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In the wake of the riots the only thing that saved one business/home from destruction was the sign "minority owned".
This is what happens when people take what should have been a unifying cause against police brutality, which effects us all of any race, and turns it into a race war where the police officer embodies the whole of the whites and all whites are inherently guilty.
No one is right in any of this, not the rioters, not the people who dismiss the riots, not the people drawing the lines on racial terms and certainly not the police officers.
@freemo The word on the ground is that a lot of the arsonists are from out of town. Yesterday, the protesters at the 5th precinct were scattered by the cops. Later that night, folks no one recognized started burning things, including some much-loved , small, local businesses. People around here believe that legitimate protests have been hijacked by people with different agendas. In the daytime, for the past three days, locals have been cleaning up, boarding up windows, and donating food.
@freemo They've imposed a curfew, and the mayor of St. Paul has gone on camera saying that the arrests from last night were all from out of state.
@freemo I know that property is nothing compared to a life, but the arsonists burnt a bookshop that was very loved. No local did that.
@Lwasserman Assuming for a second that its people from out of town, how does that change anything in the least? People are rioting against whites explicitly and murdering and burning building to the ground. that is the relevant part, whether they are local or out of town changes absolutely nothing about the fact that it is an unacceptable response.
@freemo The problem with it being a group of folks out of town, is that while the locals were gathering, yelling, and damaging a couple of chain stores, the out-of-towners destroyed Mom & Pop shops, drug stores, the post office, and a gas station amidst a residential neighborhood. The latter group is rendering a poor neighborhood completely unlivable. Grocery stores are shut. Buses have stopped their routes. And several of those local protesters were physically trying to defend the local shops. It is two, very different things.
@Lwasserman That seems like quite a huge leap with very little evidence.
While you could be right, assuming a division like that without any objective evidence in an emotionally charged scenario is dangerous at best.
Id be willing to accept that maybe that happened, but largely we cant and dont know what dynamic the group had. No one is on the street surveying what everyones hometown is.
@Lwasserman Im not doubting the destruction. I know full well the destruction is wide spread... How did your friends verify the hometown of the people doing the destruction? Are you friends going up to people and taking a survey of where they live?
A tourist yes, we arent talking about tourists. No one is spotting someone from one county over in the same city based on how they loot.. come on now.
Thats my whole point, surveying a mob is silly, no one is going to do it. ergo no one has a clue what the composition of the mob was. thats the point.
@freemo @Oblivia Folks around here are saying that it's not them. The ward representatives are organizing groups to protect their areas. Dreamhaven is asking for local geeks to help defend the store. Meanwhile, people are seeing folks that they don't recognize. Sometimes Minneapolis is described as "a big small town". People know each other. This is weird.
I dont buy it.. no city is "small town" enough for people to just see someone and go "he is out of town I dont recognize him".
Emotions are running really high, people draw conclusions wildly off the mark when that happens. I'm not likely to buy into any anecdotal impressions about the riots honestly.
Dont get me wrong I do expect a decent portion of people rioting to be out of town. Usually riots start by locals and then when it starts people out of town hear about it and come to the area to get some free shit. So I do expect there to be a noticeable population of outsides involved.
But a majority, or even the ones instigating it, I'm highly skeptical of that.
I am a traveler so I'd be happy to visit (though I tend to be very skeptical of claims without evidence so not likely to shift my thinking)
@freemo This isn't pictures from friends. It's more official. But both the St. Paul mayor and the Minneapolis police chief are stating that the folks they are arresting are from out of state.
@Lwasserman So I just watch it.. Doesnt seem the mayor or the police chieve said the **majority** of people were outsiders.. they did say **many**, and that I can understand that many, though not a majority, were likely outsiders.
@freemo I wasn't at the protests. Several friends were. The destruction is verified. Let me see if I can get you some good pictures that haven't spread as far yet.