Oxford epidemiologists: suppression strategy is not viable

An interview that will make lockdown fanatics upset touching on, among other things:

- the lack of evidence for masks
- considering covid-19 as a seasonal infection rather than a pandemic
- why lockdown is an inappropriate and blunt tool
- mistakes in care homes and infection in hospitals
- the toll of covid-19 vs influenza-like illnesses not being as different as people think
- how 'flatten the curve' sneakily became 'squash the curve'
- how we need to live with covid-19 instead of eradicating it
- how lockdown wasn't responsible for as much of the decrease in cases as people think
- the covid-19 pandemic compared to 3 other pandemics within living memory
- how media sensationalism is driving covid-19 hysteria
- the psychology behind championing government interventions, and how science works

Oxford epidemiologists: suppression strategy is not viable



‘Hello and welcome. This is LockdownTV from unherd.com. Today we are joined by not one but two epidemiologists and experts to find out what the state of play is in the coronavirus pandemic. First of all, we have Professor Carl Heneghan, who is the director of the Oxford University based Centre for Evidence Based Medicine. Also on the line down from Rome in Italy, we have Tom Jefferson, who is also an epidemiologist, part of the Cochrane Center, which is a charity that works on improving the evidence base for medical interventions. So thank you both very much for joining us.’

‘You're welcome.’

‘I understand that you actually are talking almost once or even more than once a day during this pandemic. So you've kind of, you've worked as a team already.’

‘Yeah, well, Tom and I have been working together for about 12 years ago, and we can go right back to 209 to the swine flu pandemic. And subsequently throughout this pandemic, we've been really interested in the evidence in, we've been interested in the transmission dynamics, what's happening on the ground. And Tom and I speak daily about the issues trying to understand a lot of the uncertainties out there.’

‘So let me start Carl with you then with a, with a kind of a bit of a broader question, which is that you’re the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, I mean, this is what we want. We want to make decisions on the basis of evidence. How do you feel the medical response and the government policy response has been in terms of evidence based medicine? Has this pandemic been a good period for evidence based medicine?’

‘I think what we'll find as we go through this, that this has been a period where there have been lots of issues with the production of evidence and its interpretation. What people have found very difficult is to deal with uncertainty. And often what really riles me and makes me concerned is when I hear people in the media or talking and saying, it's without question, this is what's going to happen next. So I think there's been a significant problem with predictions. None of them so far have been shown to be right. The second area where we try and do a lot of work is in evidence synthesis. That's where Tom is *something*, and we both work with Cochrane. But we try and review the evidence to try and understand its quality, what it means in terms of informing policy. And while the evidence has been produced in a way that we've never seen before for coronaviruses, what a lot of it is poor quality and it doesn't help us actually inform the policies. And a good area for that would be an area like masks. One of the issues we've come to, say. is look at the evidence and Tom can come in because he's done the reviews in this area for about 15 years now is, is to say, really to inform policy, what you need to do is have an approach to develop high quality evidence. To do randomized control trials. And while we seemingly understand that for drugs, given the recent evidence from dexamethasone versus hydroxychloroquine, we, we get it there. But when it comes to non drug interventions, things like masks, we want to throw all of the ideas of high quality evidence out the window, and then use poor quality information to inform what we should do next. And that's been a persistent problem over the last 10 or 12 years, that we've failed to address the deficiencies in the evidence for areas like masks and what we do in the wider community.’

‘Okay, so you brought us straight into masks there. So let me go to Tom then. You've been studying these non medical or these physical interventions for years, what is your view of the wisdom of requiring mask use among the wider community?’

‘Specifically on masks, those, there's no evidence that masks apart, aside from people who are exposed in frontlines, so healthcare workers, that masks actually make any difference. But that is extraordinary. So, but what is even more extraordinary, is that what I'm describing is uncertainty. We don't know whether these things make any difference. We don't know whether they make any difference by the type of agents that we're looking at. We don't know whether the materials or anything like that and the way they're fastened, the length of use and so on make any difference. These are non healthcare worker settings, okay. So what does science usually do when there is uncertainty? Well science deals with uncertainty by doing experiments like Carl described. The randomized control trials. Now, the time for the randomized control trials was in February, March and April. No longer now, because the viral circulation is low. And we would need huge numbers of enrollees to show whether, to know for certain whether there was any difference with mask wearing’

‘On masks though, I have seen studies that have been widely shared on social media but that investigate the, you know, on the kind of physical level how much a mask can reduce the spread of particles and, you know, there is evidence that masks work, in that setting as you know, even though there may not be evidence of the kind of in a kind of controlled sample style’

‘Freddie, we're dealing with some of the most slippery customers in the market, respiratory viruses. It's not just a question on the bug and the person. It’s also the setting, which is why, all these laboratory-based experiments with plumes for instance, there are studies looking at the plume of droplets coming out of mask A versus mask B and so on, have to be treated with extreme care. What we really should be doing is our experiments, trials in the population. We have to, we have to do them when there's virus circulating’

‘But isn't it a matter of common sense to it at all? I mean, do you, do you believe that wearing a face covering reduces the amount that a respiratory virus can be transmitted, even though you may not have a population wide study to prove it?’

‘The problem, the problem with that particular belief is that the one arm of a randomized control trial, which was published in 2015. So one, one section of the people that took part in a study in Southeast Asia wore cloth masks, okay, and they found that these cloth masks not only didn't work, but actually probably saliva and secretions and the wetness made them more permeable to incoming agents. So what I'm describing really is complete uncertainty.’

‘From 24th of July in the UK, it's gonna be mandatory to wear masks in shops. It sounds, would I be right in saying that you don't think that sounds like a necessary or wise step or?’

‘Well look, the job of evidence based medicine is to inform decision. Not to be the decision. And this is an incredibly important point that I think a lot of people don't get when you're actually in healthcare and actually they're making decisions. So both Tom has been a general practitioner and at the weekends, I still work as an urgent care GP. I use the evidence to inform you about the benefits and the harms. So the question is, if you were in policy in our stores about what are the benefits and harms, we will tell you now that there is significant uncertainty. Any evidence that you bring to the table will be mechanistic, will be weak observational evidence, which has been shown over decades to have flaws. So by all means, people can wear masks or not wear masks. Policy can make the decision. But what they can't do is say it's an evidence based decision. And I think that's really important and there is a real separation, it seems in my mind, the difference between an evidence based decision and something which is becoming very opaque to me is Science. Is we’re being led by the bait, the Science. The Science is the mechanism, the plumes, but it isn't the evidence. So by all means wear or don't wear your mask, but the current evidence cannot reduce your uncertainty when it comes to the policy.’

‘Okay, so if we if we move on from from masks, and Carl, maybe if not, I can ask you about the sort of wider question of the overall shape of the pandemic at the moment. I mean, what we've seen in countries across Europe, is that it seems to be very strongly on the way down. In some countries, it's sort of almost down at mill. Meanwhile, in America, we are seeing some resurgence or what looks resurgence in a number of states. What's your overall picture of where we are in the lifecycle of the pandemic?’

‘Well, look, I think it's real, it's been a very interesting phenomenon from an epidemiologist’s perspective. The first thing is to say we have seasonal effects every year, we see increases in infectious illnesses. And there are about 40 or 50 that we know about that cause illnesses and the predominant one that everybody's focused on has been influenza. Now we see in Coronaviruses come to the fore. For lots of people, it seems like this is a new infection, but there are seven now coronaviruses that we're aware of that are in humans. What's different about this infection was the sharp uprise particularly in the number of deaths. And if I take Italy was very similar to the UK, we had a two, three week very steep uprise in the deaths. And here in the UK, we peaked on April the Eighth. And since then, they've been coming down. Today we've just had our Office for National Statistics number, which has said for the 12th week in a row deaths have come down. And actually now the number of excess deaths are below the five year average and have been so for three weeks. So we are trending in a direction where we're seeing reductions in admissions, reductions in critical care use and reductions in, in deaths. But we've never seen this sharp uprise before. Now that's been pretty consistent in countries like Spain, Italy, Belgium, and here in the UK. And one of the keys about the infection is to look at who's been affected. And this is quite interesting because Tom and I wrote about this, the difference between pandemic theory and seasonal theory. And in a pandemic, what you expect to see is young people disproportionally affected. However, I think we've had in the UK now I'd have to check today but we've had six deaths in children. That's far less than what we normally see in a pandemic. The flip side is more than 75 percent of the deaths have been in over 75 year old, which fits with the seasonal theory much more so. So that's an interesting observation that we first noted.

