Over the weekend, large-scale demonstrations erupted in cities across the United States in protest of the senseless killing of George Floyd by a police officer. As some protests descended into violence and looting, several local and national officials blamed the uprising on "outside agitators." This explanation is a gross oversimplification with an ugly racial history. It has been used repeatedly to marginalize real grievances and to ignore systemic racism.
I just want to say this one thing. My sister is a New York City police officer and she’s never been more afraid to go to work. She’s also a black woman afraid to go to work. Same goes for my step brothers and a few friends. My husband, a black man and Navy veteran is uncomfortable going far distances from the house. We are both terrified of the future for our 9 year old son and 6 year old daughter. When my husband leaves the house at 5:30am to catch the train to work, I don’t sleep until I get a text saying he’s in the office and okay. This country is not a place where we feel free. I don’t believe for one minute that lasting change will come from these protests. Everyone wants things to return to normal but the fact is that normal wasn’t any better. Have a great week everyone. I’m inhaling books to ease my mind and heart.
Judd, I believe it would be in the best interest of all if you had included more information on the many incidents caught on video of actual "Outside Agitators" filmed who are apparently causing property damage with the presumed intent to exploit protester's emotions and "fuel the fires" of non-peaceful activity.
You mention this problem very briefly in your second paragraph but this seems to be a much broader and deeper effort by groups and individuals with agendas other than racial justice than you imply, and it is having an immense effect on the public perception of the protests and protesters overall.
This is all part of the truth of these protests and deserves the attention of the public.
The gruesome death of George Floyd was the match that lit this fire. But the fire has grown much bigger than one individual. It has spread across the nation so quickly because the problem of excessive force and lawlessness of our law enforcement institutions rings true in every community. But how do we rein it in? A large movement catalyzed in the 1960s to stop police brutality, and it finally got some traction when police and governmental agencies sat down with the people's representatives to hammer out new guidelines. Those guidelines held for many years, but they've been slowly chipped away at by the establishment. But now, when there has been shown a real need for reforms, the people no longer have leaders to guide us, or to represent us at the table. The people have become so powerless. Who will hold the establishment accountable, and help the people's voices be heard and respected? In Trump's America, not the corrupt Republicans, not the ineffective Democrats - no one apparently. Trump's America...tear gas from sea to shining sea.
Thanks, Judd. I wish you had spent some time in this article - and maybe you will in future articles - discussing the demonization of the administration's favorite scapegoat, "antifa". Our society is poorly educated when it comes to the definition of anti-Fascist. We've been brainwashed to conflate that term with other evil movements, like White Supremacism. Since the majority of Americans really don't know anything factual about the history of the anti-Fascist movement, it's easy for Trump and Barr to dog whistle about extreme leftists and antifa and get the Pavlovian response they are looking for. Their intent as always is to distract from the real issue, in this case injustice, inequality, and the absolutely justified rage that is pouring out into the streets again now.
Nothing surprises me any more. 400 years of racism since the first slave ship sailed into the colonies is lost on the leaders and the nation.
Cops killing black people doesn't seem to bother the Right nor Evangelicals. The stuff I hear and see on social media.
So have you heard of the bricks conspiracy.
Stacks of bricks delivered by mysterious sources arriving in cities all over the country to be used by rioters. The Trumpers here suspect Soros and the Chinese.
I suspect construction, but sounds rather GOP don't you think? Koch Brother, or who ever paid off Brent Kavanaugh's debts...
I am waiting for Anonymous to show up again and hopefully with Trump's tax returns or info from a German bank.
This I think is important. The tendency to immediately say, we only shot at outsiders who came in to agitate. Like that makes it okay. It's like we are expected to believe that all of the local people are just fine with police actions. Horseshit. For the most part people protesting in a locality are from that locality. They can't afford to run all over hell protesting in 50 different states. These people lost their jobs, were confined to home for months, were more likely to DIE from this plague than others. When they do venture out they get attacked and killed.
But, Karen and Bubba stomp around armed with big-ass guns and take over a state capital building because they want haircuts and pedis (right fuckin' NOW!), and those same goddamned governors and the Fucking President are all like "oh Barbie, we are so sorry you are inconvenienced, We totally understand you are too stupid to do your own hair and nails. Let's just get all these low-paid black people back to work and make you happy' And them guns you are aiming at us are just fine." No rubber bullets and pepper spray for Karen and Bubba (and Barbie).
