Fascism and Armed Self Defense.”

The energy was something like a carnival in the dark.

“Paint balloons, get your paint balloons,” someone barked.

But around 9:30, the group was in some organizational chaos. They had decided that the neighborhood close by was too racially diverse for them to protest in. They needed to go somewhere whiter.

So the protesters caravaned 20 minutes away to Alberta, a more affluent neighborhood that began being gentrified in the 1990s. They reassembled and marched through the streets.

Neighbors in impressive Craftsman-style homes pulled down their shades and turned off their lights, though many could be seen peering out of dark windows. One woman stepped out of an expansive home looking angry; upon seeing the crowd, she quickly retreated indoors. A few young couples stood in their doorways. A Black woman driving past honked and cheered.

One white man stepped onto his patio clapping and hollering in support of the passing march. The group called for him to join. He smiled and waved them on, still clapping. They began to chant that he was spineless. He looked worried. But the march moved along, and he went back into his house. :eyes:

“You’ll never sleep tight, we do this every night,” the protesters chanted.
:bored:

Nellie Bowles covers tech and internet culture from San Francisco for The New York Times. Before joining The Times, she was a correspondent for “VICE News Tonight.” She has written for California Sunday, Recode, The Guardian, and the San Francisco Chronicle. @nelliebowles
This kind of shit is exactly what will get Trump re-elected. The extremes of both parties have lost their fucking minds.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#238 Post by mockbee » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:58 am

I don't think this will be why Trump is reelected with a sizable majority.

But it will be a favored scapegoat for sure.

:noclue:




It's curious really. Racism. The false narratives by liberals that have deep veins of truth is their own achilles heel.

The protesters running through our neighborhoods, calling everyone racists and hypocrites are right, in many senses.

Should they be terrorizing people at home?
No.

Would people acknowledge them if they were not being disobedient and engaging in potentially, and sometimes, heinous activities?
Our media culture says: No.


If most all Trump voters are racists, according to liberals. Then, it seems, we just might all be racist. That is a very uncomfortable notion for sure. A reason to find a convenient scapegoat....

They may be correct, I wouldn't necessarily argue with that...... :tiphat:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#239 Post by Pandemonium » Tue Sep 22, 2020 10:29 am

mockbee wrote:
Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:46 pm
We liberals are not "safe" in our neighborhoods here in Portland anymore. :neutral:

If you "support" BLM you had better be marching, at night, terrorizing neighborhoods. Otherwise you will be called out. This is now the "official" BLM Portland nightly march.

Our main challenger for Portland Mayor supports and is involved with these marches. They pick a new neighborhood each night..

Effective....?

We'll see....

:bored:
(snip)
Honestly, I've lost any sympathy for residents in places like Portland who've sat idly by and let this go on for months. When you have no elected officials willing to take a stand, no one who'll put themselves up as a future candidate for Mayor or whatever as an alternative to the cowering, pandering idiots currently in charge and a population who is apparently content to hide their heads in the sand, you may as well hand over the keys to your home and car to these fascist bullies, drop down on your knees and pledge allegiance.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#240 Post by mockbee » Wed Sep 23, 2020 5:07 am

Pandemonium wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 10:29 am


Honestly, I've lost any sympathy for residents in places like Portland who've sat idly by and let this go on for months. When you have no elected officials willing to take a stand, no one who'll put themselves up as a future candidate for Mayor or whatever as an alternative to the cowering, pandering idiots currently in charge and a population who is apparently content to hide their heads in the sand, you may as well hand over the keys to your home and car to these fascist bullies, drop down on your knees and pledge allegiance.
Oh...in reality, we already have the perfect candidate! Ready to go! :wink:

Image

"We are a country with an open wound. None of us can turn away. None of us can be silent," Biden wrote in an accompanying tweet. "None of us any longer can hear those words — 'I can't breathe' — and do nothing. We must commit, as a nation, to pursue justice with every ounce of our being."

See, I know the above is hyperbole, but you have to admit.....the optics on this are really, really bad..... :noclue:

Adding insult is that I know of NO ONE who will vote for Biden in Portland. They are doing write-ins (Bernie, etc) or some Trump. And you go to the suburbs and outlying towns Trump all the way. Countryside? Forget about it.
It's funny to me that a lot of liberals think this is all smoke.....and that Biden is good to go. Ya ya ya off goes mockbee.....