Interestingly, what's come with that, while we've been in lockdown and lots of people are talking about lockdown strategies: has it worked, has it not? What we found in the UK is that while we've been in lockdown, what happened and what went wrong is, more than 50% of care homes had outbreaks of the infection. That means two or more people have the infection. So while the community transmission may be as low as 5%, it's tenfold higher in care homes. They’ve accounted for nearly half the deaths here in the UK, and more than half in areas like Spain. So some things have gone radically wrong. So that's an interesting area as well to think about. In terms of where we are now, just to come, when you look at the USA it's really interesting because USA, if you go to New York, and the areas around New York, New Jersey, they had a very similar pattern to what was happening in Europe. Lots of sharp uprise of deaths. But if you go to places like Texas and California today, in fact, they have nearly as many cases as we do in the UK now, about 75%. But these, these areas only have three or 4000 deaths, they have about one 10th of what happened in New York. So there seems to be something radically different. So while everybody's looking at the cases, look at what's happening with the deaths as well, because the deaths are not rising, like they were in March, in April. And there's something different happening with the virus right now that it doesn't seem to have the same virulence and the same impact on mortality.’

‘So there's two things that I'd really like to just follow up on. So the first is you said, it see, it has more the pattern of a seasonal infection than a pandemic. Does that mean that the explanation for why it's come down so much in Europe is that it's summer, basically. And we shouldn't take from that, that it's gone for good. It may very well later be back in the winter?’

‘Well, we've just, we were involved at the moment, one of the things we're doing at the moment is a review of transmission dynamics looking at these particular issues, and we've just put up an update actually looking at this particular issue. What it looks like is the stability of the virus is far less. When the temperature goes up, but particularly humidity seems to be important. The lower the humidity, actually, the more stable the viruses in the atmosphere, and on surfaces. So when we compare to other countries, what we did see in the Northern Hemisphere when the conditions were right, rapid spread, transmission and impact on deaths. Now it's interesting to see what happens as we move into the southern hemisphere. They tend to have outbreaks now at this point. Their January in effect is happening right now. So that's why we're seeing down below in places like Australia suddenly having outbreaks that are making the viruses reappearing. And that probably is to do with the stability of the viruses, more so on surfaces, than actually in the air. The second aspect of the seasonal effect is that we are a more outside, more ventilation, which also may have an impact to say our viral load is reduced at this time of year. And that's also important then, on potential virulence.’

‘But does that, does that mean that you're not persuaded by theories of greater immunity levels explaining the decrease? Because, you know, there's always this optimistic idea that maybe through other kinds of non detectable immunity actually we've, we're slowing the spread and the decrease seen across the northern hemisphere is is explained by immunity levels. You don't you don't buy that?’

‘Well, no I think there is quite an interest in lots of points we're now coming to. So first thing is that we come through March and April is to say, Pete, there is a group of people who are more susceptible at that time of year. So for instance, your immune system isn't as strong. That's the vitamin D argument. But number two is you may have had other coinfections, you may have just had an infection. So your lymphocytes are not primed. You're not ready to fight off another infection. So they're interesting aspects. The third aspect is to say, one of the issues we also saw, if you look at the UK data over the last five years, we tend to see a very bad winter. So in 2017, 18, we had 50,000 excess deaths that year. Followed by good winters. So if I go back to 2019, in fact, we had about 15,000 less deaths in over 85 year olds than what we expect. Actually, so trended into this year, we had a, a, what, a bigger susceptible population in the very elderly. And you might find in the the cities and the countries that did badly, that there’s a larger susceptible population coming into each year. So I think that's one aspect to why the virulence is less. The second is a seasonal aspect. And then third is a combination of the treatments getting better, which is a combination of doing some things right. And stopping other things that might be iatrogenic. [Ed: relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment.]

‘Let me go over to Tom there. So you've been listening to this. What, what's your sense of why the results seem to be getting better over time, at least when you compare numbers of cases to numbers of deaths?’

‘Well, I would say is that what we're seeing in Europe at the moment is a Singapore-like transmission. The transmission that they had in Singapore in February March where they had a low grade, constant transmission. Amongst workers in dormitories, people who were working age, that means anything between 20 and 50, with very few deaths, and a number of cases. In Italy at the moment, we've got about a 200 case, an average of 200 cases a day, mostly imported, and deaths are below two a day. And there's less than 75 people in intensive care. Whereas in March, April, it was over 7,000. So it is a definite downward trend. Does then enter the role of asymptomatic. And that is completely, still completely unclear. People who have no symptoms or who have eventually developed symptoms, so called presymptomatics, that's also got to be understood. And as we move into the winter, we have to I think, the most efficient thing is to have a societal debate as to what we're going to do with these influenza like illnesses. All of them, not just Corona.’

‘So erm, that, that kind of level of transmission you talked about seeing in Italy and and now in the UK, we're round about, I think it's 500, more than 200 a day, but still very much down on what it was. The key question really, and I'm keen what both of you think of this is, is that a sustainable situation? Or are we getting literally a summer holiday from the, this virus and that it's likely to surge up again, we'll see some kind of second wave when the season changes? There's a difficulty because we don't quite understand what will happen once the winter period’s over. When we start to recirculate there'll be competition with other acute respiratory infections that might change the dynamics of the virus. As it goes through more people, you might expect to see mutations, but it seems to be more stable than some of the other Coronaviruses. The SARS-CoV-1. We're not sure what happened to that virus. Diit d actually mutate to the point where it became asymptomatic, carried on circulating? So there are so many imponderables here. That actually I think what we have to have is more the debate about how we gonna manage the risks. And how are we going to manage living with this virus. And I think the problem is the policy is not being clear. What should we be doing to try and inform the decisions we make? For instance, in terms of what's the impact of locking down, and these are important questions to now answer. Many people might say we should have locked down earlier. But actually, as I said, 50% of care homes developed outbreaks during the lockdown period. So there are issues within the transmission of this virus that are not clear and require for in a way to try and understand what, how did we manage to transmit it in so many places, when we were all supposed to be at home?’

‘Well, surely the, the answer to that one is that the people who were explicitly not included in the lockdown were key workers such as care home workers. So the only people who were not protected were the people who were coming into contact with the most vulnerable group.’

‘Yeah. And so these are the issues. So if you want to go forward, you've got to have a real debate about how do you stop doing this? So it's not just an evidence approach. It's a societal approach. So what you're describing is, how do you manage to seed it into care homes? Well, there are two ways. One is you discharge patients in there. Or the second is you have a care worker who may be low paid, doesn't get paid when they're not working, and is an agency one who moves across different care homes. So some of these people working five or six, keep coming and going. So what we need to do really efficiently now is understand in those countries like Hong Kong, where they had a deep, a clear strategy to protect care homes. And if you look at Germany, that seems to be some of their benefits. Lower death in these setting. Because you may be testing them every week. You may be having strategies where you pay for individuals to stay in the home. You may actually say this is a bubble of people who will go into isolation. And really what we're talking about is about an eight week period. If you look at the period, if you did it over eight weeks, you'd reduce about 80% of the outbreaks in care homes. So you need a different strategy right there. And if you did that, you get rid of potentially up to half the deaths. And then suddenly, you've got a different infection you can lock out, and then you might not go into lockdown, because that's a very blunt tool. What we need to do is have a debate about what are the intelligent mitigation strategies that actually that can keep society functioning while we keep those that are the most frail and elderly and the most vulnerable shielded in effect.’

