So about these riots...

[altered]

Apparently the cops are running out of less-lethal munitions. Like they have no gas left, and when a group uses their last canister it’s all gone for them. Not sure which city, or if it’s multiple, but it’s definitely happening.

I don’t think this has happened in the US in my life time. Certainly not in the age of the Internet.

What do you think happens next? I’m concerned about them deciding that the best way to show they aren’t mass murderers is to pull out the jacketed rounds and commit mass murder.

If this spreads further, what’s next in a larger sense? Right now it’s two really big cities of people who have nothing to lose, and one smaller city of the same. If it goes nationwide, where do things go next?

My world is so fucking confusing. This sort of thing was, I feel, inevitable in a way. But it went so far before it all went down. It took so much happening for everything to come to this.

And now I realize I have never seen something like this happen before in a relatively strong, industrialized, capitalist Western country, and every example of it predates the Internet. I actually don’t know what comes next. I’m hoping Cain or somebody has something to work with. Because this is weird.

[Cain]

Apparently the cops are running out of less-lethal munitions.

A wonder that they had any in the first place.

And it's all going to depend on the local actors. Is the local city government backing the police to the hilt, or are the divisions already showing? Just how organised are the rioters and the protestors? Have the usual brigade of bootlickers (Oathkeepers etc) started to mobilise and what is their ground level game like? How badly is unemployment hitting the city, and are compounding factors from Covid-19 making that situation worse or not (lets be honest, they almost certainly are, though to what degree etc). Hell, what is the weather going to be like for the next week?

That's what I'd be looking at, nuts and bolts stuff, organisational research to understand who is likely to crumple first.

[Bruno]

I don't know what this means in the larger scope of things, but all the "gun community" groups I belong to read seem to be siding with the protesters. Except, of course, they think the protesters should have showed up armed to the hilt. (Also, If they could complain more about not being able to get haircuts, that'd be swell.)


The "thin blue line"/"shoulda complied" crowd has been shifting noticeably more and more towards "fuck THE MAN^tm/"all are welcome to the Big Igloo/Luau i.e "Boogaloo""

[rong]

I believe the national guard has been called in

[altered]

Apparently the cops are running out of less-lethal munitions.

A wonder that they had any in the first place.

And it's all going to depend on the local actors. Is the local city government backing the police to the hilt, or are the divisions already showing? Just how organised are the rioters and the protestors? Have the usual brigade of bootlickers (Oathkeepers etc) started to mobilise and what is their ground level game like? How badly is unemployment hitting the city, and are compounding factors from Covid-19 making that situation worse or not (lets be honest, they almost certainly are, though to what degree etc). Hell, what is the weather going to be like for the next week?

That's what I'd be looking at, nuts and bolts stuff, organisational research to understand who is likely to crumple first.

I can answer some of this for Minneapolis.

The government is not backing the police at fucking all. The Minn. Mayor is trying to play peacemaker about it (while using the sort of language that is Politician for “you’re a bunch of fucking idiots and you’re gonna get yours now”) — but the St. Paul PD across the way said outright that Minn. PD fucked the dog so bad that they’re refusing to honor the mutual aid agreement the cities have. So the answer is the PD is basically a rogue actor now. No support at all.

Minn. also has gun lunatics showing up, but they’re doing two things and surprisingly doing them well:
Defending stores from looters, without half as much macho posturing about it as usual some fucking how,
And backing up the protestors directly, some of them even catching rubber bullets and canisters in the chest for their trouble.
I don’t think the threepers or other white nationalist scum are involved. If they were I think they’d be dealt with fast, right now: the general atmosphere is supportive of the protest.

The rest I can’t really be sure, but Minneapolis is doing very badly in general right now, even before all this.

I do know the protestors are either gun nuts or people who legitimately feel like they have nothing to lose, backs against the wall, “what are you gonna do, /shoot/ us” kind of mindset. Word is that they are not looting these stores for money, clothes, electronics or food, they’re looting them for supplies to clean gas off faces and help with field medic shit. Lots of Gatorade and bottled water and milk going out. I’m not sure if that speaks to being prepared to go toe to toe or if it means they aren’t mentally prepared for an extended go at the PD.

