From Axios:

quote:

For hours, no firefighters or police officers were seen anywhere around the protest.

* * * *

Explaining officers' retreat, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told a news conference at 1:30 a.m. local time: "As situations started to escalate more and more, as we saw more and more people breach the perimeter, ... it became obvious to me that safety was at risk."

"Brick and mortar is not as important as life."

The city of Minneapolis also warned people to leave an area of a police station where there was a broken gas line and explosives were present.

quote:

A crisis is coming. And I believe Trump wants that crisis.

Oh yes indeed he does. This is his chance to divide. Make a blue state governor look bad. Make his "white people" see what blue state governance looks like when "those people" riot, and we all know "they" are prone to that kind of behavior. Give 'em half a chance and they'll burn, baby, burn. Make law and order Republicans come home in the face of black people rioting. Get everyone to forget the larger issues and focus on the violence.

Oh, yes, he's in his element here.

He sure is.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

quote:

A crisis is coming. And I believe Trump wants that crisis.

Oh yes indeed he does. This is his chance to divide. Make a blue state governor look bad. Make his "white people" see what blue state governance looks like when "those people" riot, and we all know "they" are prone to that kind of behavior. Give 'em half a chance and they'll burn, baby, burn. Make law and order Republicans come home in the face of black people rioting. Get everyone to forget the larger issues and focus on the violence.

Oh, yes, he's in his element here.

I feel so frustrated here.

This episode started when a "law 'n' order" white police officer deliberately used an unapproved technique and killed a black man who was apparently NOT resisting arrest for suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

The precipitating event is not people looting and setting fire to a police station. The precipitating event was a white police officer killing an unarmed black man.

But I-1's supporters won't see that. They will see what he tells them to see.

The cop who had his knee on Floyd's neck has been taken into custody and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

There might be additional charges filed after further investigation. The Hennepin County DA wasn't specific about whether those were more charges against that cop, or against others.

I'm observing these events from a large physical distance, but I'm not so emotionally removed from them.

I spent almost a year in northern Minnesota from 1972 to 1973 and still fondly remember that time. What's going on now is almost incomprehensible to me.

It brought to mind the Sunday in 1968 when I drove back to Pittsburgh after a day at a rural state park to find some of the city ablaze. I know now what people do when they believe that they have no other recourse. Acquesence to oppression only invites more oppression. It's hard for me to endorse violence as an antidote to violence, but it's incumbent on all of us to oppose hatred in all the forms it rears its evil head.

Big Al

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
The cop who had his knee on Floyd's neck has been taken into custody and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

There might be additional charges filed after further investigation. The Hennepin County DA wasn't specific about whether those were more charges against that cop, or against others.

Finally.

And the others who did nothing to stop it?

They are just as bad.

It's a start.

It would be good if this helps to ensure that there is no more violent protests or destruction of buildings etc. I think the destruction of the police building pretty much made the point.

The complaint.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29...aint-trnd/index.html

Time to make the entire police force re-apply for their jobs. Hire a new person at the top and clean house...

If it is only a "few bad apples", they should be easy to weed out. My bet is there is a whole systemic rot there.

It's not just Minneapolis now. It's in every big city in the country.

And a lot of questionable stuff is coming to the surface.

I heard that 60% of the "protesters" that police arrested in Minneapolis were from out of state. Seems groups that like to show up at riots -- like various white power groups -- have been showing up. I'm not naming them here to avoid showing up in search results, but groups like the one that rhymes with Loud Toys and the ones that were in Charleston.

And there's the "Umbrella Man" who was smashing windows at a car parts store... a woman who says she is his ex identified him as police officer. There are rumors that the police precinct that was set on fire was an inside job. The speculation is that police are doing this to foment violence so they can crack down even harder. I hope that is not what's going on. But it's happened before.

This can get much uglier.

And I don't expect the racist-in-chief to do anything to stop it.

Well, my youngest is heading out to an ongoing protest in Denver.

We just want him to stay safe.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Well, my youngest is heading out to an ongoing protest in Denver.

We just want him to stay safe.

Not such a good idea.

About 100 arrests in Chicago last night. Another protest was scheduled for 2-5 today just a bit west and north of us. I'm sure it will continue into the night...

Lots of sirens, honking, and groups of police cars heading north then south in front of our building.