‘If I, if I can just, just widen the debate a little bit, that's what I meant when we have to, we need to have a societal debate about what we're going to do with influenza like illness. With these acute respiratory infections, because everybody thinks it's influenza. And in fact, influenza is a very, very small, on average, chunk of the pie. There are several coronaviruses, which circulate every winter, there are several dozen other viruses that we're aware of that circulate every winter and then there's X number of unknown viruses like COVID-19, like SARS-CoV-2 was up until December that we know nothing about. So we have to have a clear idea as a society what we're gonna do. If somebody coughs, so we're going to go into complete lockdown? Is that what we, is that a way forward? If that's what society wants, that's fine.’

‘I guess what you're saying is, let's make more kind of surgical interventions in areas where we can be more confident that it's going to make a difference, and try and sort of roll back some of the kind of universal policies. Is that a fair?’

‘Let me just, let me just make an example. Our ancestors had fever hospitals, they had lazarettes, they had quarantine stations. Some of them are still around. So instead of binding everybody into NHS hospitals, possibly infectious, possibly non infectious, everybody together, how about separating them, which is one of the first things that you learn in medical school? Separating the potential infections from those who are not infectious. So say strokes and somebody’s had a car accident, because the consequence of not separation and the consequence of poor architecture like we’ve got at the moment are what we have seen. The transformation of hospitals into plague pits. Into, into infectious, infectious foci for the whole population. These are the sort of fundamental interventions that we should be looking at based on the experience of these last few months’

‘Which might have been a good use for those nightingale hospitals that we built and then didn’t use otherwise’

‘I would have to look at the surroundings of that and the structure’

‘One of the, one of the good points you just mentioned. The nightingale hospital. I think, I think what people will say is when you know nothing about Coronavirus, well, how can you have evidence? But actually one of the keys is to watch the evidence and the data as it emerges. And if you've been watching the acceleration of the, of the admissions into hospital, and the acceleration of the deaths, one of the things we watch is the rate of change. In effect, you know, you're going to get to 70 miles an hour and when you first go on the motorway you go very fast, don't you? And as you get near to the top, your acceleration slows. And that was one of the things we were watching. We watched the data very clearly. And about April the 11th, 12, we said we'd hit the peak. Now the problem with not following the evidence and following the model is, is that's exactly where we’d be building Nightingale hospitals. And losing focus of, we should have been looking at where the most vulnerable are while we've got this acceleration is slowing. We need to focus on care homes, and we lost sight of that. So that's one important aspect. The second aspect then about the intermediate care hospitals is the nightingale is a wrong structure. What you require is, if people go back we'll know, when people who are slightly probably a bit older than yourself Freddie will remember fever hospitals in the UK. That they were here till about 1980s, 90s. They've been about 100 years in existence. They were on single floors. They had isolation within isolation. They had staff who were trained. And they did not have lift shafts opened down. And that isolation within isolation said you could put a patient in there, you could see them. But actually everybody was protected from each other. And the argument to that is it prevents nosocomial infection. People going into hospital and catching it because as Tom said, these are infectious foci signs. And it looks like about at least 20% of people potentially got the infection while they were in hospital.’

‘Let me try to kind of zoom out and get some sort of a concrete sense. Is it a proportionate response to the threat? And is it right to say that we now face a new normal, where pretty much all aspects of life must be different in order to mitigate this threat? Or do you think we should be headed back towards an old normal?’

‘So, whether the benefits of carrying on with the current strategy are outweighed by the harms? And to be honest we, I think we are right there now at that point. And the the issue is what are you going to do from a behavior? So we need to instill’

‘What do you mean by that, Dr Heneghan? I mean, because the strategy at the moment is to be relieving, taking away restrictions, gradually keeping high testing and doing what the Prime Minister calls a whack a mole strategy when we see local flare ups.’

‘Yeah, so I give a local flare up. So for instance, I give you the number. One of the problems I have is in people being clear about, you're going to lock down again, at what level of infection are you going to lock down? The reason we went into lockdown was for health services, if they're becoming overwhelmed. And remember, in 2017, 18, they became overwhelmed. 50,000 excess deaths, and nobody said we're going to lock down society at that point in time. So this is a real debate about at what level. So it's in the winter we will hit epidemic levels of acute respiratory infections again. 40 per 10,000. 8 to tenfold higher than where we are now. At that point, what are we going to do? And we need to be start to be very clear in our understanding of these infections, the consequences and our decision making. And at the moment I'm finding it's so unclear.’

‘I think the the argument that has essentially won is the kind of suppression strategy. And you know, you get experts like Devi Sridhar, who is on television the whole time in the UK, who literally say, zero cases, is the only tolerable state. And anything up to that means we have to carry on with these massive interventions. That is now, it seems to me, that when the argument that has won, do you support that?’

‘So, when it comes to suppression, there's only one real, it's only the virus that will have a determination in that. Whatever we do next, unless you take a policy like New Zealand, which is gonna say, we've suppressed the virus to zero, and then we're gonna lock down the country forever, you're going to have a problem with any strategy that defines suppression. Because what we've seen with this virus is it now’s transmitted to the southern hemisphere. In the last 2003 outbreak, by now in July, it was in very small pockets in the hospitals in places like Toronto, and they managed to eradicate it in the middle of July by isolating and quarantine all staff, and patients. And in doing that, that's suppressed it. But this virus is so out there now, I cannot see a strategy that makes sense to me right now, that suppression should be the viable option. The strategy right now should be, we have to learn how to live with this virus.’

‘And part of that is just sort of readjusting the way we think about it, then, you know if you're, if you're making the comparison with 17, 18 flu outbreak, you know, we basically need to think of it like we think of other flu style respiratory outbreaks and sort of only trigger major interventions when it crosses a certain threshold of hospitalizations that we actually think is really worrying. Is that, is that where we should begin, you think?’

‘It's important to recognize within the UK if you look at the RC GP surveillance centre data, which is incredibly important data, it's been running for 60 years. It gives consultation rates every week in about 4 million population. And that's why I can be very certain about where the numbers are in terms of each week. Here's a number of ILI - influenza like illness and acute respiratory infections. That data showed in the UK, in the two weeks before lockdown, when people were being encouraged to wash hands, and there was encouragement of social distancing, where we change our behavior, because we recognize a threat, led to a 50% reduction in acute respiratory infection. So actually quite a big difference was made in the two weeks before lockdown. What we're looking for is the one or two bits of society that we can change or alter, that give us that extra 20 30% reduction in the infection. That means then it's manageable, within the hospital setting. And as we learn more, we can manage the disease much more effectively.’

‘Erm, Tom, let me come back to you then. What do you think going on? What, why has this become such a hugely politicized and, you know, the only news story in the world and all of us are changing our whole lives in response to it?’

‘I am a survivor of four pandemics. Four official pandemics. And for the other three, the preceding three, I didn't even realize they were going on. Nothing changed. Perhaps, people died. Not so many in 2009. But a lot of people died in 57, 58. And a lot of people died in 68, 69. But none of the fabric of society was eroded by, like it has been. By the response that was mounted. What worries me most? I have to say that, is that some catastrophic mistakes were made at the beginning of this story. I won't go into them because I’ll probably scare the audience. What scares me, what scares me more than the mistakes’

‘Now they, I tell you they’ll be all over the comments saying what are those catastrophic mistakes? You need to, need to give us a clue’

‘Well, I have already given you one. Mixing potentially infectious people with non infectious people. The need to keep infectious people complete, potential infectious people completely separate. The infrastructure, not just the patients, has to be separate. When you're dealing with an unknown agent that, as this was, this was one of the, the obvious, the obvious catastrophic mistakes that were made. Do I see steps being taken at European level? Remember, I am talking from Italy so I have a Europe-wide perspective. Do I see steps being taken to learn from that mistakes, from that mistake, and change policies. Change the way we do things, change the way that healthcare is delivered? And most of all, do I see reception structures being set up? Just in case there is a resurgence, or even a very bad ILI season caused by viruses which are not SARS-Cov-2? And the answer is no.’

