Fight for What's Right: The Protest Thread

[Sharkey]

Portland is a place where rich ones run away to settle down and grow flowers and shrubbery to hide them from the massacres they've caused. Portland is the rose garden town where the red, brown, blackshirt cops ride up and down to show you their finest horses and saddles and gunmetal. Mentally Portland is the deadest spot you ever walked through.

something a guy who used to live in my house said the last time this happened

[Friday]

Went to the Chico protests last night, it was day 5. Previous day had 70 people, last night was about 500.

Nothing happened, really. The cops were out but didn't do anything. Standing around for a few hours, kneeling, chanting, normal protest stuff. I doubt the protests here will turn violent get brutalized by the police, but if they do, I'll be getting tear gassed along with the rest of them. Because fuck cops and fuck fascism.

[Mongrel]

Nice. Good work.

[Mongrel]

[Mongrel]

CNN is claiming that Trump's going to give a big POTUS speech on race.

Oh man if this goes through, I can only guess it's gonna end up with him saying all the quiet parts REALLY, REALLY loud.

[Mongrel]

Also, they're really going to do it!

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/loc ... 5aafba95cd

MINNEAPOLIS — A veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members announced Sunday during a rally at Powderhorn that they are planning to disband the police department.

City Council members said they will invest in community-led safety initiatives instead of the police department.

"Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe," Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender said at Sunday’s community meeting.

I mean, it's not done yet, but even some protracted Brexit-esque nightmare where repeated attempts leave everything in an agonizing limbo be a hell of a thing, because every time a single cop misbehaves during that process, it'll be all their necks on the line.

[Friday]

I've seen some good John Oliver before. Pretty sure this is his best video.

[Thad]

Also, they're really going to do it!

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/loc ... 5aafba95cd

MINNEAPOLIS — A veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members announced Sunday during a rally at Powderhorn that they are planning to disband the police department.

City Council members said they will invest in community-led safety initiatives instead of the police department.

"Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe," Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender said at Sunday’s community meeting.

I mean, it's not done yet, but even some protracted Brexit-esque nightmare where repeated attempts leave everything in an agonizing limbo be a hell of a thing, because every time a single cop misbehaves during that process, it'll be all their necks on the line.

I'll be damned. It looks like this time it really is different.

Also: Democrats unveil police reform bill after nationwide protests against brutality

Obviously this ain't gonna pass, and even if it did, it doesn't go far enough. But it's important that Congress is actually talking about shit like qualified immunity now. (Qualified immunity is the legal principle invented by conservatives on the Supreme Court that basically establishes that police can do illegal things and then avoid liability by claiming they didn't know they were illegal.) It's not as significant a step as Minneapolis voting to disband the police department, but it's a step.

[Mongrel]

Best comment:

Zod is just off camera, to the right.

[Mongrel]

More Bristol jokes.

[Friday]

Having no idea who Edward Colston was, I read up on him on wikipedia.

It's fucking amazing to me that people will just openly build statues of slavers.

I mean, in America, sure. We are the nation of Slaver Glorification. But seeing that shit in other places is just a condemnation of human morality in general.

[Mongrel]

I particularly liked that even though he set up a bunch of charities (which is the nominal reason he's heavily memorialized in Bristol), the fact that he was a hardcore Tory meant he set them up so that they denied benefits to anyone who wasn't a Tory supporter.

Like, just fuck that guy.

[Mongrel]

A little more fun

[Mongrel]

One running theme in the protests over the past 2-3 days is cops finding stuff and claiming it was a: thrown at them with no proof of that whatsoever and b: a completely different object than what is clearly shown in the actual photos.

The most common incident is cops calling what are VERY OBVIOUS pictures of candles "incendiary devices" or even "explosive devices", which is naturally already being riffed on (American Candle is a terror factory, etc.)

I thought this one was particularly good though:

[Mongrel]

Oh and Seattle police abandoned one of their stations last night, hoping that protesters would burn it down. Instead the protestors barricaded themselves inside the surrounding block to create a peaceful autonomous zone.



Intriguingly, before they abandoned the station, the cops trucked stuff out, shredded documents, and left with the doors unlocked. Nobody's entered it yet because there are concerns it's a trap.

[Joxam]

One running theme in the protests over the past 2-3 days is cops finding stuff and claiming it was a: thrown at them with no proof of that whatsoever and b: a completely different object than what is clearly shown in the actual photos.

The most common incident is cops calling what are VERY OBVIOUS pictures of candles "incendiary devices" or even "explosive devices", which is naturally already being riffed on (American Candle is a terror factory, etc.)

I thought this one was particularly good though:

I also think at least some of that is them making light of the unfortunate incident of a report calling ear plugs rubber bullets during the Ferguson protests.

[Mongrel]

Man, now I'm remembering the time the Boston PD freaked the fuck out over Mooninite Lite-Brites someone left on the streets, and then went around blowing up suspicious boxes that turned out to be city traffic study boxes.

Granted that was not TOO long after the Boston Marathon terror attack, but still.

[Mongrel]

[Mongrel]

[Grath]