I don't see the smoke people are talking about. To me the stars seems clear and bright as a desert night in the middle of nowhere.... :noclue:

What am I trying to do here? Trying to figure out what the duck is really going on here, just like everybody else....
:thumb:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#241 Post by Xizen47 » Wed Sep 23, 2020 9:02 am

mockbee wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:58 am
The protesters running through our neighborhoods, calling everyone racists and hypocrites are right, in many senses.
I completely disagree with this. Please explain how "everyone is racist"?

This is where the far left loses me and most of America. This Robin DeAngelo, Ibram X. Kendi pushed narrative that "if you're white, you're racist" is a huge step backwards regarding race relations in America today.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#242 Post by mockbee » Wed Sep 23, 2020 3:56 pm

Xizen47 wrote:
Wed Sep 23, 2020 9:02 am
mockbee wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:58 am
The protesters running through our neighborhoods, calling everyone racists and hypocrites are right, in many senses.
I completely disagree with this. Please explain how "everyone is racist"?

This is where the far left loses me and most of America. This Robin DeAngelo, Ibram X. Kendi pushed narrative that "if you're white, you're racist" is a huge step backwards regarding race relations in America today.

Well, this could lead down many specious and/or misguided tangents, so I'll/let's just try to narrow down what I'm actually insinuating.

First of all, I'll just make as clear statements as I can about where I stand:

1. What those white protesters are doing, marching down residential streets calling people out at their homes is disgusting and abhorrent. There is no room for their righteousness in a nation that prides liberty above fascism.

2. There are truly racist/bigoted people in this country (and in every country, all over the world) who are despicable and politically dangerous, meaning their primary objective in voting and socialization is to discriminate between races, genders etc. They should be publically denounced when their voices are elevated and their true intentions are displayed. I would put the figure between 10-15% of the population (of all political stripes, both sides for sure) who would actually be guilty of displaying such consequential qualities. I don't have research to back that up, just based on my general experience in life. I don't count what people are thinking. Nobody knows what people are actually thinking.

3. Black/Brown etc. people can be racist, meaning displaying preferential/discriminatory treatment because of one's race. Minorities are far and away the greater victims of consequential racism in our society. There is no question about that. I know there is academic debate about what qualifies as racism/racist and I am not addressing that, I'm not an academic.

4. Calling all/most all Trump voters racist is specious. Meaning they are racist because they vote for a plausibly racist man is not right. That invalidates a host of other reasons why they may vote for him. And to say those reasons, economic/security/religious/whatever are not valid isn't in the vein of democracy. Surely you could say the same about all Biden voters. Biden is FAR from being a saint in racial equality matters. But this reasoning is not why I claim we are all racist in some respect.


Now getting to your actual question. First of all, you bring up Kendi and DiAngelo. I have not read their work, but I am aware of it and have heard them speak. I respect their opinions, but also find some of it patently racist, if we are using the simple definition of the term. Is it consequentially racist? I dont know. Maybe, if it just splinters people and it's primary objective is a self loathing society, as what we seem to have achieved here in Portland. It's too soon to tell.
:noclue:

Here is a passage that addresses her work that I agree with.
As such, a major bugbear for DiAngelo is the white American, often of modest education, who makes statements like I don’t see color or asks questions like How dare you call me “racist”? Her assumption that all people have a racist bias is reasonable—science has demonstrated it. The problem is what DiAngelo thinks must follow as the result of it.

DiAngelo has spent a very long time conducting diversity seminars in which whites, exposed to her catechism, regularly tell her—many while crying, yelling, or storming toward the exit—that she’s insulting them and being reductionist. Yet none of this seems to have led her to look inward. Rather, she sees herself as the bearer of an exalted wisdom that these objectors fail to perceive, blinded by their inner racism. DiAngelo is less a coach than a proselytizer.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ty/614146/
Portland is a good example. We hate ourselves here. We are very very guilty and we don't know what to do about it. I don't hate myself, but I find that I have to often pretend to in order to fit in, get jobs, etc. I think, if we are really not racist and never were personally racist, we wouldn't feel guilty. That is not the case. And I am not excluding myself from the muck of holding biases, just as I am accusing everyone else of. Just I am not going to feel bad about it, and I am going to do my personal best to mitigate those biases. This is the intrinsic racism I am refering to, that is in all of us. Certainly, we are not all hateful, but we do all have racial biases, some more than others depending on our environment and upbringing.

