A peaceful protest, thanks to people-powered, police-free streets

Thanks for that Dan. I’ve seen defuse and diffuse get mixed up several times recently, even from reporters who should know better. Admittedly it can be confusing, since an angry crowd could become diffused, or defused, or both … but the meanings of the two words are still discrete (but rarely discreet).

There are always “bad apples”. Just like the police who murder people.

An ongoing paradox of policing is that it’s perceived as protecting (typically white-owned) property over (black) lives. Thus the temptation to thwart the pecking order.

I hope one day to stop having to quote MLK because what he said about the state of things 50-60 years ago is no longer relevant. The below doesn’t account for all anger/frustration-driven property damage, but probably enough of it that we should pause before we focus on the means of expression instead of the grievance:

I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

One can object to the violence and destruction and still center the grievances motivating it; way too much news coverage and discussion focuses on whether the protests are peaceful/acceptable enough instead of giving airtime to what people protesting are saying.

For example, when a child throws a tantrum in an effort to get a parent’s attention, parent responses usually fall somewhere on a spectrum defined by these poles:

(note: in using this analogy, I don’t mean to suggest a paternalistic situation or that we black people are children; I am seeking to evoke the power dynamic between a parent and child)

A) The emotionally intelligent parent shows compassion and attempts to understand why the child acts out and tries to meet their child’s need; the method of attention-getting is largely swept under the rug because the parent probably realizes they missed earlier and more subtle bids for attention from the child. The parent commits to healing the breach and being more sensitive in the future.

B) The emotionally unintelligent or fed up parent gets frustrated the child is acting out and hits the child and/or sends them away, either not recognizing the bid for attention or trying to use negative reinforcement to get them to ask for it in a different, more acceptable way.

When more polite bids for attention have gone unacknowledged, no one should be surprised the stronger bids for attention actually get attention—and that they are unpleasant; it’s not like black people and their accomplices haven’t been working to raise awareness and address these issues continuously for the last couple centuries. Rioters finally found something the general populace cares about (preservation of capitalism and police brutality, burning police cars, burning shops, stolen goods), and lo and behold, people are tuning in.

Now, are we going to be emotionally intelligent enough to realize that the protesting and rioting is the language of the unheard and we need to listen and act? Or are we going to ignore/spank/dismiss once more?

Mostly, it’s because a few people are taking advantage of the situation to cause property destruction. I have seen this – in some cases, firsthand – over and over and over again when protests occur.

To some degree, I think the first night or two here in Minneapolis, many nighttime protesters may have encouraged the destruction. Anger was so high, combined with frustration at the lack of results from past peaceful demonstrations, that a lot of people said, “eff it, let it burn,” as I think Kana alluded to in the earlier discussion of this.

However, that sentiment, if it existed at all during the vastly larger peaceful daytime protests, largely evaporated by Thursday night. I think by then many, and by the weekend the overwhelming majority of protesters were stunned at the scale of the destruction, wanted it to stop, and in case after case actively worked to make it stop, especially as it became more clear that the people setting fires were hijacking the movement.

Don’t attempt to us logic in your arguments with this one. His responses to news events are purely emotional. Fear, hatred, etc.

Social distancing did 10x more to slow the spread than hiding in our houses. In fact, hiding in our houses did a great job to increase the spread to families.

And people are worried about wearing CONVID masks when riding a bike. Still not wearing one on Marine drive or anywhere else for that matter. Happy riding!

ANTIFA was ANTI-Covid before Covid was a thing.

They’d be wearing masks anyway, virus or not.

It was a good idea given the info at the time, but like many things taken too far and politicized to continue the tribal strife so pervasive in our society.

very fine people on both sides…..

Update: The county bridge web site said the sidewalk should be open on both sides. I notified them that the officer was turning peds and bikes away, and that the sidewalk was blocked by yellow tape at the bridge ramp entrance. Today there is no longer yellow tape blocking the sidewalk, and the new officer guarding the entrance said its “only closed to cars”, and that bikes can use the bridge ramp. Thank you. There is now a big sign that says road close. After turning so many people away, it would be nice to have a sign that says “Pedestrians and bikes okay” or something like that.

Hyperbole overload.

He will have a different opinion when it is his house that gets looted.

Question: Did the downtown core of Minneapolis (the area with all the second story gerbil tubes) get trashed as well?

So that’s it? It’s that easy? Just start a fund and we can throw bricks, burn buildings, and loot to our heart’s content? All for justice of course. Problem solved!