‘So your view is not really that people have overreacted or the governments have overreacted so much as they're putting the emphasis on the wrong kinds of interventions, these sort of’

‘If they've overreacted. I think that is in part it's understandable because the memory of past plagues has gone okay. And for instance, Spanish influenza is a, is a folk memory. And is only brought out to scare people. So, I think that some of the mistakes are understandable. What is not understandable is not having learned from them. Another example, kicking everybody out of hospital. Okay, so some of them went into care homes without testing and that's not the point. The point is you make space for infectious patients. Where? On the third floor ward. Third floor, which means that you have elevator shafts. We know that elevator shafts where thermals are conduits of, for all sorts of things, including microbes. Then, you shift them from the third floor to the first floor somewhere else inside the hospital complex. And the staff looking after these infectious patients mingle with other staff in the canteen. Here's another thing that is almost certainly was an accelerator. Why did we, why did we witness this explosive beginning of this epidemic, pandemic? Has anybody been investigated, investigating them? Well, a few people have asked the question. We've reviewed that the answers. We, it seems to be more to do with meteorology, of the presence already presence on the on the ground on the virus. But we're not sure. Should we not be putting huge amounts of resources into investigating this? So we make sure that we understand exactly what happened and we make sure it doesn't happen again, and we can minimize the risk of this happening again.’

‘I think what some, kind of, it's an important point what Tom makes, and this is a really important. What we've seen in terms of the transmission dynamics, I think with the first SARS outbreak in, in the Far East. They've done a bit better job on producing field studies on transmission. And so for instance, we just had a recent outbreak in in a farm in Malvern. One of the key things within each outbreak there should be an indepth investigation. Samples should be taken not just from the infected people, but from the toilets, from the bathrooms. Investigations. Were you in contact? Were you in close contact? Did you share drinks? What's the layout of the settings? And we've done that. Some parts of the world have done that and they provide really interesting information. So for instance, in some hospital settings in China, they found the virus was located most in the bathrooms, in the toilet. Probably an area that didn't get the attention for cleaning. Toilets have the potential when flushed to aerosolise SARS-Cov-2. Each hospital should do a sort of significant event analysis where they look into the infection and detail what went wrong. And this is important. The reason this doesn't happen is often because people want to find somebody to blame. And this is not just in hospitals. This is across the board politically. It's gonna be a real issue if people become defensive and don't accept we made misstakes, but we need to study in them. And we need a no blame culture because otherwise, as we've seen around the world, it's going to lock down and we're going to learn, we're not going to learn what we need to understand particularly about the transmission.’

‘You mentioned politics and let me kind of conclude this discussion with that because it has become very politicized and heated. And, you know, I mean, I, you do quite a lot of media and Carl, I’ve seen you quite a bit, but I would say you don't get invited on as much as those professors who are giving a scarier and more sort of, you know, second wave is about to hit, governments not doing enough kind of narrative. Do you think we tilt in the media towards bad news?’

‘We as individuals are part of the problem because sensationalism drives people to click on and read the information. So it's a sort of big circle if we create the problem because if we put the worst case scenario out there, we will go and have a look. So if you want a solution, you've got to get people to stop clicking on this sensationalist stuff. A lot of what the problem here is context. People are now aware that people on a daily basis die. And this morning I had an interview with the radio 4 and they said hundreds of people are dying still of COVID each week and I said, well look, on average, 1500 people die each day. In winter, it goes up to about 2000 a day, and in summer comes down to about 1200. That's a huge disparity. But nobody knows that context. They also don't know in under 50s, for instance, there are no excess deaths. And actually, one of the important issue is as we get aware of this information, we've got to come to terms with it.’

‘So you don't. I mean, you're not sort of framing it like this, but you don't think that you have a whole set of kind of opponents within the scientific community who are driving a much more simplistic narrative where the more government interventions, the better. The sooner they're done, the more virtuous and anything short of that is negligent. And that group is actually winning the day.’

‘Yeah, look, I, we've been here before. It's it's an issue when people consider that interventions will work because of the mechanisms, because they believe it works. I hear that a lot. I think I consider it might. But actually, that's the problem when you start to look at evidence. There are so many examples throughout history, where people believed interventions have worked. Forgetting equipoise that when you test an intervention, it's equally likely to work and it's equally likely to potentially harm you. And that's why we need the clinical trials to try and determine what works compared to what doesn't. I do think there's a narrative where people want to come on and say with certainty, this is what's going to happen. And it's actually seems to me a very simple argument. Yeah, next winter, it's going to be worse again. It's much harder to sit back and go, do you know what? I've been looking at this for 15, 20 years. And I am still unsure about what's going to happen. What we're going to do is keep following the data. And one of the examples I give to people is, is I thought I'd say the data is a bit like the weather. I can tell you for about the next three or five days, what's going to happen. And potentially they can tell you about two weeks into the future, but what you do is keep updating the evidence and the information to reduce the uncertainty. And when we do that, we do come to a clear understanding that I can be more confident of saying, here's some evidence, it's high quality, and here's the size of the effect. And that's an important aspect. If you actually understand what I'm saying is you would then say, well, if I'm going to take this intervention, can you quantify for me exactly how much benefit I will derive?’

‘Final quiz question for both. Infection fatality rate, it's become this kind of hobbyhorse for everybody. Everybody picks different numbers. Having reviewed the evidence up to now, what's your best guess for the IFR will be, will have been revealed to be in, let's say two years from now?’

‘Okay, so there are two things and I can't do this quickly. But the big thing about the infection fatality ratio, it matters who you infect, because there is such a huge gradient in terms of the mortality by age… but if you [look at] everybody, it's very difficult because if you predominantly infect the elderly, you're looking at a population based fatality of about one in 50. If you did children, you'd be about one in 2 million, one in 3 million. So by the time you got out there and give it to everybody, we’ll be down about where we will be when we’ve seen the swine flu. Down about the .1 to.3%, much lower than what we think. Because at the moment, what we're seeing is the case fatality.’

‘Tom, Tom, would you, would you agree with that? If we gonna come back to you after two years and look at the numbers, do you think that sounds about right?’

‘Could you give me a number I can play for the National Lottery please?’

‘We did naught point one to naught point three is what will the World Health Organization might say but’

‘Okay, okay, I'll write that down. I'll play to the National Lottery now here in Italy and see what, what comes up.’

‘But no view you don't have a view?’

‘I have a, I just I just follow the facts. I don't I don't like to forecast the future because with respiratory viruses, as I've said before, you can't do that. If you look at the whole narrative, that whole narrative was distorted at the very early beginning by the obsession with influenza, which is just one agent. In fact, they’re two agents and nothing else existed. Well, we know different now.’