Now, you might go, well I don't live in Portland, and things are fine here, or really improving, so what does that prove? Well, that's wishful thinking I would say. I would say you have blinders on if you think things are mostly fine where you are at and you hold no racial biases. We are all still the benefactors of racial stratification. That part is important. Benefiting from systemic racism (redlining/gentrification/school funding/etc) and not caring to do anything about it i'd say is a form of racism. I think the guilty and non-guilty alike, are in the same boat, just some are more consciously aware then others. Not saying the guilty are the aware ones, a lot of them are total idiots, just like many of the aloof ones....

Categorizing people on the basis of race is inherently racist. Again, is it consequential? Yes...and no. I think we do need a form of affirmative action and that has racial bias with certain consequences, both for the discriminated against, who do not get certain positions even though they are likely qualified, and for the benefactors who do get positions, who are also likely qualified, but are of the right race. I have spoken to Black individuals who would write their SAT scores on papers and exams in the 90s at their Ivy schools because they did not want to be perceived as having had preferential treatment. They had good backstory reasons for doing so. That's all okay in mind, all this racial examination and trying our best to figure it out. But to act like certain large swaths of individuals are immune to this possibly being consequential racism (not the blatant racism), all races included, is specious, in my mind. It would be of benefit to personally acknowledge our intrinsic (scientifically proven) racial biases in moving forward. Should it be mandated that we all go through trainings to accomplish this or be yelled at from the street by righteous dimwits? No.

Well I could go on, and I am not saying that I am right. That's just where I stand at the moment. We are all racist in some respect, thats all I'm saying, some far more consequentially than others....
:noclue:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#243 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Sep 23, 2020 8:56 pm

Looks like we're in for a renewed round of violent protesting in some major cities this week thanks to the Grand Jury not indicting any of the cops for murder in the Breonna Taylor case. Already, at least two cops at the confrontation in Louisville have been shot tonight despite a curfew and the deployment of the National Guard and I'd expect things to get even worse going into the weekend.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#244 Post by kv » Thu Sep 24, 2020 12:07 am

Yup feds on the ground gonna be a long week

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#245 Post by mockbee » Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:37 am

Idiotville Update! :lol:
(don't worry, we are "green" here so the statues were recycled and repurposed.......if you were concerned about that. Seriously. :confused: :lolol: )


A group of protesters toppled statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and shattered the entrance to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland’s South Park Blocks late Sunday before moving into other areas of downtown, smashing storefronts and engaging in other acts of destruction. Protest organizers had promoted the event on social media as an “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.” President Donald Trump on Monday called for arrests and federal intervention. This video was obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Read more about this story at The Oregonian/OregonLive: https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/202 ... -rage.html

I was watching the debate between Mayor Wheeler and Iannarone (virtual) and pretty much every question (understandably) was about the protests/riots and, one about the rampant houseless situation. When asked about what to do about the riots and violence, Wheeler was emphatic I MEAN EMPHATIC that he was against violence. That was his answer, in entirety. Over and over he is against it. No plan to mitigate it, didn't get to that part, or doesn't have a plan for that. Also...importantly, that (being against violence, for sure) set him apart from Iannorone, who was a little more wishy washy about being against violence. Many factors at play here she said......

Iannarone is currently in a pretty comfortable lead against Wheeler.

:drink: :dunce: :banghead: :balls: :balls: :aoa: :crazy: :bored: :ax: :jasper:


I'm voting for this guy:

Image
Bruce Broussard - small business owner in outer east portland who thinks these riots and violence is a bunch of bullshit and doesn't address real problems of minority business owners, police accountability and the general population at large. Currently he has 5% of the vote. :noclue:

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#246 Post by mockbee » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:12 am



Image
Portland protesters outside Commissioner Dan Ryan's house

Protesters gather for vigil in Portland after police kill Black man in Philadelphia
Updated Oct 28, 2020; Posted Oct 27, 2020
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/10 ... lphia.html


.........Later Tuesday night in Portland, a group of at least 50 demonstrators gathered at King School Park in Northeast Portland. About 10 p.m., they marched along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Killingsworth Street.

A group of protesters marched to Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan's house. There, they chanted to defund the Portland Police Bureau. Ryan, who holds a pivotal upcoming vote in deciding funding for the Portland Police Bureau, came out of his house and spoke with the demonstrators.

