More to the point, I simply cannot believe what gets into people. It’s certainly more than understandable that many are distressed, outraged, angry, etc. over the death of George Floyd in police custody. I am all of that myself and applaud the immediate firing of the police officers involved and the subsequent bringing of charges against the principal offender.
I am not, however, even remotely likely to participate in any mass protest, still less so when a protest morphs into a full-blown riot. Such behavior speaks ill of us as citizens and human beings. Trying as always to be fair, I’m including here a list of random thoughts:
⦁ Why is it that these protests/riots always involve looting? Ditto for burning.
⦁ Why does no one ever take into account the losses sustained by innocent third parties, whose businesses and premises are often severely damaged?
⦁ Why say only, “Black lives matter?” My own preferred slogan is, “Life matters!”
⦁ Why do these mobs seem to give no thought to “social distancing” and facial covering? Do they count their own lives for so little as to ignore the threat of COVID-19?
⦁ Who are these people and where do they come from? It’s been said that relatively few of those involved in the Minneapolis protest/riot are from that city. It’s also been said that there are groups of agitators about the country who flock to places where a peaceful protest can be stirred up into something far worse. For my money, a good sampling of rioters ought to be rounded up and sent to Guantano Bay for questioning.
⦁ Why and how did the peaceful protest held during the day turn into a riot once the sun had set? Could there be some noxious miasma involved?
⦁ Why has it historically been so very difficult, if not impossible, to bring charges (and have them stick) against police for such blatant misconduct? Very few police officers have ever been brought to trial, no matter what they have done. It seems far too easy for cities to let such uncomfortable matters drop with a token payment to the victims’ families. Why does there seem to be no effort put into weeding out the bad ones and enhancing the “community relations” training of the good ones? I should perhaps say here that I’ve known two police officers personally – one an “ordinary” patrol officer and the other a blood spatter specialist – and neither would ever have dreamt of committing any such atrocity.
⦁ Why have most cases of such police misconduct been directed against citizens who simply happen to be black?
⦁ What is wrong with The Only President We’ve Got, who should have known that he’d only be adding fuel to the fire by saying that any attacking the White House would be “greeted with the most vicious dogs and most ominous weapons?” Really? Why not just nuke the mob and get it over with? Seems like the kind of statement one might expect of a cheap bully!
⦁ Could having any sort of release from the “stay-at-home” requirements have played any part in turning peaceful protests into riots?
Although Seattle is generally omitted from the list of cities where such incidents have occurred, what I saw on last night’s TV news made me sick. What had been a peaceful rally during the day mysteriously turned into a full-blown riot, with shop windows smashed, wholesale looting and, not to overlook this, torching of ordinary everyday businesses.
Thank goodness the city where I live is far too small for such nonsense and the nearest city of any size (Bellingham) had only a modest “vigil.” My poor tired old brain can’t cope with more than that.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Cog:
My only experience of rioting is the Brixton Riots of the 1970s. I’ve looked them up and the reasons given now are not those given, privately, at the time. I lived in Brixton then, and my mother was a Conservative Councillor on the very, very left wing Lambeth Council under Ken Livingstone; it was said that the red flag flew over Lambeth Town Hall.
Perhaps my views on ‘Protest’ marches going ‘bad’ have been coloured by my knowledge of what really happened rather than what was eventually published as the cause and seems, now, to be historical ‘fact’. As far as anyone was aware at the time the police were trying to go into a ‘no-go’ area – and there were places where one simply did not ‘go’. As far as I was told the police were investigating the suspicious drug death of a young man, who was, in fact, a very remote relative.
It is absolutely certain that those protests were taken over by opportunists of various kinds.
Some were politically motivated – and I’m sure that there are many of those in the US riots – who see it as a way of galvanising discontent against the status quo. Many were simply criminals who saw it as a way to loot and acquire goods illegally. And I’m sure that the US has plenty of those as well.
On investigation it was clear that many rioters were not from Brixton, or indeed from London. They were designated as ‘Rent-a-Mob’… and I’m sure that you have many such in the US too.