‘Well, Tom and Carl, thank you both very, very much for giving us that time. I've covered a lot of ground there, and lots of food for thought. So thank you for that... ‘That was Carl Hannigan and Tom Jefferson joining us from Oxford and Rome, respectively, and covering a whole lot of ground about what the current state of the pandemic is, and some really important thoughts for us to consider going forward. Thanks for joining’


‘Flatten the curve’ suddenly becoming ‘squash the curve’ is a great example of the ‘myth’ of the slippery slope

Links - 3rd August 2020 (George Floyd Unrest)

Disturbing Video Shows Disabled Man Violently Attacked By Protesters. Now He’s Speaking Out. - "After Hawkins visited a local Arby’s restaurant and accidentally missed the street he was supposed to turn on, the video shows a group of protesters swarm the man’s car. Hawkins attempts to back up and leave the area but, instead, accidentally hits a wheel of a protester’s bike.That’s when the protesters trashed Hawkins’ car with him still inside, an attack which included the throwing of a bicycle at his front windshield, opening his car doors, and stealing goods from his truck. Moreover, according to ABC 6 On Your Side, police said the protesters “acted violently toward others who came to help the man and stop the violence.”Hawkins is not remaining silent about the attack.The victim described what happened during a Columbus City Council meeting on Monday and slammed the protesters for their violence and vandalism... The 58-year-old recalled protesting with his father, a union man, years ago. “We did not break one window, and we did not spray paint foul language, because this is our city,” he said. “If troublemakers don’t like it, they can leave.”"
Doubtless the fault of 'white supremacists'!

A Better World By Memes - Posts - "Singaporeans to blacks in US: Oh dear, oh dear. Gorgerous."
"Singaporeans to migrant workers in Singapore: You fucking smelly"
"Stop your bullshit preaching about racial injustice in other countries when we don't even practice it at home"
Whataboutery is good when liberals do it
Presumably OP doesn't know this happens to NS guys too

Shawn Lim - "We can be better and should be better when it comes to racism.Before we Singaporeans start using #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter to express our outrage at the killing of George Floyd, which is important don't get me wrong, perhaps we should take a good hard look at our own racism."
Apparently Singaporeans are homogenous and the ones who virtue signal about racism are the exact same ones who criticise foreign workers

Central West End couple explains why they pointed guns at protesters who demanded Krewson's resignation - "A husband and wife made national news when photos captured them pointing guns at protesters Sunday night outside of their Central West End home.During the protest, images and videos showed Mark McCloskey, 63, holding a rifle and his wife Patricia McCloskey, 61, pointing a handgun at the crowd of about 300 protesters around 7:30 p.m.The McCloskeys said they were “in fear for our lives” and that’s why they pulled the guns out.“It was like the storming of the Bastille, the gate came down and a large crowd of angry, aggressive people poured through,” Mark McCloskey said. “I was terrified that we’d be murdered within seconds. Our house would be burned down, our pets would be killed.”... The couple also claims to have received death threats from the crowd.“One fellow standing right in front of me pulled out two pistol magazines, clicked them together and said you’re next. That was the first death threat we got that night,” Mark McCloskey said.In a separate statement from their attorney, the McCloskeys said they support the Black Lives Matter movement and that “peaceful protesters were not the subject of scorn or disdain by the McCloskeys. To the contrary, they were expecting and supportive of the message of the protesters... Rasheen Aldridge helped lead the protest organized by a group called ‘Expect Us.’ He said protesters were peaceful and no threats were ever made.When asked why the group marched on private property, Aldridge said, “Just like in many disobedient protests, even in the 60s, you break laws, make people feel uncomfortable. We’re not doing anything where we’re hurting anyone or putting anyone in danger.”... Mark and Patricia McCloskey are personal-injury lawyers who work together in the McCloskey Law Center in St. Louis.According to their attorney, the McCloskeys “are lawyers whose professional careers have [sic] punctuated by their long standing commitment to protecting the civil rights of clients victimized at the hands of law enforcement. This commitment of time and resources to this cause continues today in the Isaiah Forman case.”... A petition is calling for the McClockseys to be disbarred for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon”
It's telling liberals were so upset over the Coronavirus lockdown protests which were 100% peaceful, but never mention the violence of so many BLM protests and dismiss or downplay any mention of their violence. Here their hypocrisy is even more blatant - they're so upset at the couple who defended their home when protesters broke into private property, but say nothing about the invasion (or even praise it). Ironically the McCloskeys were (the initial invasion) and are (liberal hatred) being hoist by their own petard

Missouri AG On Warrant Served On St. Louis Couple: Democrat Prosecutor Has History Of ‘Politically Motivated Decisions,’ Has Not Charged Those Who Attacked Prayerful Protesters - "a search warrant was served and at least one gun confiscated from the St. Louis couple who defended their home last month from an angry mob by saying that the Democrat prosecutor who was handling the decision has an alleged track record of making politically motivated decisions... “Under Missouri law, under the Castle Doctrine, the individual has really expansive authority to protect their own lives, their home, and their property, and I think the story here to watch is the local prosecutor, Kim Gardner,” Schmitt responded. “Kim Gardner has an abysmal record in prosecuting violent crime, has recently released and been complicit in the release of dozens and dozens of inmates who have been charged with violent crimes, and has a record of making politically motivated decisions not based on the law. So, this is certainly something to watch.”“One important factor here is this was a private street. This was not a public street,” Schmitt continued. “These individuals were on their way to the mayor’s house, actually, which has been vandalized several times. This was on a private street, and if you listen to the McCloskeys, they felt threatened, that they were going to be attacked, and that it was made known to them. They made known to the protesters and the people who came by that this was a private street, and they said they were going to murder them and come into their house, and so, as I said, the Castle Doctrine in Missouri is pretty expansive; it allows you to defend your life, obviously your family’s life, your home, but also your property, and this was on private property.”“It’s hard to get into the mind of Kim Gardner. As I said, she has a sketchy track record of making politically-based decisions,” Schmitt continued. “And I would also point out, Shannon, that this very same day—there’s been calls to change the name of St. Louis, which is ridiculous—and there were peaceful folks praying at the base of that statue who were assaulted, and those folks haven’t been charged with anything, so again, Kim Gardner’s track record is certainly suspect.”"

Will Chamberlain on Twitter - "In St. Louis, they won’t prosecute a mob of people who trespass on your property and threaten your home, but they will prosecute you if you dare defend yourself It’s not safe to live under Democrat rule"

Community groups demand firing of officer who fatally shot Ejaz Choudry in Mississauga - "When paramedics arrived, Choudhary says, they spotted his uncle's pocketknife — something he kept with him because he felt police "were out to get him."... Police have said they deployed a stun gun and fired plastic bullets with no effect. "When these had no effect, an officer discharged a firearm and the man was struck," the SIU said"
I saw many people condemning the police for firing on him. Apparently police have no right to defend themselves even after exhausting non-lethal options. Police lives don't matter

Kitchen Knives and Homicide: A Systematic Study of People Charged With Murder in the Lothian and Borders Region of Scotland - "A recent English study demonstrated high rates of kitchen knife use in homicides by mentally disordered offenders subject to independent inquiries. Everyone accused of homicide in Scotland undergoes psychiatric examination; all such evaluations in a Scottish region between 2006 and 2011 were systematically analysed to identify homicide characteristics. It was hypothesised that kitchen knives would be the commonest sharp instruments used, and would be associated with unplanned domestic homicide against known victims, with no independent association with mental disorder. Kitchen knives were used in 32 of 55 homicides: 94% of 34 sharp object homicides (p < 0.05). No independent association was found between kitchen knife use and planning, location, relationship, intoxication or mental disorder. Kitchen knife use in homicide appears to be a significant public health issue, and not only in the mentally disordered population. Research is recommended into kitchen knife use in non-fatal violence, and weapon control in populations at increased risk of knife violence."
I saw someone claiming kitchen knives aren't weapons

Mini AOC on Twitter - "My teacher caught me cheating on a test. She tried to give me a detention but I tackled her, took her chalk & gave her an F. She’s been suspended without pay pending charges. My classmates set fire to the library & are demanding that we defund the school to make learning safer."