I'm sure black people are infuriated because they did not get anywhere near the same reception when they showed up to peacefully protest the MURDER of one of their own.
The "not from here" trope is likely an misplayed attempt to speak to locals in an attempt to message that "we know our people are the good kind, not like the outsiders who are causing all the trouble."
Hmmm, seems a bit paternalistic to me.
Rioting is part of the normative response to the pressure release when it just becomes too much. That doesn't justify rioting. It doesn't justify looting and burning. But we've seen this over and over again. Detroit in 1943. Detroit in 1968. LA in 1992. They all started similarly: unfettered racist police action drove the nation beyond the breaking point.
The solution is pretty simple to understand, if nearly impossible to implement. End. Racist. Policing. Train police forces to defuse, not attack. Train police forces to respect and protect the lives of all citizens, not just white citizens. Train police forces to use stop pulling guns as an automatic first response. Train police forces to empathize, and not stand in uniformed and stark judgment.
Until that happens, periodic rioting will continue to have its own lifeforce, one driven by a militaristic, occupying police force that fails to make the connection between dehumanizing people of color and the blowback of rage that engenders.
Bill de Blasio is a disappointment. He acted late with respect to the threat of COVID and is a shameless NYPD bootlicker. Goes to show even self-styled "progressives" may not necessarily live up to the label.
I am disappointed with the focus of your post today, Judd. I live in Minneapolis and have read and watched every detail of what is going on. Our two mayors and governor were probably grasping for explanations when they believed the "trope." But, the truth is that "outside the cause of justice" would have been more accurate than saying from outside the state. The looting and arson was not and has not been part of the peaceful marches and protests. It has come after dark and is perpetrated by opportunists as well as angry or confused people. Whether or not professional or regular outsider agitators with their own agenda are behind any of it, maybe we will find that out some day. Three people are so committed to taking a stand, making changes and being leaders of all their citizens, though, are Tim Walz, Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter. All three acknowledge mistakes when they make them and move forward. Just thought you should know.
Looking through the pronouncements of elected leaders from 10 cities this morning (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Raleigh, LA, Seattle, NYC, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington DC), plus the comments of the president,...all claim the demonstrations in their cities are being fueled by "outside agitators." If every city in America has "outside agitators"...where are they coming from?
"Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."
This isn't a binary issue. There are several factions involved: nonviolent protesters, agents provocateurs (left and right), criminals (arsonists, looters), decent cops, bad cops. The bad actors need to be isolated, shunned, filmed, whatever, by the masses of peaceful protesters. (I have seen a few videos of this happening--too few.) When a nonviolent protester floats into one of the other groups, the whole cause is undermined.
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is quick to suggest that "the people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents"...just like over 90% of the Minneapolis police force.
This article was terribly disappointing. I was planning to ask you to investigate "Antifa" and whoever is inspiring or conscripting these interfering agitators who scream and yell and seem to have no alliance with the protesters whose hearts feel broken. TV coverage has shown a number of up close demonstrators who look like white guys delighting in looting (maybe Target), screaming angrily; 2 skinny Asian girls dressed in all black spray painting a Starbucks while a black girl yells at them to stop: "We're not destroying property, stop that," until they finally stop, and then the black girl says, "Black people are going to get blamed for this." Then, another example (if I can still click and send this) of a guy who has anger issues but not part of the George Floyd grievers:
Tim Williams
✔
@realtimwilliams
#BREAKING NEWS: Pittsburgh Police say 20 year old Brian Bartels is the man who incited riots in downtown #Pittsburgh yesterday. This is video taken of him destroying a police cruiser. An arrest warrant has been issued. https://cbsloc.al/2Minpv6
Friday night in Atlanta was very bad. the peaceful protests that had been going on all day, turned violent VERY rapidly after dark. Our City government and the police force that supports us, were surprised. Surprised by the unknown people showing up to perpetrate violence. were these people from out of state? no But one doesn't have to leave GA to find lots of folks willing to create chaos and violence in order to cheapen and negate worthwhile non-violent Protests. On Saturday, an impassioned plea fro the mayor and the chief of police asked that the protesters not be violent, that they point fingers and call out the violent agitators. coupled with some excellent organization and targeted minimum force crowd control by the Atlanta police. Saturday's protest were not violent, and with the exceptions that almost prove the rule, crowds were peaceably dispersed and no exceptional violence and damage occurred. The Video that has surfaced of Friday and Saturday here in ATL, clearly shows people not engaged in Protests, committing defacement and vandalism in areas that were not in conflict yet, and protesters and civilians loudly objecting to their acts. There were agent provocateurs, and they were not part of the protest movement. It serves the interest of the current Administration, and the domestic terrorist organizations that support him to turn peaceful protest into rights. It is happening.