There are a lot of stupid people and opportunistic people in this world- those who believe whatever they are told and those who use the stupidity of others for their own ends …
Bearsy read an article today saying that Militant Protesters were bullying those who objected to the violence, and I read an article that said ‘Peaceful’ Protesters were forming barriers to stop looting. Clearly the latter understand that the present violence is counter productive and will gain no support from the rest of the community.
As to your question as to why it has been ‘historically been so very difficult, if not impossible, to bring charges (and have them stick) against police for such blatant misconduct’.
From the outside looking in – and I’m more than prepared for you to dismiss my thoughts – it seems to me that the legal discrimination against coloured people is still part of of many US citizen’s psyche. Governments may change the laws, as they did in the 60s – but that does not mean that those changes alter people’s thoughts and opinions overnight. And institutions are notoriously slow and averse to change.
No Law Enforcement Agency can condone or be seen to condone looting, etc and that, of course is exactly what the lunatic fringe is banking on.
However, in my opinion, sensible US citizens must demand that Law Enforcement Agencies are trained to treat everyone equally and that those, whether they be Police or Coroners, who are part of the Law Enforcement system, treat all equally and provide equal protection under the law…
But it will take time.
Good day Cog. I share your frustration at the senseless rioting, though I am not surprised by it. There have been plenty of precedents, not just in the US, but in the UK as well, and no doubt other countries. Who can forget the Rodney King riots?
I cannot imagine what the police officer concerned was thinking, in refusing to release the pressure on Floyd while the observers were shouting at him. Nor can I understand why the other officer(s) did not intervene. There appears to have been no excuse whatsoever. Madness.
However, I am becoming increasingly irritated by the reactions of the wider community towards events like this. Whenever a killing occurs, and I concede there do seem to be quite a few, (though given the size of the population and the high levels of crime, perhaps it is not that many) the automatic assumption is that it is racially motivated. We know for example that most crimes are committed by African Americans. 40% of the prison population is AA as opposed to 39% being white, despite the overall white population being 5 times that of the AA population. Even taking into consideration racial bias in the justice system, the numbers are disproportionate. It stands to reason that there will be more confrontations between white cops and black suspects. The higher the levels of crime, the greater the number of confrontations. Inevitably killings will occur whether as result of mistake, over zealousness, bad judgement; even fear or panic. Guns are dangerous. But that does not mean that they are all racially motivated, or even unjustified. Most white cops have black colleagues. Violently racist white police officers would soon be identified.
Although it certainly does not excuse what happened, the fact that Floyd had done time for ‘armed home invasion’ does rather indicate that he was not the saint that the media and AA community portray him to be. He was a 6′ 6″, 200lb bouncer with a criminal record ‘apparently’ caught in the act of committing a crime. It is perhaps understandable that the cops were a little nervous.
Meanwhile, how many people are aware of the 8th of May killing of an elderly couple, Paul Lidia Marino, who were shot at close range by a man called Sheldon Francis. If you read the report in the Daily Mail, nowhere does it describe the killer as being either black or African American, although that is what he was. It does however show a mug shot, but it is not as easy to search for a photo as is is to search for ‘white’ or ‘black’. There does not appear to have been any motive. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8323375/Delaware-couple-shot-killed-veterans-cemetery-visiting-sons-grave.html
Why does the media not react to this killing as though it were racially motivated? Why is the white community not up in arms about the levels of crime being perpetrated by African Americans against them?
I have mentioned them before, but the farmer murders that take place in South Africa, make the George Floyd murder look like a teddy bear’s picnic. If you want to see the level of brutality involved, do an image search on “Farm murders South Africa”. Take off safety filters. The results provided by search engine http://www.yandex.com will horrify you. But is the world remotely interested? No. Trump raised the matter and was accused of being a racist for doing so. The ruling ANC says these are criminal acts that are not racially motivated or even hate crimes. So they deserve no particular attention.
