Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

A black family tried to get the attention of the police to protect a neighborhood store in Van Nuys and were immediately handcuffed.
 
@Dustcan  

 
That would be a return to an old American tradition tho.

@doloresbridge  
You say that but he’s in commander and chief of the military.

@The Smiling Pony  

 
Relevant.
 

 
Relevant.

@The Smiling Pony  
@Dustcan  
As if there is no difference between the two protests, their reasoning or goals.  

@The Smiling Pony  
There is a very fine line between peaceful protestors trying to defending their rights from the Authoritarian regime in china and the Rioters killing innocent people in the US.
 
Like, are you fucking serious? How are The Violent rioters(Who even conservatives know don’t represent the majority of the protestors) comparable to the more peaceful protestors of hong kong? you aren’t making your “side” look very well informed.

@Background Pony #FE3C  
Congrats. You support violating the Constitution international law.

@Vivace  
How about you actually try making a point instead of putting words in people’s mouths?

@Vivace  

 
Technically you’re right, it’s Congress that should be doing it. Unfortunately everyone in the government stopped caring about who does what a long time ago so the President is a de facto dictator anyway. But as far as constitutional violations go, putting down an actual riot is not the worst at all in the past hundred years.

@igotnopicks  
I’m not denying the potential for this to go wrong or fears on the authoritarianism front do to state sovereignty. I just don’t see things going killdozer with mass massacres of hundreds or thousands. Trump can’t even get us out of Syria. Sure, he can get the military in the sheets and it could go very wrong but I don’t think this is going to be a calculated culling with all the layers of bureaucracy and his own flip flopping half the time.

@Background Pony #2F82  
Why are you booing me? I’m right.

Can you really trust the police or are they siding with the looters?
 
Trapped looters bust through store window amid chaos during Long Beach protest | ABC7  
The looters ran away and some threw clothes and items out of the window, leaving them at the scene.  
Police were standing nearby but seemingly made no attempt to stop the looters.  
Also in Long Beach, dozens of looters could be seen later breaking into a Hot Topic store at the Pike Outlets down the street. Police were not seen near the area as the looting occurred.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebd_dKIg9Ck  
https://abc7.com/video-trapped-long-beach-looters-bust-through-store-window/6223845/
 
Videos continue to surface showing protesters stumbling upon pallets of bricks or pavers in areas with no construction taking place  
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1267320993032388608  
In Fayetteville, North Carolina yesterday, a pile of bricks was found on the street nowhere near a construction site.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDYGEhqHKso  
In Boston, a police pickup truck was caught on video filled with bricks for some reason.  

@Background Pony #FE3C  
This is counterfactual. You’re saying “this will/can be fixed if everything just goes back to the way it was”. All signs point towards this simply not being true.
 
American police forces have proven, time and again, that they cannot be fixed. The reason for this is that, from the point of view of the rulers, they’re not actually broken. Deterrance is part of the point of a police force, and in the entire world save for maybe one of those Scandinavian welfare States or rich micronations, part of that deterrance is exerted by terror towards groups deemed undesirable. The degree to which this is done, obviously, varies immensely, but it is nonetheless systemic as opposed to simply the proverbial and inevitable “few bad apples”. In America’s case, the main undesirable group has always been, and has never ceased to be, black people. A man from Nixon’s inner cicle, who took part in creating the dreaded war on drugs, spelled it out: the whole point was to justify repression against black people and the anti-war left. And the continued existence of the war on drugs, to say nothing by its frequent intensification and expansion, is proof enough that this wasn’t restricted to that particular crook.
 
The fact of the matter is, racial superiority is an indelible part of the American ‘‘gestalt’’ which have reigned for the better part of 2.5 centuries by now. It was once central, and slowly (very slowly) it decreased in importance, but its traces remain despite any farce played by a black president who was a neocon in all but name, and it’s painfully clear that the system will not willingly relinquish those traces. It’s elementary that more desperate measures against social ills are used once the main ones are exausted, but the American establishment prefers to deal with occasional revolts like these than yield this racial policy – all this talk we see of alt-right types freaking out over white people not being a majority is simply making this explicit. The unfortunate conclusion is that the end of racism in America requires violent revolt.

@OneMoreAnonymous  
When did I ever say that? The problem has been decades in the making and cannot be solved without drastic changes. You blame Nixon but it started with Lyndon Johnson and the “Great Society” program. The development of a substantial welfare state ensured a permanent underbelly of dependents in society. This singlehandedly destroyed black society more than anything else; prior to it 80% of black families had two parents and now it is under 30%, I believe. It was a perfect storm of welfarism, affirmative action and the war on drugs that made the desire for personal excellence into a rarity and it is an utter tragedy. Similar results happen in countries that have similar programs and a growing minority population, such as Sweden or the UK. Meanwhile these policies that have produced an enslavement of lethargy have become enshrined and the slightest criticism towards them gets levelled the term “racist.”
 
The fact of the matter is, many Americans go to public schools where they are told that racism is the “original sin” of America and that it still plagues society. By not treasuring the aforementioned failed policies or believing that such “systemic racism” pervades society one becomes an outcast and cannot be treated seriously by major institutions. It also, ironically though perhaps intentionally, heightens racial issues by advocating economic redistribution from Asians and whites to other minorities, by placing blame on societal flaws on the step of white people, and by tolerating advocacy groups specifically for individual races–except, of course, for white people. To believe that people of European descent may have a common policy interest just as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, or Asian Americans do is utter heresy and must be expunged from polite society.
 
You’ll hate me for saying this but it’s true.

@OneMoreAnonymous  
I disagree with this extremely, though rather than offering a rebuttal I want to understand you as I feel talking past each other is unproductive. What is the end goal of the revolt? What do you envision society afterwards? And where would you draw the line at ethical vs unethical actions?

@OneMoreAnonymous  
Does violent revolt seem to be working?
 
 
@Background Pony #FE3C  
What common interest? white culture is not comparable to black culture, because it has never had to defend it’s existence and protect it’s rights. so what policies would a white lobby pursue?

@Background Pony #FE3C  

And why isn’t there a White Entertainment Television, amirite?

@Background Pony #FE3C  
You’ve only lain bare your total ignorance.

BREAKING: 4 St. Louis police officers shot during riots & taken to hospital; Officers still coming under fire
 
Here’s the video

 
Interesting context: Niemöller wasn’t even like a complacent centrist. He was a right-wing conservative Lutheran Pastor who initially supporter Hitler & was anti-Semitic himself. He wrote this poem in 1946 just after the war and before he would go on to change some of his views.
 
Just goes to show, even those that support Nazis now can one day become their victims (as many religious people were when the Nazis got rid of everyone else).

@Terminal Red  
Two injured, not dead.

Riots and looting in NYC
 
Hundreds of stores robbed and smashed in broadway

@Violet Rose in The Rain  
I feel like this would have been the perfect time to say “four score and seven years ago/later.”