zlacker

>>laurex+(OP)
A reporter at my previous workplace, KPCC, was shot in the neck with a rubber bullet on Saturday.

https://laist.com/2020/05/31/reporters_injured_protests_poli...

It's unfortunate that it's gotten to this point for people to take police brutality at least somewhat seriously.

I'm mistaken for being pro-police and anti-BLM merely because I'm against the looting and rioting. I've always had the stance that the police in their current form are state-sanctioned street gangs.

>>ravens+qd
I recently read that if you tend to think, "it's a shame that black people are being killed by cops like this, but the rioting and looting MUST stop," perhaps you should consider thinking more like, "it's a shame that there is rioting and looting, but black people being killed by cops like this MUST stop."

>>pwinns+4e
There is no reason why it can't be "black people being killed by cops like this MUST stop" and "the rioting and looting MUST stop."

Buried in your reasoning is the idea that the rioting and looting is helping reducing black deaths by cops. I see no reason to believe that.

First, its directly putting people into violent conflict with police. So additional black people have been killed by police caused by the rioting. Second, innocent people are getting killed by the rioting.

Third, there are people who would support police reform but are also terrified of looters and rioters. The riots are giving me a look at what my city looks like without police control, and it is scary. I know that police v. lawlessness is a false dichotomy and I reject that sort of thinking.

There was a consensus that what happened to George Floyd was an atrocity. Even racists thought so. A huge peaceful protest would have raised awareness.

Violence lost that consensus.

>>rhino3+2y
Rioting and looting don't generally kill people. Cops do kill people, time and time again, and they usually get away with it. That's why it is absurd to equate the two.

"There was a consensus that what happened to George Floyd was an atrocity."

Who cares? Thinking something is an atrocity accomplished precisely jack shit. Peaceful protests get ignored or mocked. Police forces continue to get more militarized. Far right politicians, like the president, encourage violence from their bully pulpit. At a certain point, people need to respond. To not respond is to encourage those who seek to abuse power.

>>standa+vM
"Rioting and looting don't generally kill people... Peaceful protests get ignored or mocked."

Can you find a large episode of rioting and looting without any death toll? Even the 2011 London riots led to the deaths of five people.

The bigger issue though is that the current situation is starting to turn counterproductive. The only way to eventually fix things is with politics. Protests are politics.

But violence eventually takes a life of its own. Already now there are overwhelming evidence various third party actors are interfering. Soon this turns into an order vs chaos issue, and guess in who's favour that framing would play out?

The protests can no longer be ignored, now is the time to step back and to do whatever can be done to make this peaceful - before people forget why the protests started in the first place.