As an aside, the other day I was taking a walk when the driver of an approaching car, a fellow of the indigenous persuasion, chucked some litter out of his window. I flagged him down. He went past me before stopping and then shouted at me asking what the problem was. I told him not to litter our roads. He responded by yelling, “I will blow your f***ing head off you Rhodesian monkey”. Don’t get me wrong, I am not remotely offended by such epithets, they are but words, but it does irk me that if I, in a fit of irritation, were to let slip a corresponding expletive, I would be locked up. And that wouldn’t just happen here, but in South Africa, the UK, the USA and anywhere else in the world. Nothing would ever happen to him.
It is time that the MSM, the politicians and society at large began to recognise where the problem lies and why it exists. And for that, I refer you to the pronouncements of Nobel Laureate James Watson!
Personally, I am with the Only President You Have Got on this one!
I have found it encouraging that so many leaders of the African American community have spoken out against the rioters and looters. Images of people streaming out of looted shops with armfuls of stolen property do neither their cause nor their community’s image any favours. Such reports reminded me of the riots in Tottenham some years ago where new fashionable trainers were the coveted items to be stolen. I suspect that President Trump is correct in stating that left-wing troublemakers are stirring things up. The dreadful death of George Floyd seems to have been almost forgotten. It is the same in France where the arrest of an immigrant criminal causes his community to set fire to cars, bins, bus shelters and such. And now there are reports of vigilantes in the States taking matters into their own hands to protect property. Social distancing seems to have disappeared despite the fact that African Americans are more at risk of coronavirus infection. But I’ve no idea what drives such people – self-selecting as a doctor would say.
By virtue of the position they hold, the police enjoy professional immunity. That is not, by any means, sacrosanct, however. In cases when the police clearly acted illegally and without regard to professional standards, they can and sometimes do take the fall. However, it is very difficult to prove that a police officer acted entirely unreasonably. It also doesn’t help that the media often show partial or edited clips in order to whip up public frenzy. One reason why relatively few police are “known” to be held to account by law is because the media focus on salacious stories. If an unarmed African-American man is shot, that is worthy of headlines. When a white meth-head is shot, nobody in the media really cares. The USA history of race relations in the USA is deeply troubled to say the least. There is a deep well of antagonism and angst to draw from. That the USA also has some horrific social problems that transcend race is not nearly as interesting unless elections go in unexpected directions. There was briefly, for example, interest in the condition of the white working class in the Rust Belt after the 2016 election, but within months that blew over.
The Minneapolis case appears to be more clear-cut than most. Floyd was not resisting and he was being arrested for a very, very minor crime. The officer who killed him had worked with Floyd in the past and the two had bad blood. Minneapolis, Minnesota generally, is almost Canadian in its social issues. They exist. There is no doubt that they exist. However, they’re generally swept under the carpet with a polite smile and some PC slogans. I lived in the Twin Cities Metro for two years. One thing I noticed is that the people I was able to get to know and am still in contact with were from Michigan, from Ohio, from Tennessee via Texas. Of course, I did make the acquaintance of some people from Minnesota — an elderly couple who had the “joy” of minding Comrade Crazy Ape in his adolescence for a year and a man with Apsberger’s who, for obvious reasons, doesn’t conform to social norms. I acknowledge having lived in three US states — California, Hawai’i and Minnesota. I technically lived in Idaho, but I don’t want to discuss that. It’s a bit like laughing so hard you soiled yourself. It’s known, but a bit of a disgrace. California has its issues, but its well-integrated. People thought nothing of having a social group comprising people from old German-American farming families, African-Americans, Hmong, Cambodians, Mexican-Americans, Filipinos and any mix of the above. Likewise, in Hawai’i there was a distinction between kama’aina and haole, but kama’aina was not purely a racial distinction — “local haoles”, or people of pallor, were still kama’aina because they had always been part of the greater ‘ohana. (Haole refers to people from outside Hawai’i, but is mostly associate with people of pallor, especially those from the mainland USA) But in Minnesota… There were two distinctions. There were Minnesotans and non-Minnesotans. Then there were Minnesotans of visible minority background and those who were of a largely Nordic/German background. Minnesotans stuck together when someone from a non-Minnesotan background was involved (this included people from such far-flung and exotic states such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin) but once you looked past that, Minnesota was nearly as segregated as the South. Minnesota, like Canada, deals with its problems by smiling and pretending they don’t exist.
