Thanks, Rich.

9: You write like we are facing end of time out of Revelations over a small protect and some broken windows. Over react much?

Besides, society doesn't collapse because of protests or crime. It collapses because of the police state reaction to protests and crime. There's a reason the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution talk all about limits on state power and not protestors, or crime.

When those in the American criminal punishment system takes the lynching of George Floyd as seriously as they take broken windows I will take them seriously.

Until then, the police are promoting violence against people over glass.

Defund, and vote Strauss out.

Very cool that the responsible gun owner crowd are sending their children to the cities to hunt minorities. Normal and good for a functioning democracy.

It is possible to oppose police violence against Black men and also oppose the mindless destruction of private property. And that does not mean those acts are viewed as equivalent.

@7: "Also you're pretending to care about a little broken glass..."

That Ale House is a Capitol Hill institution, staying in business and keeping people employed during a global pandemic. Smashing windows there helps to end "... the murder of minorities at the hands of a white police state," how, exactly?

Keep on glorifying looters, arsonists, and vandals. You're doing such a good job of sullying #BLM, that white police state should be paying you for your service.

But you're not that smart. Too bad. For you.

yawn

The protests and protestors have become stupid. Smashed windows help save black lives? Give me a break. Once a movement gets attention, the next step is to move the political dial. Keep your voices strong and up front, but stop the property damage. John Lewis would be appalled.

"Bu - but, what about all the smashy-smashy? You make your protest look soooo baaaaad!" No doubt you-all would have said exactly the same thing if you'd been around when Yeshua overturned the money-lenders tables, or Revolutionists threw tea into Boston Harbor, or Communards did a little number on the streets of Paris, amiright? If it were up to you, we'd be speaking the Queen's English, driving on the left and buying our chip buddies in pounds sterling.

This ad for the re-elect Trump campaign brought to you by white supremacist agents provocateurs and their well-intentioned but politically naive left-wing activist accomplices.

@37:

Once again, you have no fucking clue about which you speak.

This, literally from the BLM web site blacklivesmatter.com: "Our fight for liberty, justice, and freedom continues. Together, we can — and will — transform. This is the revolution. Change is coming."

And just to nip your inevitably ill-informed response that "this isn't a REAL revolution":

"rev-o-lu-tion, noun:

The forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system."

So, if you want to continue to argue that overthrowing a four century-long culturally and socially institutionalized structure that treats POC like second or third-class citizens, PLUS a radical restructuring of the authoritarian system of law enforcement that props it up don't meet your personal hair-splittingly narrow definition of the word, then again please do everyone a tremendous favor and go fuck yourself into a permanent vegetative state, because you're most of the way there already.

@45: It appears as though the BLM/POC complaints are being drowned out by to many activist groups with other agendas. EDM, ENDD, Antifa/Anarchists have co-opted a legitimate movement that, while not always peaceful, has valid arguments to make.

Mis-quoting Ryan Lewis appears to be a lame attempt at inflaming and recruiting protesters who otherwise want nothing to with these other motives. Thanks to Rich for pointing out the actual quote.

Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFckPkukF7g

@31: Thanks, but I'll be proudly keeping to the actual, non-revisionist history, which clearly shows the only American with a Federal holiday all his own got it by leading non-violent resistance in white authoritarian police states.

But since you're so smart, maybe you can answer the question which finally made GermanSausage run away and hide: 'Smashing windows there helps to end "... the murder of minorities at the hands of a white police state," how, exactly?'

Good luck with that.

@45:

Thanks for once again proving my point, dumbass.

@49:

And also by that same definition the country you now live in came into being as the result of the actions of terrorists.

@50:

Yeah, but only because Washington, the radical leader of a terrorist revolt against a legitimate nation-state, got his birthday lumped in with Lincoln's.

And while we're on the subject, it's noteworthy that contemporary historical revisionists completely ignore King's own words on the subject of the limitations of non-violent persuasion. In a speech to the American Psychological Association in September of 1967 he said:

"Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking. But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights. There are thus elements of emotional catharsis in the violent act. This may explain why most cities in which riots have occurred have not had a repetition, even though the causative conditions remain. It is also noteworthy that the amount of physical harm done to white people other than police is infinitesimal and in Detroit whites and Negroes looted in unity.

A profound judgment of today's riots was expressed by Victor Hugo a century ago. He said, 'If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.'

The policymakers of the white society have caused the darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also demand that the white man abide by law in the ghettos. Day-in and day-out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; and he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions for civic services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison. Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society."

And these words from a speech given at Grosse Point High School, March 14, 1968:

"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

Now every year about this time, our newspapers and our televisions and people generally start talking about the long hot summer ahead. What always bothers me is that the long hot summer has always been preceded by a long cold winter. And the great problem is that the nation has not used its winters creatively enough to develop the program, to develop the kind of massive acts of concern that will bring about a solution to the problem. And so we must still face the fact that our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nations winters of delay. As long as justice is postponed we always stand on the verge of these darker nights of social disruption. The question now, is whether America is prepared to do something massively, affirmatively and forthrightly about the great problem we face in the area of race and the problem which can bring the curtain of doom down on American civilization if it is not solved."

It's been more than 50 years since he posed the rhetorical question that ends this passage, and the "great problem" has not only NOT been solved, it's intensified.

And so, the long hot summers continue unabated...

@54:

Okay, racist.

@57:

Then who owned the money-changers tables? Who owned the tea thrown into Boston Harbor? Who owned the building destroyed in the Boston Stamp Act riot of 1765? Who owned the property in some 40 villages ordered destroyed by General Washington as the objective of the Sullivan Expedition in 1779? Who owned the Réveillon factory destroyed by workers in 1789? Destruction of private and government property is one of the fucking cornerstones of violent revolution. Do you want me to go on, or are you going to admit for once in your pathetic life that you NEVER know what the fuck you're talking about?

@58/59:

Just trying to keep things short and simple for you mouth-breathers who don't have the attention OR the intellectual capacity of a gnat...

Funny that the protesters think the cops and highway patrol are around to cater to their desire for freeway dance parties then get angry when they do a poor job.

@52: Thank you for quoting the words of the great MLK, who deplored vandalism and looting, citing their causes in his day: "It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society."

I am always happy to find myself in agreement with MLK; vandalism is indeed deplorable. Thank you very much for providing this validation.

Now, as for the smashing of windows in the Canterbury, the motivation given in this story was not oppression, but pure retaliation, for the owner of the Canterbury having peacefully used his First Amendment rights. That's an entirely different reason than any given by MLK in the wonderful quotes you have provided. The response to speech is more speech, not vandalism and an implied threat to the speaker's livelihood. Please do not dishonor the memory of the only American with his own federal holiday by implying he would endorse vandalism as retaliation for practice of First Amendment rights.

"Yeah, but only because Washington, the radical leader of a terrorist revolt against a legitimate nation-state, got his birthday lumped in with Lincoln's."

The term "terrorist" was not used in that sense until most of a century after Washington's death, and our Declaration of Independence explains in great detail why the government of England was not "legitimate" over the Americans. You really should learn some of our history, not merely a few (mostly irrelevant) quotes from a great American.

@54 & @56; Down, Muffy, down.