peaceful protest (Philadelphia, Washington, Republic: legal, move to, authority)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

My grandfather used to always say that there is nothing more dangerous than a young man without a job. Of course, he was older and should have said "person" rather than "man". But it's true. The unemployment numbers that came out today are much worse than they were expecting.

Wait till some of the unemployment benefits end next month.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

The failure of Democrats and Republicans is front and center. Kenny hasn't done a stellar job by any means, but Trump hasn't done a good job of bringing people together to employ unity as a means for working through our issues. All in all, we need a replacement for both and everyone should stop acting like one or the other is going to solve our problems. More than anything, we need people in office that have reason, can be truthful and direct with the public, and bring respect back to elected positions.

OT. Trump has never been about unity at least not anything that is beyond people in his base. All I will say about him here.

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Similar stuff in LA ,Chicago, NY and elsewhere as you probably know. I forget where it was but there was a gang who stole just about every high end vehicle from a dealership. They broke in, broke into the keybox and drove the cars off the lot. Of course they trashed the inside just for giggles.

Oh that happened in Philadelphia too. Cars were stolen from Gary Barbera's Autoland on the Boulevard. Along with another place off of torresdale ave

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Igna Saffron is getting roasted for her article about burning buildings down. She might get the can after all this.

Actually, it’s the headline the Inky apologized for today. It unlikely that they will fire a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist. Journalists write the articles, not the headlines. Inga commits to an article of X range of words, and copy editors prepare the text for publication. Once the page is laid out, another journalist digests the text and generates a headline that condenses the gist of the article that also fits into the allocated page space.

This is not the first time a journalist has been judged not for their articles but for a headline written by a colleague.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by kyb01

She's been there most of the time. Where the heck have you seen Nutter?

I just haven't heard much from here, at least until today. Seems like shes in over her head.

Nutter and Ramsey have been on CNN and MSNBC a few times sharing thoughts and opinions about this situation.

Originally Posted by LNQ20

Wonder what and how soon new businesses will replace these vacant to destroyed spaces?

The inner cities will take a big hit again. Many stories of disgust by local council etc in hard up areas; one chicago council member said it took him years to get a walmart for his community. This walmart is now destroyed.

There was a reason businesses like walmart were leery of going into these communities. Good luck getting them back. Leery being cautious or wary due to realistic suspicions.

I wonder why people chose to trash small businesses in North and West Philadelphia?
Not that it is acceptable, but I could see Rittenhouse since it represents wealth, privilege, etc. But damaging communities already plagued by problems doesn't make sense to me, unless its a lack of understanding, outreach, support from people trapped in poverty, etc. What do you think, since you have been connected to the city for so many years?

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I wonder why people chose to trash small businesses in North and West Philadelphia?
Not that it is acceptable, but I could see Rittenhouse since it represents wealth, privilege, etc. But damaging communities already plagued by problems doesn't make sense to me, unless its a lack of understanding, outreach, support from people trapped in poverty, etc. What do you think, since you have been connected to the city for so many years?

Slightly OT but relevant...

I recall in 1992 when the cops that beat Rodney King within an inch of his life were acquitted, the riots started in (then-)majority Black South Central and decimated much of the commercial district(s).

When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Blacks rioted in their own neighborhoods, mostly because they were still largely restricted to them through (in)formal covenants, despite the recent passing of the Civil Rights Act.

What I believe these tragedies have in common with the reaction to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other recent victims is that (some) people in poverty feel trapped and if they choose to riot, they may do so in the neighborhoods where they live. One would think that with SEPTA, people would choose other options - as some may well have done around Rittenhouse - but we are going through a pandemic and some people can't even afford bus fare right now.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by KansastoSouthphilly

I completely agree that change needs to happen but the rhetoric I see from people is abhorrent. Police are still people and members of the community. Looters are responsible for their own actions not the police. Take some agency. I feel that people with more moderate opinions are scared to speak out right now because of how abusive the fall left rhetoric has been. There has to be a place for nuanced opinion and self criticism.

And because the obvious needs to be said; the united states could not have a worse President during these times. He has made a bad situation 1000x worse and if he is reelected then I will have no more faith left in this country. The hungry pigeon guys comments are absolutely racist. I won't be giving him my money anytime soon. The Poe guy is an imbecile and I won't be giving him my money either.

I agree that being the side of ending senseless police brutality against Black people and being opposed to extremist rhetoric such as "kill all cops" is not mutually exclusive. It's very important for voices of reason to be as loud ever in these times, as events like this are clearly driving even further polarization between points-of-view and our collective social values. Just as Black citizens have a right to feel like they aren't being unjustly targeted, law enforcement must and still will play a vital role in our society. It just has to really take a different approach; fundamentally, an approach that is much better at "weeding out" people that should have never been a member of any police force in the first place.

And I think the lack of leadership from our "President" is sickeningly obvious to anyone with any ounce of critical thinking capacity at this point--I don't care what your political persuasion is. In fact, I don't think he could have handled this crisis more abysmally. If our country has any prayer, the he'll be living full-time (hopefully under house arrest) in his Mar-a-Lago compound at this time next year.

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Yeah if i had to peg a time for this video it would be about 8pm on Saturday. Sun was setting. Curfew was coming into place so you do get some random stragglers in the street still just watching it all unfold.

I was curious about the fire too. It was actually the vans store and dr martens. Which is worse because the vans store was in a beautifully designed building. I actually took this picture of the damage earlier today, vans was on the left and dr martens on the right:

Thanks for taking the time to document this. While anger and frustration are justified in times like this, I don't think any reasonable person would find deliberate destruction of buildings either constructive for any community or thoughtfully advance any just social cause. It was clearly the work of pure anarchists.

Unfortunately, some cannot separate the prospect of social deconstruction with unnecessary physical destruction. While the condition of these buildings isn't great, at the very least they still look salvageable for a facadectomy.

[AJNEOA]

Because the media stinks, can anyone give an update on activity last night? Did we have any violence and looting, or has it become more peaceful as the media is saying?

[eliza61nyc]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

Because the media stinks, can anyone give an update on activity last night? Did we have any violence and looting, or has it become more peaceful as the media is saying?

Yes it was largely peaceful. lol I think it was a combo of 90% humidity and rolling thunderstorms. curfew was pushed back to 8 pm

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by eliza61nyc

Yes it was largely peaceful. lol I think it was a combo of 90% humidity and rolling thunderstorms. curfew was pushed back to 8 pm

I’d like to think that as time has progressed this past week, we’ve seen a broader coalition of voices demanding change. Too often, it’s the John Lewis’s and Al Sharpton’s who have had to demand justice. Now we’re seeing not only white protestors in the street, we’re seeing acknowledgements of the crisis of racism by white leaders in government, industry, academia and sports. Too often, white people have believed racism is a problem for people of color while it really is our problem.

The test will come when we learn if all these high-minded commitments to change are more than empty words as we return to our post-pandemic distractions.