Something snapped during the pandemic. It’s hard to place — but it’s been universal, it seems. Things have changed quickly, but they have not changed for the better. I’ve only personally experienced it in two countries — the UK and Germany. I get spillover from the USA for obvious reasons — my job is based out of California and with little exception, all the people I work with live in California. Things have been difficult in the UK and there was a notable increase in fear, anger and paranoia — a blend of a creepy, soft-totalitarian group-think and general, bland indifference. The latter reassures me that some of the Britain I know and love is still alive and well. In Germany, people are still as s****y and as big a**e-holes as ever, but Germany is still within the parameters of its typical idiocy. It’s broadly tolerable, although the mean has moved closer to the cringe-side of the parameters. Many people have died and the disease has been terrible, but it is almost impossible to know what is true and what isn’t. There has been so much dishonesty involved from the start that people seem to have lost even more faith in institutions, traditions and society itself. A lot of criminal behaviour has been pent-up, but it hasn’t gone away. It was just waiting to manifest itself and it has done exactly that in a huge, hideous explosion.
First, cleaning up after myself: The place name I mentioned should of course be Guantánamo (not Guantano) Bay – with or without a “Guajira” (peasant girl). Now on with the show.
Boadicea: It’s not every day that I’m caught saying this, but I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Sipu: You’ve put your finger on a couple of things that those afflicted with PC-itis don’t like to say: (1) the ratio of criminals to the respective parts of the general population and (2) the way that today’s media shy away from mentioning a perpetrator’s race. Almost always I have to wait a couple of days, until a picture is published, to find out that little truth.
Did you know that Mr. Floyd and the officer who killed him were acquainted, both having done security work at a nightclub at the same time?
Regarding the Orange One’s threats, can we please leave the dogs out of this and stick with the “ominous weapons,” or maybe just nuke the mob? My canine companions were thinking of launching a protest of their own in response to this ill-advised threat. As for me, anyone who tries breaking into, looting or burning my place would be greeted by a volley of 7.62 mm and/or .303 British projectiles.
I’ve read more than I’ve seen about the “farmer murders” and will give that Yandex website a go. Thanks!
If you’re going to walk around criticizing members of the “indigenous persuasion,” I do hope you’re armed – just in case one of them offers more than a threat.
Sheona: Agreed. I myself see ignoring of the health guidelines as Darwinism at work.
Christopher: Perhaps surprisingly, I agree with nearly everything you say. I’ll really have to do some work on my attitude.
“Professional immunity” should not and does not excuse commission of crimes by a serving police officer. It was generally difficult to prove misconduct, especially given the cover-ups and outright lies used by police forces around the nation, but these days, when practically everyone is carrying a “smartphone,” it has become far, far easier. Did you know that the city of Atlanta has now fired two officers for use of excessive force in a traffic stop involving two young black men? I’ve seen a video of the incident on TV.
I agree that “something snapped” but, lacking proper training in headshrinkery, I can’t say exactly what.
I’m relieved and re-heartened (is that a word?) to see on the TV news footage of many volunteers turning out to clean up the mess – broken glass, dropped loot, etc. – left by the rioters. There are still some decent people in the world after all!!
Live long and prosper!
Cog: A well-known part of policing is group loyalty. Police, with few exceptions, will back police. Even when serious abuses take place, even when laws and procedures are ignored, the police can be counted on to close ranks and back their own. It’s to a large extent natural. It’s a unique profession with a unique set of circumstances. Those in that profession know it, understand it and will have each other’s backs.