Another group met at Arbor Lodge Park in North Portland and about 11 p.m. silently marched to Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan’s house. There, they chanted to defund the Portland Police Bureau.


Ryan, who holds a pivotal upcoming vote in deciding funding for the Portland Police Bureau, told the demonstrators he would sit down and have an “honest discussion” with them if they agreed. Moments later, he stood in front of the group of about 75, which gathered around him in the front of his house, and the discussion ensued.

The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Wednesday. Ryan was asked about his vote, and he said he hasn’t made his mind up yet and wouldn’t do so at 11:30 p.m. with people rolling video in front of his home. Instead, he said, he will decide Wednesday.


Ryan spoke with the group for about an hour before the gathering broke up.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

This is how we conduct business now in Portland. :noclue:

The "left" is getting things done.....yay....... :scared: :no:

I can't remotely support this, this is pathetic and a very dangerous precedent we seem to be okay with in this city.

Iannorone, our Mayoral opposition candidate, a full supporter of these tactics, is very much in contention for victory.


Black Lives Matter....? :neutral: :scared:


Maybe they are talking about the clothing they wear.......because certainly they are not concerned about anyone's race. :no:
Last edited by mockbee on Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:28 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#247 Post by mockbee » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:18 am

Yeah, doesn't really belong here, but really riot/protest related.

As our politics may be coming to a neighborhood near you..... :thumb:
Image
An October 2020 photo of Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone next to a ballot she tweeted on her official campaign Twitter feed on May 1, 2016. (KOIN)

Iannarone’s tweet of ‘violent despots’ stirs Portland mayor’s race

Poll shows the race is effectively tied one week before Election Day



PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Just a week before the 2020 election, Portland’s mayoral race is scrutinizing a tweet from the 2016 primary campaign.

Last Friday, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s campaign released a statement taking challenger Sarah Iannarone to task for “writing in violent despots like Ho Chi Minh and Joseph Stalin on her 2016 ballot.” The tweet, from May 1, 2016, also includes write-in votes for Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Lenin, plus others.

Most are figures on the global stage responsible for the deaths of millions of people over multiple decades.

Iannarone campaign manager Gregory McKelvey told KOIN 6 News by email that’s not her ballot. Iannarone, he said, “posted the ballots of many of her supporters who sent them in after voting for her.”

When she posted that tweet at 9:44 p.m. that night, she added: “Quite possibly my favorite “I voted this way” photo to date (tho I 😍 them all) #pdxmayor #forcetherunoff”


.................

Wheeler campaign manager Danny O’Halloran said, essentially, it really doesn’t matter if that’s her ballot.

“No one who saw that tweet would have any way of thinking that (it wasn’t her ballot),” O’Halloran told KOIN 6 News. “But more importantly it doesn’t really matter. On that ballot is a vote for Sarah Iannarone and everyone else written in was a Communist dictator. And her choosing to post that is just as inflammatory and mocks our democratic institutions in just the same way.”

The tweet, he said, “fits a pattern of constant inciteful rhetoric by Sarah Iannarone and her campaign. She has repeatedly said she is affiliated with Antifa, she has chosen to wear items of clothing with Mao Zedong’s face on it, she posted this tweet of a ballot with Communist dictators names – seeming to praise it – and she has been asked in interviews to condemn violent protest and has refused to, going as far as to say in an interview that peaceful protest might not be going far enough.”

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#248 Post by Pandemonium » Mon Nov 02, 2020 2:10 pm

Many major cities' businesses are boarding up in anticipation of violence and looting tomorrow night, especially if there's no clear winner for days or worse, if Trump wins. Fucking people.....

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#249 Post by chaos » Mon Nov 02, 2020 2:40 pm

The FBI and DHS has stated that right-wing extremist groups (Boogaloo Boys, Proud Boys) are the groups where most of the chatter about violence is coming from.

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Re: 2020 US Racial/Political Protests and Riots

#250 Post by mockbee » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:56 pm

No doubt there is a lot of concern.

I really have a hard time seeing any additional violence, beyond what has already occurred, happening. Regardless of who wins really. Just more of the crappy same, possibly.


I don't see a revolution brewing, or even enough violent foment, due specifically to the election, for a full fledged riot. Millions of terribly distraught people unfortunately, no matter who wins, but not the kind of despair that leads to violence.

We got other problems for sure though....
:noclue:

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