Ally Henny - Posts - "I want white America to examine why, in the face of images of the brutal killing of Black people, the impulse is to “humanize” law enforcement by showing them dancing, praying, and anything else that’s “normal,” but they attempt to dredge up any and every negative thing from the murder victim’s past?Why is it that the focus immediately turns to “Chicago” (which is code for the mythical “black on black crime”) and other claims aimed to discredit the Black community’s collective experience?Why is it that white America will do everything in its power to make sure we know that cops are human, but will turn around and completely dehumanize the Black victim, protestors, and community?When I ask why, I’m asking a rhetorical question. The answer is white supremacy."
Those white supremacists must be very busy killing all those black people and framing other blacks for it

B.C. woman shot dead during police wellness check had just made fresh start to be with her child, family says - "Chantel Moore, a Vancouver Island woman who died after being shot in New Brunswick by police early Thursday, was kind, gentle and bubbly... the Edmundston Police Force said officers were called to do a wellness check on a woman in an apartment in the city. When they arrived, she emerged with a knife and attacked an officer, Insp. Steve Robinson told reporters on Thursday."He had no choice but to defend himself," Robinson said.Moore, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman, died at the scene."I'm pissed. I'm outraged," Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said Friday in Ottawa.Miller said that he watched several incidents involving police and Indigenous people yesterday in what he described as "disgust.""I don't understand how someone dies during a wellness check? Police serve Canadians and Indigenous peoples of Canada — not the opposite. These independent inquires need to bring justice," said Miller. His outrage echoes words from Indigenous leaders."It's shocking. It's appalling. Policing in North America has just so deteriorated to this point to where we are on the verge of civil unrest here," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said... "She was funny. Bubbly. She was such a little joker," said Melinda Martin, her half-sister from Port Alberni.Martin said she wants justice."She would never hold a knife," she said, sobbing."
If a "minority" attacks the police and the police defend themselves, this is racist. Maybe the moral of the story is to ignore calls from minorites

UC Berkeley History Professor's Open Letter Against BLM, Police Brutality and Cultural Orthodoxy - "I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them. In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls, and institutions.Many cogent objections to this thesis have been raised by sober voices, including from within the black community itself, such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly. These people are not racists or ‘Uncle Toms’. They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalizes the problems of the black community onto outsiders. Their view is entirely absent from the departmental and UCB-wide communiques.The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians. Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.A counter-narrative exists... Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black... I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department’s apparent desire to shoulder the ‘white man’s burden’ and to promote a narrative of white guilt.If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it’s fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews. None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. “Those are racist dogwhistles”. “The model minority myth is white supremacist”. “Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime”, ad nauseam. These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse. Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are, common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department. Increasingly, we are being called upon to comply and subscribe to BLM’s problematic view of history, and the department is being presented as unified on the matter. In particular, ethnic minorities are being aggressively marshaled into a single position. Any apparent unity is surely a function of the fact that dissent could almost certainly lead to expulsion or cancellation for those of us in a precarious position, which is no small number. I personally don’t dare speak out against the BLM narrative, and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriat, the UC administration, corporate America, and the media, the punishment for dissent is a clear danger at a time of widespread economic vulnerability. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type. The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people. There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims... The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution... No discussion is permitted for non-black victims of black violence, who proportionally outnumber black victims of non-black violence. This is especially bitter in the Bay Area, where Asian victimization by black assailants has reached epidemic proportions, to the point that the SF police chief has advised Asians to stop hanging good-luck charms on their doors, as this attracts the attention of (overwhelmingly black) home invaders. Home invaders like George Floyd... The claim that black interracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn’t led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively. Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices – as do Nigerian Americans, who incidentally have black skin. It is for historians to point out and discuss these anomalies. However, no real discussion is possible in the current climate at our department. The explanation is provided to us, disagreement with it is racist, and the job of historians is to further explore additional ways in which the explanation is additionally correct. This is a mockery of the historical profession... Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades; the ‘systemic racism’ there was built by successive Democrat administrations. The patronizing and condescending attitudes of Democrat leaders towards the black community, exemplified by nearly every Biden statement on the black race, all but guarantee a perpetual state of misery, resentment, poverty, and the attendant grievance politics which are simultaneously annihilating American political discourse and black lives... The total alliance of major corporations involved in human exploitation with BLM should be a warning flag to us, and yet this damning evidence goes unnoticed, purposefully ignored, or perversely celebrated. We are the useful idiots of the wealthiest classes, carrying water for Jeff Bezos and other actual, real, modern-day slavers. Starbucks, an organisation using literal black slaves in its coffee plantation suppliers, is in favor of BLM. Sony, an organisation using cobalt mined by yet more literal black slaves, many of whom are children, is in favor of BLM... There also exists a large constituency of what can only be called ‘race hustlers’: hucksters of all colors who benefit from stoking the fires of racial conflict to secure administrative jobs, charity management positions, academic jobs and advancement, or personal political entrepreneurship. Given the direction our history department appears to be taking far from any commitment to truth, we can regard ourselves as a formative training institution for this brand of snake-oil salespeople... MLK would likely be called an Uncle Tom if he spoke on our campus today. We are training leaders who intend, explicitly, to destroy one of the only truly successful ethnically diverse societies in modern history. As the PRC, an ethnonationalist and aggressively racially chauvinist national polity with null immigration and no concept of jus solis increasingly presents itself as the global political alternative to the US, I ask you: Is this wise? Are we really doing the right thing? As a final point, our university and department has made multiple statements celebrating and eulogizing George Floyd. Floyd was a multiple felon who once held a pregnant black woman at gunpoint. He broke into her home with a gang of men and pointed a gun at her pregnant stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children, playing no part in their support or upbringing, failing one of the most basic tests of decency for a human being. He was a drug-addict and sometime drug-dealer, a swindler who preyed upon his honest and hard-working neighbors. And yet, the regents of UC and the historians of the UCB History department are celebrating this violent criminal, elevating his name to virtual sainthood. A man who hurt women. A man who hurt black women... No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies. A whole generation of black children are being taught that only by begging and weeping and screaming will they get handouts from guilt-ridden whites.No message will more surely devastate their futures, especially if whites run out of guilt, or indeed if America runs out of whites"

George Floyd, the hero that broke the camel's back

An athlete, a father, a 'beautiful spirit': George Floyd in his friends' words

Rockstar Games on Twitter - "Black Lives Matter. To honor the legacy of George Floyd, today, 6/4/20, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. ET, we will be shutting down access to our online games, Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online."
Woke Capital on Twitter - "You cannot play the games you paid for. Woke Capital can restrict access to goods and services you've paid for on a whim. Enjoy your Apple Music that won't stream music, your vidya that you can't play, your books that you can't read. Remember when we used to own things?"

GEORGE FLOYD IS A HERO - YouTube
I see some people claiming that no one is treating George Floyd as a hero

Jason Buttrill on Twitter - "When you click to donate to Black Lives Matter, it takes you to ActBlue. If donated money goes unclaimed, ActBlue disperses the money however they want. These are their top expenditures so far in 2020."

Garrett Gilchrist on Twitter - "It's amazing that Democrats had nearly a week to help Joe Biden articulate a position on this and his recommended solution is "shoot unarmed people in the legs""

Why police don’t aim for the legs - "By law, officers are trained and mandated to use the least amount of force necessary to effect an arrest and to do so safely. However, it does not mean officers should put themselves at a disadvantage or in a position where they could be injured or killed...
Shooting someone in the leg doesn’t mean he or she will stop shooting.
The same is true of someone who is shot in the arm or shoulder, or even in the chest. Shooting someone in the leg won’t necessarily stop him or her from standing, walking or even running. Shooting someone in the leg doesn’t even mean he or she will fall to the ground. And, it doesn’t mean the individual will stop feloniously aiming a gun at a police officer or an innocent citizen and pulling the trigger.Even so, if an officer did shoot someone in the leg, there is a chance it could sever the femoral artery and still potentially end that person’s life.
Officers learn how difficult it is to shoot accurately under stress...
Action is faster than reaction.
Since police react to illegal confrontations, they’re at a disadvantage. Rarely is an officer ready for a lethal confrontation, even if his or her gun is already drawn. Police are not the aggressors; they are the defenders. They have to perceive and process the threat and then act based on a subject’s actions. The reaction won’t always be a lethal option either...
Reacting to a threat decreases an officer’s effectiveness...
During actual officer-involved shooting incidents, officers only accurately hit moving threats 14 percent of the time at distance under 10 feet. On the corollary, attackers successfully hit officers 68 percent of the time within the same distance. At such rates, it’s fortunate that more police officers aren’t killed...
Law enforcement officers are taught to shoot center mass on a threat or target.
Those who shoot closer to the thoracic cavity on realistic-looking human targets and silhouettes score higher during live-fire training. Why? Because there is a higher likelihood that hitting a person in that area will stop him or her, but it won’t necessarily kill him or her.Moreover, the most obvious reason for shooting center mass is because that portion of the body is a larger target than, say, a leg.
It is incorrect to believe that if someone gets shot in the chest he or she will die...
Police are trained to stop the threat...
It is a myth to believe that a single shot from a handgun will stop someone.
Police are taught to keep shooting until the threat stops. Traditionally, officers will shoot twice and assess."