[rong]

do you happen to know more specifically where the riots are occurring?  i see the autozone and target that burned are near Lake St and Hiawatha.

I used to live in Columbia Heights - so I'm just curious how close the action is to my old neighborhood

[altered]

I don’t have people on the ground, I’m just following the news about things and paying attention to what people are saying.

The word Right Now is that things are weird. Cops in full retreat, I guess? That’s fucking unheard of.

ETA: Apparently Minn. PD often uses public transportation for mass arrests and the Metro bus drivers are saying fuck you to them now. They’re getting their union involved.

And also, protestors broke into the squad motor pool and are wrecking the vehicles. I really have never seen anything remotely like this.

[Juana]

I don’t have people on the ground, I’m just following the news about things and paying attention to what people are saying.

The word Right Now is that things are weird. Cops in full retreat, I guess? That’s fucking unheard of.

ETA: Apparently Minn. PD often uses public transportation for mass arrests and the Metro bus drivers are saying fuck you to them now. They’re getting their union involved.

And also, protestors broke into the squad motor pool and are wrecking the vehicles. I really have never seen anything remotely like this.

Holy shit. I'd only heard about them running out of non lethal ammo and retreating him the literal barricades that had been erected but a serious round of applause for the bus drivers and for the protestors fucking up the motor pool.

I'm not sure where to put this but there's been a lot of broken clocks being right wrt George Floyd - I think this is the only extra judicial killing of a black person like this that has met almost universal condemnation since prior to the American Revolution. Here's an exceptionally broken clock that is probably concern trolling but still not wrong.

[altered]

The federal investigation just guaranteed this gets way way way worse.

https://twitter.com/kari_markus/status/1266134311759036421?s=21 Watch the video.

I’m expecting this to spread all over the country now. This was an incredibly bad move for anyone and everyone in the US. The fuckers wanting a race war might well fucking get what they asked for, and they will not be happy. Sun Tzu talked about cornered foes.

[altered]

https://twitter.com/stribjany/status/1266203221846036481?s=21

I’m serious. Has literally anyone heard of this happening in the US or a comparable nation in the age of the Internet?

The closest I think would be HK, and they have a very different dynamic there. And even then I don’t think they evacuated a goddamned police station because the protestors overran it.

https://twitter.com/neetpolice/status/1266222612641992704?s=21

And the obvious scheme, “this was never a peaceful protest”, has just been burned down definitively. Cops started it.

And now the protests are spreading: Denver, Toronto.

This is going to be a wild ride. I’m almost, almost feeling a twinge of fucking hope.

[Juana]

Shit is popping off in Denver, Louisville, Columbus, and potentially in Phoenix tonight. This is surreal.

[Juana]

Altered, the cops have a long, long history of doing shit like this. My buddy gave me a paper about them doing this and I'll post the pdf tomorrow if it's really worth it.

[altered]

I knew they did that shit, it wasn’t surprising at all to find it out. Having undeniable proof is a different story: it takes away their ability to shape the narrative toward “POC are savages” the way they usually do. That makes it harder to bury the story later and harder to regain popular support.

I appreciate the paper, but it’s not necessary. This is less “oh every one who told me ACAB was right” and more “and here is proof that ACAB is right”.

[Juana]

I apologize if I came off rude. Not my intention.

Minnesota freedom fund, for anyone interested in donating: https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/?fbclid=IwAR3w1c0Rg9wHcjV5jpcWzrN4CAewEIfYlVKgA92F-hk5RkCAuwNry-eDu_w

Columbus: https://twitter.com/fund_columbus/status/1265803452778786816?s=19

[altered]

The white nationalists are now showing up in “hunting parties” of 4 to 6 people, apparently.

This is going to get bloody. I have no idea how bad, but the results will either turn the US into a full blown fascist state or start a second civil war, full stop, end of story. I see no world where the Actual Card Carrying neo-Nazis show up for the express purpose of getting to kill black men and women protesting being killed who took out a fucking police station and things don’t explode nationwide.