blah blah blah, Judd. Anybody who thinks RIOTERS are okay, please DO send me your street address, town/city and state, and I'll be SURE to send tonight's violence into YOUR neighborhood. Stand at your front door, and walk (or drive, if you must) 0.9 mi - and that's how far I live from the violence in Brooklyn. I live (do you, Judd?) in a fully integrated neighborhood in a fully integrated borough of NYC. I LOVE my neighbors, all colors, all ethnicities. I love my neighborhood. We have peaceful demonstrations and protests THROUGHOUT the year, EVERY year, especially every summer. But what's been happening here for four nights (and they ARE coming in from outside NYC; I stumbled on a number of Twitter accounts doing happy dances at the violence and destruction they've perpetrated to MY neighborhood and MY local nypd.)
You would be smart to also remember that NYC HAS NOT REOPENED FROM THE PANDEMIC. New Covid cases were up a tick yesterday - we'll see how that plays out. (But I'd be glad to send virus shred to your neighborhood along with the violence. Just DO send me your location, specific.)
And since NO agitators or peaceful protesters of any color have actually declared measures by which we all can determine that this violence (from cops to black Americans) stops NOW, Gov Andrew Cuomo in yesterday's briefing, has done it for you. Look for the vid of his daily briefing yesterday (FF to about 20:), he lays it out. (He also addresses the vids from Saturday night re police retaliation.) But without that, without specific measures to address this whole mess (that has been ongoing, replete with riots, since I was 10 yo, so at least 55 years now) without specific measures - which he GIVES you in that briefing - this is all for naught. It's that simple. Feel free to take his ideas and recommendations as your own and get to work. That's how you get it done.
I just want to say this one thing. My sister is a New York City police officer and she’s never been more afraid to go to work. She’s also a black woman afraid to go to work. Same goes for my step brothers and a few friends. My husband, a black man and Navy veteran is uncomfortable going far distances from the house. We are both terrified of the future for our 9 year old son and 6 year old daughter. When my husband leaves the house at 5:30am to catch the train to work, I don’t sleep until I get a text saying he’s in the office and okay. This country is not a place where we feel free. I don’t believe for one minute that lasting change will come from these protests. Everyone wants things to return to normal but the fact is that normal wasn’t any better. Have a great week everyone. I’m inhaling books to ease my mind and heart.
Judd, I believe it would be in the best interest of all if you had included more information on the many incidents caught on video of actual "Outside Agitators" filmed who are apparently causing property damage with the presumed intent to exploit protester's emotions and "fuel the fires" of non-peaceful activity.
You mention this problem very briefly in your second paragraph but this seems to be a much broader and deeper effort by groups and individuals with agendas other than racial justice than you imply, and it is having an immense effect on the public perception of the protests and protesters overall.
This is all part of the truth of these protests and deserves the attention of the public.
The gruesome death of George Floyd was the match that lit this fire. But the fire has grown much bigger than one individual. It has spread across the nation so quickly because the problem of excessive force and lawlessness of our law enforcement institutions rings true in every community. But how do we rein it in? A large movement catalyzed in the 1960s to stop police brutality, and it finally got some traction when police and governmental agencies sat down with the people's representatives to hammer out new guidelines. Those guidelines held for many years, but they've been slowly chipped away at by the establishment. But now, when there has been shown a real need for reforms, the people no longer have leaders to guide us, or to represent us at the table. The people have become so powerless. Who will hold the establishment accountable, and help the people's voices be heard and respected? In Trump's America, not the corrupt Republicans, not the ineffective Democrats - no one apparently. Trump's America...tear gas from sea to shining sea.