Black Lives Still Matter on Twitter - "To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people!" - Trump
"Let me get this straight. To the leaders of another country you say "DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS ", but when it comes to American citizens you tell leaders of this country "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" We are "thugs" NOT "protesters"."
It's amazing how many people with Trump Derangement Syndrome are treating this as some sort of gotcha. At least it is revealing - these people really do see protesters and rioters are the same, and shows that claims that no one is supporting the rioting are mendacious (in addition to explicit messages of support like "burn it all down"); if you conflate the 2 and support 1, you support the other

Eric July on Twitter - "A white bar owner in Omaha shot and killed a black protester. He won't face charges."
"When you actually read the story, you see how this is such an irresponsible headline."
""A bar owner shoots a looter attacking him, ruled self defense". Better headline, without injecting race and actually using the real facts."
Self defence is racist

As George Floyd Video Makes MSM Headlines, Clip of Black Cop Violently Choking Young Man Practically Nowhere To Be Seen - "The underreported video shows a Jackson police officer, identified as Myron Smith by the Jackson Free Press, with his hands around an apparent suspect’s throat. The cop and the apparent suspect seen in the clip are both black... Many (including at least one lawmaker) have increased racial tensions in the aftermath of the George Floyd video by pointing the finger at the involved white officers.While no account of police brutality is welcome news, this video could present an uncomfortable truth for those looking to further divide the nation using race."

Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter - "Webster, MA police chief Michael Shaw surrenders to Black Lives Matter protesters. It's another struggle session."

New psychology research finds extreme protest actions reduce popular support for social movements - "New research indicates that extreme protest tactics tend to undermine a movement’s popular support in the United States by alienating both neutral observers and supporters. The findings have been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology... more extreme behaviors — such as the use of inflammatory rhetoric, blocking traffic, and vandalism — consistently resulted in reduced support for social movements.This was true even when participants were already politically or socially sympathetic to the social movement. “We found extreme anti-Trump protest actions actually led people to not only dislike the movement and support the cause less, but to be willing to support Trump more,” Feinberg said. “It was almost like a backlash.” The researchers also found evidence that extreme protest actions led to a loss of support because they were viewed as immoral. These perceptions of immorality were associated with reduced feelings of emotional connection and less social identification with the movement. The new study is in line with research that analyzed all mass uprisings around the world between 1945-2014, finding that nonviolent campaigns were more successful at bringing about large-scale political transformation than violent campaigns... " activists outraged by the status quo and/or believing that change is largely impossible may engage in extreme protest actions as a form of self-expression or even catharsis without any strategic calculations about the effects such behavior will have in the long-run. Similarly, even if a movement plans to not engage in extreme behaviors, a small number of dissidents in the group may incite extreme actions in others”... “The Activist’s Dilemma: Extreme Protest Actions Reduce Popular Support for Social Movements“, was authored by Matthew Feinberg, Robb Willer, and Chloe Kovacheff."
Liberals justify the riots and self-radicalise in their echo chambers at their peril

Peaceful protest is much more effective than violence for toppling dictators - The Washington Post - "Political scientist Erica Chenoweth used to believe, as many do, that violence is the most reliable way to get rid of a dictator. History is filled, after all, with coups, rebellions and civil wars. She didn't take public protests or other forms of peaceful resistance very seriously; how could they possible upend a powerful, authoritarian regime?Then, as Chenoweth recounts in a Ted Talk posted online Monday, she put together some data and was surprised by what she found. "I collected data on all major nonviolent and violent campaigns for the overthrow of a government or a territorial liberation since 1900," she says -- hundreds of cases. "The data blew me away."... that trend is actually "increasing over time," Chenoweth adds. "Nonviolent campaigns are becoming increasingly successful." Below is a chart of the successful campaigns from 1940 to 2006... "Researchers used to say that no government could survive if just 5 percent of the population rose up against it," Chenoweth says. "Our data shows the number may be lower than that. No single campaign in that period failed after they'd achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5 percent of the population." She adds, "But get this: every single campaign that exceeded that 3.5 percent point was a nonviolent one. The nonviolent campaigns were on average four times larger than the average violent campaigns."... Violent resistance movements, even if they do succeed, can create a lot of long-term problems. "It turns out that the way you resist matters in the long run, too," she says, explaining that her data suggest that countries with nonviolent uprisings "were way more likely to emerge with democratic institutions." They were also 15 percent less likely to "relapse" into civil war. After all, a nonviolent movement is often inherently democratic, a sort of expression of mass public opinion outside of the ballot box. A violent movement, on the other hand, no matter what its driving ideals, is all about legitimizing power through force; it's not hard to see how its victorious participants would end up keeping power primarily through violence, as well."

a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/10-states-spend-most-least-090000541.html">States That Spend the Most and Least on Welfare - "The total spending on public welfare — which includes “cash assistance paid directly to needy persons under the categorical programs Old Age Assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families” and more — in the U.S. is more than $637 billion, according to the Census Bureau’s 2016 Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances."
America’s Policing Budget Has Nearly Tripled to $115 Billion - Bloomberg - "the cost of policing in the U.S. [was] $114.5 billion in 2017"
Some people claim that the US spends more on policing than public welfare. Yet by these measures, the US spends almost 6x as much on public welfare as on policing

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "‘Many big American companies have expressed support for the protests that have followed the death of George Floyd while he was being arrested in Minnesota. They're also being accused of hypocrisy with some protesters pointing out that few of them actually employ black people in senior positions’"
Virtue signalling is not costless

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'We are not going to reduce ourselves to being governed by the mob' - "‘The President has been very clear from the beginning that the, the killing of George Floyd was something that was a, was a tragedy. It was something that needs to be investigated. He called for the Department of Justice to launch a civil, a civil rights investigation days ago and, and we're waiting to see that but also it's something he said. We need to respect the rights of legal protesters, but also stand firm against those who are seeking to destroy private property, public property and cause injury to others.’

