SpaghettiPolicy

June 1st, 2020 at 3:32 PM ^

As a former Dubuquer I can assure you that Dubuquers would not likely take the side of the rioters. When I moved there in '98 is was 99% white (or so I was told) and was not the friendliest to the residents of color.

 

I know what you were saying was a joke but it's not often I see a Dubuque reference! :)

shoes

June 1st, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^

I apologize, I was going to go with Keokuk, but wasn't sure how to spell it or if anyone would have heard it. I have some vague memory of a play or movie in which a character said:- you won't find this in Keokuk, Iowa. One other option was Poughkipsy- but again, who knows how to spell it?

rob f

June 1st, 2020 at 6:20 PM ^

Sorry, St. Joe Blues, but while many under the "antifa" umbrella are anarchists, those under the "anarchist" umbrella come from both extremes. These are anarchists inciting and participating in the violence, the vandalism, and the looting.

There's a huge distinction between the two A-words.

DairyQueen

June 1st, 2020 at 4:04 PM ^

Just like political interest groups fund lobbyists, they also fund operations like this (sometimes it's plausibly deniable actions, like paying for charter busses to help certain people go to the polls in key counties, but sometimes it's to bus people to places for more nefarious actions--thus stoking political fears).

Just a glance at last-half 20th century history will reveal all the different political machines, organizations, and players taking part.

I mean the president, JFK, was assasinated, and then 5 years later his brother was assasinated. And if you think it was some random nobody, well I've got a bridge to sell you (i.e. plenty of people hated Trump, Obama, Bush, etc. enough to want him dead, but you have to have the power/deals to get to him)

If you've seen house of cards, that's essentially what "politics" are, except none of the mfs are that smart, eloquent, or good looking lol.

But that is real life. Crack a history book. The last 100+ years alone are catastrophe after catastrophe. The present is the norm. Not the other way around. This isn't a "crisis", this is an inevitability--and so is peacefulness as well!

Monkeys on a rock I tell ya!

umchicago

June 1st, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^

of course. the rioters in MN were from Chi. the rioters in seattle were from LA. the rioters in Chi were from IN. the rioters in Det were from ohio. what a joke.

these mayors and Govs are lying. the mayors of Minneapolis and St Paul even had to walk back their comments the very next day about all arrests being from outside of MN.  approx 85% were from MN.  there are enough cowardly wackjobs in every big city.  they don't need to come from the outside.

Robbie Moore

June 1st, 2020 at 4:27 PM ^

Evidently the FBI has learned that African American males are being paid significant money to travel to protests to stir up trouble. They have identified many of the actors and are tracking them hoping quietly arrest them. The question is who is funding them. They do not suspect the money is coming from African American sources.

Maybe true. Maybe not. More will be revealed.

TrueBlue2003

June 1st, 2020 at 5:48 PM ^

I'm sure everything you said is correct except "to stir up trouble".  They're probably being supported in their efforts to protest, which is a worthy charitable cause, but the support is not part and parcel to, as you say, stirring up trouble.  When you get on that bus, they don't know if you're going to cause trouble.  You just get on the bus.

I checked out the protests in Los Angeles yesterday and talked to a lot of people and this is primarily how it's going down from what I saw and heard:

The vast majority of protesters are a pretty even mix of white and black that are genuinely wanting to affect change and are marching peacefully.  Many of them are even shouting down people in the next group who are invalidating their message:

After the protesters slowly march through and take the bulk of the police attention with them, a bunch of predominantly white kids (late teens and 20s) in black attire are vandalizing.  Spray painting, shattering windows, lighting fireworks, sometimes burning buildings.  They are (almost certainly) members of ANTIFA or followers or whatever.  They're mostly anarchists and want to create chaos.  To them, chaos is the great equalizer.

Amongst this group there appear to be scattered plainclothes police officers acting as agent provocateurs.  Pretty classic police technique for these folks to incite violence amongst protests so their police buddies can use force to (attempt to) quickly shut down the protests.  There are also some scattered far-right groups who are rivals of ANTIFA and have an interest in making the protestors look bad.  Coincidentally, they are behaving in mostly the same way, one in a misguided effort to help the cause (because they think direct action is the only way) the other in a calculated effort to hurt the cause (because they think chaos 

Lastly, there's a lot of looters also taking advantage of the distracted authorities to steal stuff from retail stores.  They're mostly just opportunists but some are probably also very angry about systemic racism and feel like they need to do something (Boston Tea Party style) or that they're owed something.

Desert Wolverine

June 1st, 2020 at 7:28 PM ^

If you are asking how many of the looters are from the neighborhoods being torched, I would guess relatively few.  That doesn't mean they aren't from the metro area.  They are hopping in their cars to get close enough to get a piece of the action.  This has been manifest in every riot I have observed.  In th e Rodney King riots in LA an awful lot of white teenagers from the outlying districts saw the opportunity to go "shopping".  Wouldn't have blamed the more local people from beating the crap out of them.

While the true protestors are making a valid point, to call anything after about 10PM a protest, is pure bullshit.  To paraphrase Chris Rock, it makes no sense that churches are closed at midnight and the ATMs are open.  There is nothing good going on at midnight that you need an ATM for.

I think the dye from the dye packs in bank bags should be liberally dispersed on the rioting crowds.  Won't stop them, but it will make them easy to identify for a few days

Mitch Cumstein

June 1st, 2020 at 2:26 PM ^

Did the Gov office give any clarity on this wrt the plan with 5 stages?  Is this a level 4?  I’m trying to figure out what that means for summer camps and school in the fall for k-12.