The “spokesperson” model of doing activism (isolating specific exemplary cases) also tends to emphasize the individual, rather than the collective nature of the injury. Framing oppression in terms of individual actors is a liberal tactic that dismantles collective responses to oppression and diverts attention from the larger picture.
Apparently the protest in Winston tonight is the largest in North Carolina so far, and Winston's protests have continued to be peaceful
The FBI’s Washington Field Office “has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence” in the violence that occurred on May 31 during the D.C.-area protests over the murder of George Floyd, according to an internal FBI situation report obtained exclusively by The Nation. That same day, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would designate “Antifa” a terrorist organization, even though the government has no existing authority to declare a domestic group a terrorist organization, and antifa is not an organized group. Following the president’s tweet, Attorney General William Barr said in a statement, “The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
The FBI report, however, states that “based on CHS [Confidential Human Source] canvassing, open source/social media partner engagement, and liaison, FBI WFO has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence.” The statement followed a list of violent acts like throwing bricks at police and the discovery of a backpack containing explosive materials, which were flagged by the FBI under a “Key Updates” section of the report. The FBI has been issuing such reports daily since the weekend, according to a Bureau source, who added that none of these documents contained any evidence of Antifa violence.
Huh, no antifa involvement. Some of y'all gotta quit clutching those pearls.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/antifa-trump-fbi/
Huh, no antifa involvement. Some of y'all gotta quit clutching those pearls.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/antifa-trump-fbi/
so Brews, DG3, and RJ should be relieved that their fears of Antifa orchestrating the riots were unfounded! That's great, right?! Aren't you just so happy to learn that from the FBI?
Huh, no antifa involvement. Some of y'all gotta quit clutching those pearls.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/antifa-trump-fbi/
No surprise, but this won't do any good with the conspiracy crowd. They'll just say that the lack of any hard evidence that Antifa was involved in the DC protests just proves how sneaky and devious they are, and of how they're being protected by LibDems within the government (more conspiracies!) trying to undermine Dear Leader. In effect, the lack of evidence is in itself evidence. It's how these types of people think.
In Philadelphia and New York yesterday there were multiple instances where looting in higher end retail districts was ignored, and peaceful protests in minority communities were attacked. The disproportion of force and intent was clearly discriminatory.
I noticed this too. It is almost as if the police want images of shameless looting in the media. The NYPD would have done a lot more good if they had left the large peaceful protests alone, and focused on the criminals breaking into stores. But that doesn't fit with their goals. You don't need tanks, automatic weapons and body armour to chase kids away from storefronts.
Many of the large city protests are being coordinated in public spaces *away* from retail just for this purpose to put seperation between themselves and looters - they're still getting attacked. You saw the video of the protestors trapped between the road and embankment and being teargassed from both sides so they had nowhere to disperse. That crowd was nowhere near a business.
Nobody on here is okay with the looting of small businesses, okay. We're not. I didn't bust into a fucking nail salon last night.
However those of us with a grain of fucking empathy and foresight and can understand why a bunch of kids are doing it. They've been locked at home for three months with little to no income coming in, many come from families who could barely made it day-to-day before the pandemic, and they have no hope. No opportunity. So when they see one, they take it. It is what impoverished people do when they have no other outlets.
We don't condone, we agree that it is counterproductive, but continuing to harp on the looting that everyone agrees is wrong is helping nothing. It dilutes the message, and reminds the rest of us that you do value property over people. Even if you do claim to be a liberal. And honestly you are just as big a problem as Trump and his imbred armies. Stop being so easily blinded.
Examining the rationality of the property destruction is tilting at windmills. If you're an old guy getting mad about it, then it served its purpose. With the exception of a few obvious landmarks like police stations, civil war monuments, banks, I would hesitate to attach any political motivation to the property destruction. People (kids) are very destructive when they can get away with it. People shoot up stop signs, trash construction sites, destroy bathroom stalls. It's not political.
If you're angrier/choosing to direct your anger at actions of those protesting (with some looting/rioting involved) than the underlying reasons for the protests (structural racism, killer cops, militarization of local communities and cops) then you are part of the problem.
Check your values.
Do you guys really think any of the (serious) posters here are *angrier* about the looting than the murder? Seems like a bit of a strawman.