Thanks, Judd. I wish you had spent some time in this article - and maybe you will in future articles - discussing the demonization of the administration's favorite scapegoat, "antifa". Our society is poorly educated when it comes to the definition of anti-Fascist. We've been brainwashed to conflate that term with other evil movements, like White Supremacism. Since the majority of Americans really don't know anything factual about the history of the anti-Fascist movement, it's easy for Trump and Barr to dog whistle about extreme leftists and antifa and get the Pavlovian response they are looking for. Their intent as always is to distract from the real issue, in this case injustice, inequality, and the absolutely justified rage that is pouring out into the streets again now.
Nothing surprises me any more. 400 years of racism since the first slave ship sailed into the colonies is lost on the leaders and the nation.
Cops killing black people doesn't seem to bother the Right nor Evangelicals. The stuff I hear and see on social media.
So have you heard of the bricks conspiracy.
Stacks of bricks delivered by mysterious sources arriving in cities all over the country to be used by rioters. The Trumpers here suspect Soros and the Chinese.
I suspect construction, but sounds rather GOP don't you think? Koch Brother, or who ever paid off Brent Kavanaugh's debts...
I am waiting for Anonymous to show up again and hopefully with Trump's tax returns or info from a German bank.
I can hope. It's what gets me thru this mayhem.
This I think is important. The tendency to immediately say, we only shot at outsiders who came in to agitate. Like that makes it okay. It's like we are expected to believe that all of the local people are just fine with police actions. Horseshit. For the most part people protesting in a locality are from that locality. They can't afford to run all over hell protesting in 50 different states. These people lost their jobs, were confined to home for months, were more likely to DIE from this plague than others. When they do venture out they get attacked and killed.
But, Karen and Bubba stomp around armed with big-ass guns and take over a state capital building because they want haircuts and pedis (right fuckin' NOW!), and those same goddamned governors and the Fucking President are all like "oh Barbie, we are so sorry you are inconvenienced, We totally understand you are too stupid to do your own hair and nails. Let's just get all these low-paid black people back to work and make you happy' And them guns you are aiming at us are just fine." No rubber bullets and pepper spray for Karen and Bubba (and Barbie).
I'm sure black people are infuriated because they did not get anywhere near the same reception when they showed up to peacefully protest the MURDER of one of their own.
The "not from here" trope is likely an misplayed attempt to speak to locals in an attempt to message that "we know our people are the good kind, not like the outsiders who are causing all the trouble."
Hmmm, seems a bit paternalistic to me.
Rioting is part of the normative response to the pressure release when it just becomes too much. That doesn't justify rioting. It doesn't justify looting and burning. But we've seen this over and over again. Detroit in 1943. Detroit in 1968. LA in 1992. They all started similarly: unfettered racist police action drove the nation beyond the breaking point.
The solution is pretty simple to understand, if nearly impossible to implement. End. Racist. Policing. Train police forces to defuse, not attack. Train police forces to respect and protect the lives of all citizens, not just white citizens. Train police forces to use stop pulling guns as an automatic first response. Train police forces to empathize, and not stand in uniformed and stark judgment.
Until that happens, periodic rioting will continue to have its own lifeforce, one driven by a militaristic, occupying police force that fails to make the connection between dehumanizing people of color and the blowback of rage that engenders.
Bill de Blasio is a disappointment. He acted late with respect to the threat of COVID and is a shameless NYPD bootlicker. Goes to show even self-styled "progressives" may not necessarily live up to the label.
I am disappointed with the focus of your post today, Judd. I live in Minneapolis and have read and watched every detail of what is going on. Our two mayors and governor were probably grasping for explanations when they believed the "trope." But, the truth is that "outside the cause of justice" would have been more accurate than saying from outside the state. The looting and arson was not and has not been part of the peaceful marches and protests. It has come after dark and is perpetrated by opportunists as well as angry or confused people. Whether or not professional or regular outsider agitators with their own agenda are behind any of it, maybe we will find that out some day. Three people are so committed to taking a stand, making changes and being leaders of all their citizens, though, are Tim Walz, Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter. All three acknowledge mistakes when they make them and move forward. Just thought you should know.
Looking through the pronouncements of elected leaders from 10 cities this morning (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Raleigh, LA, Seattle, NYC, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington DC), plus the comments of the president,...all claim the demonstrations in their cities are being fueled by "outside agitators." If every city in America has "outside agitators"...where are they coming from?
"Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."
This isn't a binary issue. There are several factions involved: nonviolent protesters, agents provocateurs (left and right), criminals (arsonists, looters), decent cops, bad cops. The bad actors need to be isolated, shunned, filmed, whatever, by the masses of peaceful protesters. (I have seen a few videos of this happening--too few.) When a nonviolent protester floats into one of the other groups, the whole cause is undermined.
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is quick to suggest that "the people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents"...just like over 90% of the Minneapolis police force.
This article was terribly disappointing. I was planning to ask you to investigate "Antifa" and whoever is inspiring or conscripting these interfering agitators who scream and yell and seem to have no alliance with the protesters whose hearts feel broken. TV coverage has shown a number of up close demonstrators who look like white guys delighting in looting (maybe Target), screaming angrily; 2 skinny Asian girls dressed in all black spray painting a Starbucks while a black girl yells at them to stop: "We're not destroying property, stop that," until they finally stop, and then the black girl says, "Black people are going to get blamed for this." Then, another example (if I can still click and send this) of a guy who has anger issues but not part of the George Floyd grievers:
Tim Williams
✔
@realtimwilliams
#BREAKING NEWS: Pittsburgh Police say 20 year old Brian Bartels is the man who incited riots in downtown #Pittsburgh yesterday. This is video taken of him destroying a police cruiser. An arrest warrant has been issued. https://cbsloc.al/2Minpv6
*WARNING* Explicit Language
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Friday night in Atlanta was very bad. the peaceful protests that had been going on all day, turned violent VERY rapidly after dark. Our City government and the police force that supports us, were surprised. Surprised by the unknown people showing up to perpetrate violence. were these people from out of state? no But one doesn't have to leave GA to find lots of folks willing to create chaos and violence in order to cheapen and negate worthwhile non-violent Protests. On Saturday, an impassioned plea fro the mayor and the chief of police asked that the protesters not be violent, that they point fingers and call out the violent agitators. coupled with some excellent organization and targeted minimum force crowd control by the Atlanta police. Saturday's protest were not violent, and with the exceptions that almost prove the rule, crowds were peaceably dispersed and no exceptional violence and damage occurred. The Video that has surfaced of Friday and Saturday here in ATL, clearly shows people not engaged in Protests, committing defacement and vandalism in areas that were not in conflict yet, and protesters and civilians loudly objecting to their acts. There were agent provocateurs, and they were not part of the protest movement. It serves the interest of the current Administration, and the domestic terrorist organizations that support him to turn peaceful protest into rights. It is happening.
blah blah blah, Judd. Anybody who thinks RIOTERS are okay, please DO send me your street address, town/city and state, and I'll be SURE to send tonight's violence into YOUR neighborhood. Stand at your front door, and walk (or drive, if you must) 0.9 mi - and that's how far I live from the violence in Brooklyn. I live (do you, Judd?) in a fully integrated neighborhood in a fully integrated borough of NYC. I LOVE my neighbors, all colors, all ethnicities. I love my neighborhood. We have peaceful demonstrations and protests THROUGHOUT the year, EVERY year, especially every summer. But what's been happening here for four nights (and they ARE coming in from outside NYC; I stumbled on a number of Twitter accounts doing happy dances at the violence and destruction they've perpetrated to MY neighborhood and MY local nypd.)
You would be smart to also remember that NYC HAS NOT REOPENED FROM THE PANDEMIC. New Covid cases were up a tick yesterday - we'll see how that plays out. (But I'd be glad to send virus shred to your neighborhood along with the violence. Just DO send me your location, specific.)
And since NO agitators or peaceful protesters of any color have actually declared measures by which we all can determine that this violence (from cops to black Americans) stops NOW, Gov Andrew Cuomo in yesterday's briefing, has done it for you. Look for the vid of his daily briefing yesterday (FF to about 20:), he lays it out. (He also addresses the vids from Saturday night re police retaliation.) But without that, without specific measures to address this whole mess (that has been ongoing, replete with riots, since I was 10 yo, so at least 55 years now) without specific measures - which he GIVES you in that briefing - this is all for naught. It's that simple. Feel free to take his ideas and recommendations as your own and get to work. That's how you get it done.