moonofalabama
Last night at times violent protests took place in some 30 U.S. cities.
The escalation of the protests is not being driven by people of color whose grievance about systemic police brutality and institutionalized racism is driving the original, and in most cases peaceful protests.
There are clear signs that other groups have joined and abuse the original protests for their own purpose:
Mayor Jacob Frey said the people who are coming to Minneapolis to protest are not residents and are "coming in largely from outside the city.""Our Minneapolis residents are scared and rightfully so. We've seen longterm institutional businesses overridden. We've seen community institutions set on fire. And I want to be very, very clear. The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents," he said at a news briefing on Saturday.
He said the protests earlier this week that were mostly peaceful and were largely attended by those who lived in the city, but "the dynamic has changed.""Gradually that shift was made and we saw more and more people coming from outside of the city. We saw more and more people looking to cause violence in our communities, and I have to say, it is not acceptable," Frey said.
"This is no longer about verbal expression. This is about violence and we need to make sure that it stops," he added.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said everyone who was arrested in his city last night was from outside the state.
"What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here," he said.
UPDATE: The mayor has since walked back that claim. END-UPDATE
Detroit has seen the same phenomenon:
Detroit Police Chief James Craig spoke in a Facebook Live video late on Friday evening.“You know, I love this community and we work very well with this community, and we know that the individuals from outside the city of Detroit who converged at the protest location don’t represent this city. They’re not from this city,” said Craig. “And so I’m just asking for all Detroiters to continue to support us, let’s peacefully protest. But outside of that, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re not going to tolerate criminal acts.”
While mostly people of color were protesting the murder by police of George Floyd, the looting was often led (video) by white young men (video).
That the police infiltrate protests and political movements is the norm. But who or what is sending people from outside a city to vandalize it? Who put down a pallet of bricks at a bus station in a high end shopping street in Dallas during a time of protests? Who is supposed to use these?
One group suspected to be involved in this capture of legitimate protests are the "Boogaloo Bois":
On May 26th, crowds gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to protest the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police department. Floyd was black. Many of the protesters were people of color.
...
On the internet, meanwhile, a largely white, and far right movement publicly contended over what risks its members should take to support a black man killed by police.
...
On the Facebook page, Big Igloo Bois, which at the time of writing had 30,637 followers, an administrator wrote of the protests, “If there was ever a time for bois to stand in solidarity with ALL free men and women in this country, it is now”.They added, “This is not a race issue. For far too long we have allowed them to murder us in our homes, and in the streets. We need to stand with the people of Minneapolis. We need to support them in this protest against a system that allows police brutality to go unchecked.”
One commenter added, “I’m looking for fellow Minneapolis residents to join me in forming a private, Constitutionally-authorized militia to protect people from the MPD, which has killed too many people within the last two years.”
These exchanges offer a window into an extremely online update of the militia movement, which is gearing up for the northern summer. The “Boogaloo Bois” expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States.
The Boogaloo Bois are mostly rightwing but the militia movement includes some African-American groups. They are armed and they seek conflict with the state.
The ruling oligarchy in the U.S. is behaving towards its own population no different than towards foreign ones. It looted the Iraqi gold reserves after the invasions of Baghdad. It is looting the oil of Syria. It is looting the money that was supposed to support the population during the pandemic:
In the ten weeks since the nationwide lockdown first began, the [Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)] calculates that billionaires have increased their wealth by $485 billion – equal to 16.5 percent. This half-trillion-dollar rise, for Chuck Collins, Director of the IPS’ Program on Inequality and the Common Good, is something close to looting the whole economy.“The wealthy are economically distancing from the rest of society. Worse, some are pandemic profiteering, looting government stimulus programs and taking advantage of market monopolies,” he told MintPress News.
The looting by the oligarchs is one reason why I have expected protests and riots in the U.S. as a consequence of the badly handled epidemic. But I expected them for later in the summer, after July 31 when the federal unemployment insurance runs out. By then some 20 million of the 40 million currently unemployed will have learned that their old jobs are forever gone and that there are no new ones to find. By then mortgage defaults and evictions will have risen sky high.
Many of the affected people will not be from minorities but from the white lower classes. People who have lost their job and maybe even their home.
The social tensions will be extreme and will seek relief one way or another. Cornel West explains well (vid) why party politics in the U.S. can not be the way to solve this conflict. Something will have to give and it will not be the people - at least not without resistance.
Trump has asked the military to prepare to suppress unrest in Minnesota and elsewhere. Military police units have been put on alarm:
Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours.
...
The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
The shooting of unarmed blacks protesters would probably be welcome by Trump's core voters. He could even use that as an advertisement in his re-election campaign.
But how will this evolve when Trump sends in the troops and recognizes that the conflict is with mostly white working class people who probably voted for him in 2016 but are now inclined to shoot back?
He said the protests earlier this week that were mostly peaceful and were largely attended by those who lived in the city, but "the dynamic has changed.""Gradually that shift was made and we saw more and more people coming from outside of the city. We saw more and more people looking to cause violence in our communities, and I have to say, it is not acceptable," Frey said.
"This is no longer about verbal expression. This is about violence and we need to make sure that it stops," he added.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said everyone who was arrested in his city last night was from outside the state.
"What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here," he said.
...
On the internet, meanwhile, a largely white, and far right movement publicly contended over what risks its members should take to support a black man killed by police.
...
On the Facebook page, Big Igloo Bois, which at the time of writing had 30,637 followers, an administrator wrote of the protests, “If there was ever a time for bois to stand in solidarity with ALL free men and women in this country, it is now”.They added, “This is not a race issue. For far too long we have allowed them to murder us in our homes, and in the streets. We need to stand with the people of Minneapolis. We need to support them in this protest against a system that allows police brutality to go unchecked.”
One commenter added, “I’m looking for fellow Minneapolis residents to join me in forming a private, Constitutionally-authorized militia to protect people from the MPD, which has killed too many people within the last two years.”
These exchanges offer a window into an extremely online update of the militia movement, which is gearing up for the northern summer. The “Boogaloo Bois” expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States.
...
The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
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