Often the "peaceful protesters" are aiding and abetting the violent ones.
That is a major problem. People are more and more becoming entrenched in their corners, and not thinking through the implications of their actions or plans.
By FAR, the largest problem in the Country right now is that people are not meaningfully talking with each other.
- More than the COVID crisis
- More than the problems of Systemic Racism
- More than the very real threats of Civil War
Most of these problems in fact have been exacerbated because people are not meaningfully engaging with ideas from opposite sides, and they are not critically thinking through potential problems of their own ideas.
I passionately believe in the movement of 'Black Lives Matter,' and that changes to address the problems of Systemic Racism is desperately needed for this Country. However the official BLM group is pushing poorly thought out ideas that would unnecessarily kill more Black people and others because they are not being challenged from within or listening to others on the negative implications of ideas like 'defund the police.' We are in a truly ironic and confusing situation where if you genuinely care about saving Black lives, and really believe that Black Lives Matter, than you would have to stand against many of the core tenets of the official BLM organization. While there are definitely still great ideas to ending Systemic Racism from the organization, and the movement of Black Lives Matter, could very well bring about some of the most positive changes to addressing Systemic Racism in the United States in my lifetime, the official BLM organization definitely has serious issues in not being able to address the problems that ideas like 'defund the police' would do to the whole Nation including the Black community. I am not sure if the tens of millions of dollars has corrupted them, but their problems have come from a serious lack of critical introspection, and the whole movement is worse off because of it.
In Seattle, one of the best media sources for covering the protests here has been Converge Media. The main reporter Omari Salisbury has been embedded with the protesters for weeks and even though he had been tear gassed and hit with rubber bullets from SPD during the protests, he recently sat down with the leader of the Seattle Police Department Guild and other officers in one of the best conversations of this protest that I have heard so far.
Converge Media: Q & A with SPD's Rank and File
I don't think that most peaceful protesters believe that they are shielding violence, and to be clear the large vast majority of the protests and protesters are peaceful. Those that do shield the violence I believe don't want to criticize people fighting on the same side since that would make it more difficult to view who the bad guys are, and it might even lead to some introspection.
During CHOP in Seattle, there was a purposeful effort to not be centrally run. Many wanted to use the police free space to imagine a better way of equitably living. At the Decolonization Conversation Cafe in CHOP, people gathered for a month inside the zone to think of how to make a better world. However, the armed security that was attempting to keep the area safe was only loosely organized, and was largely based on 'what they thought was best.' As a result of there being no major rules or training, there were a lot of times of panicked people running around with guns trying to figure out what to do. There was a lot of near mass casualty events because of that, and the peaceful protesters among them did next to nothing to hold themselves accountable as more people died because of it. Accountability was always reserved for someone else, and that primarily meant the police, and the Mayor, and anyone else who did not give them a blanket check to do whatever they wanted.
Residents living in the area were consistently harassed, beaten up, mugged, and in a few cases raped. Delivery drivers were not able to enter the area, and elderly people or those in the high risk categories for COVID were not able to get food deliveries or safely leave their houses. When a car repair shop was broken into with cash/customer keys were stolen and fires were started inside, the owner's son responded and was able to put out the fires, and detain the burglar (with a box knife slash narrowly missing his groin). A drunk CHOP member gathered a crowd of at least 100 people who started to chant that they were going to kill the owner if they did not let the arsonist go. They broke down the gate, and started rushing at him even though he was armed with an assault rifle. The man stayed impressively calm during the episode, and luckily there were other members of CHOP security who were able to calm down the mob. Despite what could have been a mass casualty event, the peaceful protesters did little to hold themselves accountable during or after the event.
The worst episode in CHOP was likely the event that led to a shutdown.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...acked-Jeep-friend-told-drive-CHOP-safety.html
Two runaway homeless teens who were staying in chop at Anderson park stole a car, and told their street sister that they wanted to go home. Some of CHOP security started to chase them in another car, and the scared teens called their street sister who told them to escape to CHOP where "they would be safe." When they got near the zone, their car was riddled with bullets by other members of CHOP security in the zone. Some of the wild bullets lodged into nearby homes while scared members of the zone and "anyone who was not armed" were told to shelter behind barriers and on the ground as they had done in previous shooting there. On videos the CHOP security can be heard taunting the dying teens saying "oh you're not dead yet, huh," and another where they tell Omari from Converge Media who came to see the aftermath that "I only stopped shooting because I ran out of bullets" with a laugh. Afterward, members of CHOP cleared the car of all shell casings (although the blood still covered the entire front half of the car). When the police showed up, they were only able to collect the bloody car, and so far no one has been arrested, and to my knowledge no CHOP members have talked publicly about holding anyone in the zone accountable.
This was probably the biggest test in my mind for CHOP and the ideas they tried to foster, as it was a chance to see what they would do when they did something wrong. A chance to show how their accountability would be different from the accountability of the police that they so despised. So far the message that they have portrayed is that as long as the people are on their side, they can get away with murder.
The council member Shawarma Sawant who represents the district, who famously refuses to respond to any questions from constituents that is not about praising her, and who has admitted to receiving orders for all of her voting and hiring/firing decisions to outside members of her Socialist party, blamed the shooting on "Capitalism."