The rise of the universal smartphone camera has, as you said, made it harder to cover-up abuses. However, it also makes it easier for the media to sensationalise stories. It also leads to DAs to pursue charges based on cases that are simply too thin. Cases involving police acting under the colour of law are handled differently than cases involving civilians and for good reason. On a number of occasions, police officers saw their careers end (their continued presence in the force would cause more trouble than it was worth) but they simply could not be convicted on procedural grounds. The media do a brilliant job hyping stories up, but they do a piss-poor job of explaining how procedural law and due process work. It isn’t that juries are unwilling to convict police behaving badly, it’s that there must be a certain burden of proof met and if it isn’t, the case is either dismissed or they’re acquitted. The Hennepin County DA, to his credit, is not rushing the case because rushed cases, more than any other, are prone to dismissal or acquittal.
There have been a number of cases of people doing good things during this crisis and there have been a number of people doing stupid things. Part of it, I think, is that in many societies, we’ve gone so long without facing a truly real crisis that when one emerges, albeit a very mild pandemic, people lose their minds. My nan, who grew up in Germany during the Second World War, has been taking things in stride. She finds the prohibitions on visiting old age homes, etc. a bloody nuisance. A lot of people have been put under strain and they haven’t been able to cope well. A lot of people have been on edge for some time, anyway. I am on friendly terms with a woman who works at a tea/coffee shop back in Dorset. A couple years ago, you had the occasional eejit but people largely behaved themselves. Starting late last year, more and more people would stare through the window and, if they saw packaging they didn’t approve of, took it on themselves to yell at her and demand that she change the packaging to make it eco-friendly. There has been constant media saturation — climate crisis, pandemic crisis, Brexit crisis, migration crisis, financial crisis. Crisis, crisis, crisis. Panic, panic, panic. When horrible images from Italy were shown every day, of bodies lined up in churches. When horrific images from Madrid and New York, of bodies laying on ice rinks, in the back of lorries, of large grave pits being dug on Hart Island, people, already often on edge, are pushed over the edge. Perhaps the reason why Germany has remained within the parameters of its normal idiocy is because the German response has been well-calibrated. The British response has been chaotic and the British media have just loved the sensational. The US response has been mired in politicking. At no time have Trump, Pelosi, Whitmer, Cuomo, Newsom, etc. missed an opportunity to take swipes at their political rivals.
It’s just been announced that the Attorney General of Minnesota, who took the Floyd case over and conducted an investigation that must have seemed overly long to some (despite it being careful and thorough), has now upped the charge against the one police officer from third to second degree (intentional but not premeditated) murder. I think that those who were demanding a charge of first degree murder didn’t understand that such a charge would require proof of premeditation. As it now stands, the corresponding penalty is raised from 25 to 40 years. (But who knows how long a guy like that would survive in prison?) Charges against the other three officers are to be lodged and announced this afternoon and should at the very least cover being accessories to the crime of murder.
The “group loyalty” instinct of the police appeared but briefly early on in the case, when various cover-ups and outright lies started to be circulated, but quickly vanished when the video was made public. True, such videos are promptly sensationalized by the media but, as in this and a recent case in Atlanta, cannot be refuted when supported by eyewitness statements.
Oh, how the media love milking sensation and instilling public fear! Beekeepers hereabouts are currently on the lookout for Asian giant hornets, that apparently consider bees a delicacy, and the media have been quick to suggest that we are in danger of attack by them, now even calling them, “murder hornets.” (Thanks to the New York Times, of all people, for coming up with that name.) The truth is that so far only three of those hornets, two dead, have been seen in this county.
In other news, it’s emerging that many of those who looted during the riots are in this for profit as well as fun. Simply incite a riot as a diversion (which suggests a certain weakness of mind in peaceful demonstrators), smash shop windows, clean the places out and make off with the goods. The one and only looting video that evoked even a shred of sympathy from me featured rioters destroying a restaurant and one girl calmly walking away carrying a whole strawberry cream cake. (My flash of sympathy came only because I really wanted a piece!) It’s suggested that there are even certain persons yet unknown who, although they might not actually have looters on a regular payroll, at the very least provide a ready outlet for stolen goods. It’s a good thing that law enforcement keeps a regular eye on eBay, where such items often appear for sale.
