124 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

That's why I think you're being deliberately simplistic when you talk about people just "wanting their Air Jordans."  The individual motivations of specific rioters, looters, etc., are separate and distinct from the social situation that caused them.  I think there is a widespread sense of injustice in this country, that the line of bullshit we have always been fed about freedom and democracy is just that — bullshit.  We live in a plutocracy, and the ever-growing police state is designed to protect and reinforce it.  The poor — of all colors — be damned.  But one of the ways the Establishment has kept the poor from uniting is by subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) stoking dissent with racism, homophobia, and other wedge issues.

 

Discontent is growing.  You can feel it in the air.  You can almost taste it.  The times, they are a-changin'.  One of the first steps to changing the system is the recognition that the system needs to be changed.  That recognition is pretty universal now.  Riots and social unrest are a symptom of that recognition, and the general sense of this not being how it is supposed to be. 

[Justavictim82]

For those on twitter, search @wesleylowery.

[Thrash]

That's why I think you're being deliberately simplistic when you talk about people just "wanting their Air Jordans."  The individual motivations of specific rioters, looters, etc., are separate and distinct from the social situation that caused them.

 

Please point out to me how whenever there is looting the first thing to get cleaned out is sneakers. What are the individual motivations for that? What social situation could you have possibly been in that your first thought is DAMN I NEED SNEAKERS. If I ever was faced with a situation where I had to loot, it would be for FOOD, you know things for survival.

 

Why the fuck are you making justifications for looting?

[Haflinger]

Whenever there's looting, the first thing that gets cleaned out is store windows.

 

Take a walk down some busy commercial street in a large centre. Look at what you see in the windows. Figure it out.

[Redezra]

A riot is the language of the unheard

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

[Manoka]

A riot is the language of the unheard

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Randomly killing and hurting innocent people is something I have never done, and I have been pretty discontent before. 

[Manoka]

That's why I think you're being deliberately simplistic when you talk about people just "wanting their Air Jordans."  The individual motivations of specific rioters, looters, etc., are separate and distinct from the social situation that caused them.  I think there is a widespread sense of injustice in this country, that the line of bullshit we have always been fed about freedom and democracy is just that — bullshit.  We live in a plutocracy, and the ever-growing police state is designed to protect and reinforce it.  The poor — of all colors — be damned.  But one of the ways the Establishment has kept the poor from uniting is by subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) stoking dissent with racism, homophobia, and other wedge issues.

 

Discontent is growing.  You can feel it in the air.  You can almost taste it.  The times, they are a-changin'.  One of the first steps to changing the system is the recognition that the system needs to be changed.  That recognition is pretty universal now.  Riots and social unrest are a symptom of that recognition, and the general sense of this not being how it is supposed to be. 

Even if we pretend any of that is true, it's irrelevant; you don't go around attacking unconnected innocent people for no reason. 

[Redezra]

People are not very rational when angry.

[Manoka]

People are not very rational when angry.

That doesn't justify a damn thing. 

 

People have the ability to control themselves; I have been angry, and I have never hurt an innocent people or looted.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

That's why I think you're being deliberately simplistic when you talk about people just "wanting their Air Jordans."  The individual motivations of specific rioters, looters, etc., are separate and distinct from the social situation that caused them.

 

Please point out to me how whenever there is looting the first thing to get cleaned out is sneakers. What are the individual motivations for that? What social situation could you have possibly been in that your first thought is DAMN I NEED SNEAKERS. If I ever was faced with a situation where I had to loot, it would be for FOOD, you know things for survival.

 

Why the fuck are you making justifications for looting?

 

I'm not.  I'm explaining it.  Looters don't plan what to loot, they loot what's in front of them, what they see every day, and the things that are desirable to them.  I'd probably loot high-end electronics.

 

"Aw, but I was going to loot you a present!" -Homer Simpson

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

And now police are firing tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters.  America's inner cities are starting to look like the Occupied Territories.

[Justavictim82]

That's why I think you're being deliberately simplistic when you talk about people just "wanting their Air Jordans." The individual motivations of specific rioters, looters, etc., are separate and distinct from the social situation that caused them.

Please point out to me how whenever there is looting the first thing to get cleaned out is sneakers. What are the individual motivations for that? What social situation could you have possibly been in that your first thought is DAMN I NEED SNEAKERS. If I ever was faced with a situation where I had to loot, it would be for FOOD, you know things for survival.

Why the fuck are you making justifications for looting?

