Running racism in America thread

Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything
Many of the infection’s bizarre symptoms have one thing in common

https://elemental.medium.com/corona...isease-which-explains-everything-2c4032481ab2

 

The Insurrection Act of 1807,
or
Yet another thing in early U.S. history
that happened because of fearful slavers​

 

Bentonville, Ark., home of Walmart, announced today the traitor’s monument in the town square will be removed. There’s a protest happening there now. This is a yuppie, conservative town in Arkansas.

 

Police used tear gas on a peaceful protest in Richmond before the 8 p.m. curfew. PD then claimed on Twitter that it was because there were violent protesters in the area. Then Richmond's mayor came on Twitter to say he wants to apologize in person to those who were tear gassed at a peaceful protest. Then the Richmond PD walked it back and said that they would discipline the officers.

Also, these fucks who are saying the police are justified because protesters are "breaking the law" for being out after curfew are the same who are crying that there's a mandate about wearing masks inside.

This country is a fucking embarrassment.

 

The local protest just got shut down after an eight-hour march around the city - the last two and a half hours after curfew.

A local guy roller skated with the group and lived streamed most of the time, and it was quite enthralling. They blocked a major bridge in town, and were chased off by tear gas - with skating dude in the middle of the action Facebook Living (I even got a screen grab of my former co-worker shooting for the local paper; he surely had a work day he'll always remember).

Skater guy was still broadcasting when the police finally surrounded the dwindling group and made a bunch of arrests.

You couldn't see the arrest, because Skater guy dropped his phone, but the interaction between the camera guy and the police officer was caught on mike, and was among the most polite arrests you'll ever hear.

 

I've been absent for a couple of days of craziness. I have a bunch of links that are no longer timely, but I do have a small feel good moment from the protest here in Birmingham, Al. Started out with a small non-violent crowd demonstrating last night. Following the usual pattern after dark as the march moved on there was vandalism, some breakage and theft and some fires set. Not huge but enough to cause anxiety and to cause things to get tense. The demonstration wound up at a large park just outside of city hall and the municipal complex.

Linn Park was named for a city founder who was a Confederate naval officer. There is a twenty foot obelisk dedicated to Confederate war dead, which has become an issue as the movement to take down Confederate symbols grew. The city of Birmingham is now majority black and wants it gone. The state lege passed a law protecting such memorials, preventing the city from removing it. Mayor Woodfin found a compromise by building a ten foot tall box around the base, obscuring the plaques and inscriptions. State lege bitched but it has stayed.

The protestors knocked over the statue of Linn, and tried their best to tear down the monument, including using a car in an attempt to pull it over. The box was torn down and it was sprayed with graffiti. That's when things got interesting. Sarah Parcak, UAB Egyptologist, started to tweet instructions for how to topple an obelisk, based on her knowledge of how they were built, see below. By this morning this had been blown up into "She was tweeting instructions on how to tear down the Washington Monument", calls for her firing, her home address being published with invitations to screw with it,etc.

Rather remarkable Tweet thread starts here.


UAB released this today:


The state had threatened to sue/jail any attempt to remove the monument, until this morning:


City Council has announced that it will be removed and that is ongoing as I write this.

The down side is that there was theft and vandalism. A number of reporters were attacked and one had his wallet stolen as well. Still, I expect that this monument coming down will be taken as a victory and will calm thing here some. There are curfews in place, to include where I live, after rumors of a march through here.

 

He's lucky the mayor gave him a chance to walk it back.

 

So is it fair to say there was panic on the streets of Birmingham?
I've been wondering to myself.

But seriously, congrats to those who toppled the symbol honoring treason.

 

When even the NYT doesn't measure up to a sports journalist's preferred standards of coverage.

 

Pat Forde, probably the only reason to read SI these days, hits it out of the park.

https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/01/dabo-swinney-statement-george-floyd-police-brutality

 

There was excess and criminal behavior. There was certainly anxiety on the part of an old friend of ours who is a devout idiot Trumpist, who was convinced that the marchers six miles away were going to burn her house down just any minute now. In fairness, she's a white Trumpist who lives in a very black and high crime area, and if she'd been out on the street after dark someone might have indeed tried to hurt her. That said, stay home and keep your mouth shut until the moment passes and there will be no problem.

Nowhere near as bad here as it could have been.

 

She's not wrong. I know she's just a sports girl and probably a libruhl, but the Times' intractable caution, timidity and outright fear to speak the whole truth about Trump is infuriating.