The public is increasingly determined not to let things get that far. Last night’s TV news pictured a group of men, local shop owners, on a street corner in Seattle, all armed with rifles. Perfectly legal, just no *concealed* weapons. I believe the looters got the message and turned their attention from Seattle to Tacoma.
Meanwhile, back in our nation’s capital, The Only President We’ve Got continues to assert “dominance” and apparently is more than willing to use full military force against the taxpaying and voting public. It was clear yesterday that he was willing to let the military violently clear the way for his strolls to an Episcopal and a Catholic church. (The Bishops were not amused!) What more does he want, another Kent State? The Secretary of Defense has taken serious issue with his nominal boss on this and I won’t be at all surprised if he either resigns voluntarily or is fired in the near future.
It would be an understatement to say that, with each new mouthing from The Orange One, I’m ever more looking forward to Election Day in November!
Cog, you know better than I how things are in the USA. But I can’t help feeling that every photo of African Americans exiting stores with armfuls of loot and reports of policemen being shot by demonstrators are only going to ensure that the only president you’ve got remains just that. The protesters in London don’t seem interested in convincing the BAME community, where young thugs seem to specialise in stabbing and shooting each other, that black lives matter. Brain cells left on the kitchen table?
I think people who are singing the praises of Floyd, need to listen to this woman to get some perspective.
In Loontown, meanwhile, the police are ‘taking the knee’. Was there ever anything more repellent?
There seem to be several among us who think that all this demonstrating and rioting and suchlike is going to boost re-election chances of The Only President We’ve Got. Sorry, but I don’t agree. I can’t see Americans wanting to give up freedom and to have the weight of military force placed on our collective neck. The military themselves aren’t too happy with it either. Indeed, polls and news reports indicate that he is losing support, even in his own party. He’s showing himself to be a bully and, as is the case with most bullies, a coward. Does anybody really like bullies and cowards or believe his claim that he wasn’t seeking safety in the White House bunker?
Much more of the militaristic oppression that The Only President We’ve Got is calling for and I wouldn’t be altogether surprised if protests and riots became more like an all-out rebellion, with people taking off their masks and coughing in the oppressors’ faces, home-brewing mustard gas, catapulting dead animals over the White House fence and so on. Britain should know what can happen when individual human rights are overridden; we did it once and we can do it again!
Our own Civil War wasn’t quite the same thing. The central issue there was States’ rights, not individual rights, with great heroism being shown on both sides in the resulting conflict. It grieves me to see how many Civil War memorials are being removed or destroyed, with Robert E. Lee being the prime target. Not an overt opponent of slavery, he was not himself a keeper of slaves but rather a professional soldier who served what he saw as his country.
To my alleged mind, what’s needed is national (as in Federal Government) review and direction of police behavioral standards. Also whatever else it takes to calm any spirit of revenge. It strikes me that the kindest thing that can be done with the malefactors would be to keep them locked up (most likely in solitary confinement) for a good long time, safely away from all but those with the very longest memories and a correspondingly vengeful nature.
But here we are today, much has changed and now all we hear is, “Black lives matter.” So what? Brown lives matter. Yellow lives matter. So do (dare I say this in public?) white lives.
Sipu: I liked that Yandex search engine. I didn’t find as many grisly images as I’d feared there might be but learned a few things about what’s been going on and, unfortunately, largely ignored by the rest of the world. That girl in the video you posted neatly codifies what those of us who care to look below the surface already knew about George Floyd’s past. He wasn’t quite the decent, morally upright citizen that most like to think he was. Neither, for that matter, was the officer who killed him, who had – what was it, now? – some 18 (eighteen!) previous complaints against him.
