But it was true. They were protesting on Melrose and in Santa Monica in LA and also doing some looting and property damage, and on the news there was a black protestor saying that previously rioting had been occurred in black neighborhoods, but now they were deliberately targeting upscale white neighborhoods so they could not be ignored.
The idea that BLM was protesting during the day and then went home, put away their signs, changed clothes and came back out at night to riot and cause these $2B in damages has been debunked.
The protests and riots happened at similar times but they were largely different groups with different agendas. In many cases the looting even happened while peaceful protests were happening elsewhere which diverted police resources.
I literally watched these riots from my window. The MLK quote is silly.
The protesters did break windows, painted a lot of graffiti, and took and burned police precinct(!) But it wasn't protesters starting fires and looting.
The looting was entirely opportunistic. At first there were people in the neighborhood but it quickly turned into something else, with many looters literally driving into the neighborhood and parking so they could carry out their loot. During later events, like sentences being announced, people have probed to see if it's possible again. But it never reached critical mass. It's not a protest phenomena, and I think "voice of the unheard" is complete bullshit. It's just people who want to steal things.
It IS revealing: it doesn't take that many people to decide to act with impunity before things break down. And in that sense I suppose the protesters did inspire the looting as they did the unbelievable. But it simply wasn't the same people.
The arson, I just don't know... it doesn't take many people. What little we know from convictions mostly involve people outside the community with little clear purpose. Some people just like to burn things. Given the actual buildings burned down it is nearly the opposite of what protesters with any ideology or connection to the community would do. There are theories of outside agitators, but who knows...
I mean, I watched as people on Twitter and Facebook Live coordinated to torch one of my favorites neighborhoods in L.A. this summer. I saw looters tweet about breaking into a drug store in Sherman Oaks. You can't say it's just talk there. The damage to Melrose and DTLA had to have been in the tens of millions, if not more.
Honestly I've been watching the protests and it's not black people rioting. It's a diverse group of black, Caucasian, and other minorities.
In fact, I saw the arsonist that set the police department on fire and it was a Caucasian male. This is not a group of African Americans rioting in protest. It's a diverse bunch of a bad actors ruining a community.
From what I understand it’s actually untrue- the media are just more likely to film and show destruction rather than peaceful protests. In Minneapolis there were both massive peaceful protests and looting, but the property damage was covered more than the protesting. Given that the argument for looting is that people care more about property damage than about the protection of black lives against police oppression, this only further evidences the argument for property violence in response to human injustice...
Thirty years ago. And this wasn't on a "high speed highway" it was on Florence Ave.
And equating largely peaceful protests with the LA riots is really a mistake. The LA riots turned violent very quickly, while the BLM marches stayed peaceful by and large with the exception of right-wing agitators who started looting and fires under false flag operations.
> Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking. But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights.
Also, throughout its history, many US agencies astroturf “fake” riots to discredit their targets. The CIA did it in Iran in 1953 for example. Many LEO plants were identified in 2020, smashing glass, planting bricks, etc.
I experienced the NYC BLM protests and riots from a bit of a distance. Bricks were thrown through windows, and several stores were looted. It wasn't a violent riot every day, often just an orderly protest march, but there were riots.
I remember the 1980 Miami Riots and the 1992 LA riots. This is basically nothing like that. Fundamental difference the protestors aren't the ones engaging in violence, the cops are.
"Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking. But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights. There are thus elements of emotional catharsis in the violent act. This may explain why most cities in which riots have occurred have not had a repetition, even though the causative conditions remain. It is also noteworthy that the amount of physical harm done to white people other than police is infinitesimal and in Detroit whites and Negroes looted in unity.
A profound judgment of today’s riots was expressed by Victor Hugo a century ago. He said, ‘If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.’
The policymakers of the white society have caused the darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also demand that the white man abide by law in the ghettos. Day-in and day-out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; and he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions for civic services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison. Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society."
This does not align with my experience. I off 3rd street, right by the La Cienega where significant looting occured. I intentionally walked outside while looting/vandalism was occurring and there was absolutely no police presence whatsoever except for police helicopters.
I walked down third street until I reached the point where the riot police set up a barricade and didn't allow the protesters further. It was really a peaceful scene where the police were setup, and I thought it was being handled very professionally with the goal to not incite violence (There were also 6 police helicopters circling the area) Everywhere the police were not there was looting.
The amount of misinformation being circulated is staggering.
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