Why the fuck are you still talking about looting when at the time you were posting innocent protesters and press were being bombarded with tear gas and being detained without formal charges for just doing their jobs? Why are you not asking why those police cruisers did not have dash cams yet they can afford military specification gear and weaponry?

[Manoka]

And now police are firing tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters.  America's inner cities are starting to look like the Occupied Territories.

As compared to you know, shooting them with guns. 

 

Violent protesters being non-violently suppressed, oh no...

 

 

We should just let them loot stores and kill whoever they want, that's the reasonable solution. 

[the rebel]

And now police are firing tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters. America's inner cities are starting to look like the Occupied Territories.

As compared to you know, shooting them with guns.

Violent protesters being non-violently suppressed, oh no...


We should just let them loot stores and kill whoever they want, that's the reasonable solution.

I heard on the BBC that they are using rubber bullets as well.

[Haflinger]

Look, there's mounting evidence that it's not just protesters that are being violently suppressed, but journalists. Remaining wilfully blind to the situation on the ground, which really does look like a nicer version of Gaza, isn't going to help matters.

[Manoka]

There are plenty of white people rioting now as well. 

 

Let's just stop and think about this for a moment. This was likely an accident, with multiple conflicting stories involving people who said he surrendered and others who said he charged at the police. We have no idea if the target was on drugs or had something else that may have made them act irrationally or erratically, or the history of the police officer for the same. We have no idea what the motivations were, and we don't even know who they are. Even assuming the police officer is a bigot, he would have nothing to gain by gunning down an unarmed black teenager, and the total figure of police homicides is overall extremely low in our country, at about 400 a year, making them extremely rare in general. Accidents happen, and while tragic, police fatalities by and large are relatively restrained. 

 

 

There are riots going on, there are peaceful demonstrations going on. 

 

Not every protester is peaceful, and not every protester is a rioter. 

 

 

Tear gas, body armor, and the like are by and large non-violent solutions. They aren't shooting people, stabbing people, or even generally beating the crap of out of people, but using an irritant designed to disperse a crowd, in this case of angry looters who are exploiting the chaos of the protests to harm others. They wear body armor so if they are attacked by baseball bats, molotov cocktails, or even guns, they won't have to respond back with violence in fear of their own lives, and thus can more adequately single out individuals who are committing the violence from the rest of the crowd, or if the shot isn't there without harming civilians, be able to not take it without dying themselves. If a police is not in fear of his own life, he by and large doesn't need to respond back with violence. 

 

The police are largely cracking down on violent protesters. Normal peaceful protesters have remained largely unaffected, since they are still there, and protests are taking place all over the area that aren't being targeted. Taking a second to rationalize with everything instead of jumping to an all or nothing, black and white mentality, now start thinking about it and come to a reasonable conclusion.

[Manoka]

Look, there's mounting evidence that it's not just protesters that are being violently suppressed, but journalists. Remaining wilfully blind to the situation on the ground, which really does look like a nicer version of Gaza, isn't going to help matters.

Journalists who embed themselves into crowds of violent rioters and protesters are going to be generally perceived as targets so, yeah, that's going to happen. 

[Justavictim82]

Look, there's mounting evidence that it's not just protesters that are being violently suppressed, but journalists. Remaining wilfully blind to the situation on the ground, which really does look like a nicer version of Gaza, isn't going to help matters.

Journalists who embed themselves into crowds of violent rioters and protesters are going to be generally perceived as targets so, yeah, that's going to happen. 

 

http://www.vox.com/2...ces-in-ferguson

 

Totally embedded with the protesters. 

[Manoka]

 

Look, there's mounting evidence that it's not just protesters that are being violently suppressed, but journalists. Remaining wilfully blind to the situation on the ground, which really does look like a nicer version of Gaza, isn't going to help matters.

Journalists who embed themselves into crowds of violent rioters and protesters are going to be generally perceived as targets so, yeah, that's going to happen. 

 

http://www.vox.com/2...ces-in-ferguson

 

Totally embedded with the protesters. 

 

I cannot from that video tell anything?

 

I mean you can't even see the full car, the full street, or the minutes and hours before and after they were there. 

 

 

There's no context. 

Edited by Manoka, 15 August 2014 - 02:47 PM.

[Haflinger]

There're way too many eyewitnesses involved against the police. That's the real problem. If it was just a couple people, that'd be one thing, but there's just too much evidence.

 

Things seem to be calming down now that the state police have taken over. Hopefully we will see a resolution to the dispute in the coming months, but I have a feeling it'll take longer.