But hey, nobody’s perfect. Not those two, nor the copper who straight-armed that geriatric in Buffalo, NY, causing him to fall and split his head open on the pavement. (But said geri was white, meaning that he won’t become a national icon, and two officers have now been suspended without pay and charged with assault.) Nor the two who recently beat a man to death in Tacoma, WA. That man was black but for some reason hasn’t captured the public attention as has George Floyd, even though there’s some pretty compelling video of the incident.
Certainly not the mobs of looters either. Looky here:
https://apnews.com/86bcd9074dec5444cc8f484ac6623fbf
Also, in order to fairly show the other side of things, here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/presidents-inhumanity-is-deeper-than-we-knew/
and here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/06/george-conway-trump-lashed-out-me-twitter-its-because-he-knows-truth/
As I’ve said before, I can hardly wait for Election Day in November. I only hope that one of the tabloids uses its front page to quote what was one of the Orange One’s regular lines in a TV show on which he regularly appeared: “YOU’RE FIRED!”
For now, I myself am doing OK. There’s plenty of food and ammo in the house, the gates are locked, the drawbridge raised, etc., and we have the dogs, the birds and the neighbor’s cows to talk to. I will, however, be venturing forth sometime next week because the County where I live has now made its way to Phase 2 of the Governor’s “reopening” plan and barber shops can now resume their trade. Lord knows I’m not a vain person, but I’ve become quite repelled by my own shagginess.
“Sipu: I liked that Yandex search engine. I didn’t find as many grisly images as I’d feared there might be.”
Hi Cog, maybe the images have been removed since I last checked. But I have some of them saved from several years ago. They depict such things as disembowelment, bottles and broomsticks inserted where they should not be, heads smashed open, literally; that sort of thing. I would not dream of posting, but they are as bad as you can imagine, though they cannot truly illustrate the pain, suffering and terror experienced by the victims who range from toddlers to geriatrics, of both sexes. I knew of one lady who was murdered by having boiling water poured down her throat.
Two women, British Katie Hopkins and Canadian, Lauren Southern, both made documentaries on the farm murders, but they received almost no coverage, that I am aware of, both women being personae non gratae. The media are simply not interested in black-on-white murders, no matter how horrific or unjust the killings. It absolutely baffles me and it does not bode well for our civilisation.
This is a comment on a similar theme on another site, from a lady who now lives in the West Country.
“My grandaughter lives in Peckham, London. She is married to a black man and has a mixed race child. I phoned her at the weekend because I was very concerned about what was happening there. She said, Nan..I know you think you’re doing the right thing by supporting the BLM movement, but really it’s just patronising. You haven’t been up to London for over 20 years, you don’t know what it’s like. I was quite offended and things got a bit heated. Then her black husband came on the phone and he said that none of his family or friends agree with the BLM movement and it’s actually done more to incite rascism than the National Front, EDL and BNP put together. That frightened me….I lived in London for a few years during the 1970’s and remember the NF marches and I pray we never go back to that. They make Tommy Robinson look like Mary Poppins. Anyway, he said that this country has come such a long way since those days and the BLM movement has set it right back. He said the issue isn’t white people killing black people, it’s blacks killing blacks. Every day, there’s more shooting and stabbings. He said why do these protests only happen when a white person has killed a black person. If people want to really help, protest about that. He asked me what I really thought I was doing to help. Well, he really put me in my place and made me look at it from a different angle. I would be interested to know what other black people think. Are we being patronising, because that’s the last thing I would want to be.”
That, I suspect, is far nearer the outlook of the vast majority of the coloured population all around the country but it doesn’t sell newspapers of TV advertising slots does it?
James:
We have an aboriginal woman here who is a Councillor in Alice Springs, which as you may know has a very large aboriginal community.
She has slammed the BLM movement for exactly the same reasons that your quote has given. The best thing I can do is give you a link:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8398491/Indigenous-activist-slams-BLM-protesters-dont-care-black-deaths-unless-killed-white.html
She always speaks a great deal of common sense – one thing that she is adamant about is that the aboriginal community must do more for itself and stop playing the victim.
I think the fact that she was voted into office shows that there must be a large number of people in Alice who agree with her.