‘There weren't any words of healing were there? Not last night, not before that, not in the week since all of this began. Nothing to say to those who have gathered peacefully and who protested peacefully in so many places across America that he understands their pain and their anger.’
‘I absolutely disagree with that. He said that, over the weekend when he was at NASA, talked about the tragedy that happened to George Floyd and that how we needed to make sure that these kinds of things didn't happen again. He said tonight, that he stands with those who are protesting ill-, legally, who are professing their rights to, to protest and to voice, their displeasure. But you've got to do so in a legal way. And those who are trying to use this tragedy, to destroy public property, to cause physical damage. That's something where the government has a responsibility to stand up and to put away people’
‘His focus all along has been law enforcement hasn’t it? Calling, on on governors to use more force if necessary, now threatening to call out the military?’
‘Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because we have, we are a, we are a nation of laws. And so for those people who are going to respect the laws of the nation to peacefully let their voices be heard, we will absolutely stand in solidarity with them and allow that to happen. For those who are going to destroy public property, who are going to cause physical damage. For those who are going to to flout the laws, then we're going to absolutely defend the laws and it's the responsibility of mayors, governors and ultimately, the President to stand and defend those laws and use whatever means necessary are to defend them… The President has said it and this country has said it very well is that the vast majority of the men and women who serve as police officers are doing the right thing, who are putting their lives on the line, to defend our communities, to defend our property, defend our lives. And for that small, very small percentage of folks who are exceeding their authority then they need to be dealt with. They need to be dealt with swiftly but they also need to be dealt with through the justice system. We are a country that is not ruled by mob law. We're a country that is ruled by the laws… They are being dealt with. You've got the, you've got the the officer right now in, with the George Floyd case, who is facing murder and manslaughter charges. Additional charges may be filed. But we are not going to reduce ourselves to be being governed by the mob. We, everyone has a right to their day in court, to have evidence presented against them. They are innocent until proven guilty. Let the courts work through that system, and then hold those responsible, accountable. And that's what's happening right now'…
‘Peaceful protesters were forcibly cleared outside the White House so that the President could then go to a church and, and hold up the Bible and use that as a prop.’
‘Well, I understand that that's the liberal point of view. That's your biased point of view. But what I'll tell you is that the very night before that, people standing in that exact same park set a historic church on fire. That was not a peaceful protest. And so it is absolutely the appropriate acts of the United States Secret Service and the police to create a perimeter around the White House to make sure that there is security, that we're not having our national historic sites set on fire. And as the, as the curfew that was being imposed in Washington, DC was coming upon us, they were moving the protesters further and further away. It is not unusual to move protesters or to move groups of folks away from our elected leaders even in times when we are not facing these kinds of things. And so that was the appropriate move to start to dissipate those crowds to start to reduce the likelihood that there was going to be further damage, violence, rioters and, and so what we think, right now, are the laws being enforced? And I understand that some people don't like that. But we've got to make sure that we're still a nation of laws’
‘This, this threat to deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them, is, is that something that he plans to do, imminently? If there are, if there are days more of unrest? Is that something that he plans to do? Straight away?’
‘Well, it's, it's entirely up to the mayors and governors. If they want to enforce the laws, protect their populations, protect their small business owners, whether they want to let the mob rule and set fires to our cities. This is not a law that has been not used before. George HW Bush used the same law in, during the, right after the Rodney King riots in the early 1990s. It was used dozens of times during racial unrest during the 60s and early 70s. That's what this law is for. So if mayors and governors who are elected to lead their cities, to protect their cities fail to do that, if they hamstring the police officers from doing their job to protect people, then it's absolutely appropriate for the President to step in to send the military to do the jobs that these liberal Democrat failures of leaders won't do for themselves.’

Michael Franks - "Now there’s a fucking FENCE surrounding CNN HQ in Atlanta to protect the building. MY IRONY METER JUST BROKE."
Walls work after all!

Meme - "Black lives matter"
"It's literally just a statement of fact. There's no hidden meaning. Anyone that feels discomfort from saying this just shows their deep seated hatred of this race."
"It's ok to be white"
*triggered*

WATCH: Girls Cleaning ‘BLM’ Graffiti Off Govt Building Scolded For Misusing ‘White Privilege’ - "While they are working to clean the building, a woman, identified as “Faith Alice Sleeper” on Facebook, rolls up in a vehicle to lecture them about their supposed “white privilege.”“Why are you guys removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ graffiti?” Alice asks the girls, videotaping the interaction from her vehicle.“We’re just trying to take care of the city”"

Why I, as a black man, will not be supporting BLM - "You don’t achieve equality in any aspect of life by taking privilege from one group and handing it to another. This over-compensation is similar to what we saw in the third/fourth waves of feminism when it became less about creating a balance between men and women, and more about remove men and replacing them with women, in order to ‘make up’ for years of inequality. It’s interesting that once we reach equality, these campaigns push further and take power for their own groups by marginalising their opponents.A cursory glance at the Black Lives Matter manifesto proves them to be far more than the anti-racist campaign group they attempt to portray themselves as. It’s evident that BLM is a socially Marxist political organisation intent on causing disruption to Western ideals.Taken directly from their website: ‘We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure’. Imagine campaigning against a stable, loving family structure that provides an advantage to the lives of young children. Like their aim to ‘dismantle cisgender privilege’, it may be a great soundbite for the woke, but what does it have to do with a supposed anti-racism movement?Vandalising the statue of Winston Churchill was a key moment over the past few days that highlighted the toxic nature of this campaign. Graffiti spray-painted on the side of a war hero saying ‘anti-fa’, as if the man responsible for Great Britain defeating fascism in Europe was somehow a fascist figure himself is ridiculous, their irony knows no bounds. Likewise, the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol showed the movement up to be uncivil riotous thugs. This isn’t a Middle Eastern dictatorship; we don’t tear down public art because we disagree with it. Colston did a lot of good in his life, funding hospitals, schools and churches. He also did a lot of evil in supporting the slave trade.But judging historical figures by today’s progressive liberal standards is ridiculous because once you fall down that rabbit hole, there’s no coming back from it. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find something offensive in the past of every historical figure. Where does it end?This was further demonstrated by the tagging of ‘racist’ by Mahatma Gandhi’s statue. The very same chap who fought a successful non-violent resistance to British colonialism in India. Surely a natural ally of BLM? But Gandhi’s questionable opinions on hierarchical race structures put him in their bad books. No man is perfect, but that’s not what statues represent. We don’t commission statues to idolise people; we do so to remember our history"

Russia urges the U.S. to ‘observe democratic standards’ and respect Americans’ right to protest
SPOING

Beijing: The rights of minorities in the U.S. must be guaranteed - "Black lives matter and their human rights should be guaranteed, Chinese Foreign Ministry said"
SPOING X2

Pretend ‘Fortnite’ battle ends in felony charge for 10-year-old boy in Colorado - The Washington Post - "The gun was fake, but the felony charge filed against a 10-year-old boy was very real.Gavin Carpenter was pretending to be a character in the video game “Fortnite” on July 24, when he spooked a driver by pointing a toy rifle with an orange tip at the man’s truck... “Right now we are trying to install faith back into Gavin that you can trust law enforcement, because after all of this he’s scared to death of them”"
Too bad the kid is white, so the media and liberals can't blame racism and 'white supremacy'

Family of 17-year-old girl killed by Fullerton police files claim against city - Los Angeles Times - "The family of a 17-year-old girl shot and killed by Fullerton police after a traffic stop in Anaheim earlier this month has filed a legal claim against the city.S. Lee Merritt, the attorney for the family of Hannah Williams, said Friday that the claim — a precursor to a lawsuit — preserves the family’s right to sue for damages... Information provided so far suggests that the officer involved in the shooting failed to follow proper procedure during the stop that resulted in Williams’ death"
Race is never mentioned or an issue when white people get shot (cf Tamir Rice)

Maryland man fatally shot by police while asleep in his bedroom - "The Montgomery county police department said in a news release Duncan Socrates Lemp “confronted” police and was shot by one of the officers early on Thursday.But Rene Sandler, an attorney for Lemp’s relatives, said an eyewitness gave a “completely contrary” account of the shooting. She said police could have “absolutely no justification” for shooting Lemp based on what she has heard about the circumstances... The warrant police obtained to search the Potomac home Lemp shared with his parents and 19-year-old brother does not mention any “imminent threat” to law enforcement or the public, Lemp’s relatives said in a statement released by their lawyers. Nobody in the house that morning had a criminal record, the statement added... Sandler said the family believes police fired gunshots, not a flashbang or other projectile, from outside the home, including through Lemp’s bedroom window, while he and his girlfriend were sleeping. Nobody in the home heard any warnings or commands before police opened fire, she said."
Too bad he's white, so there're no riots, and people can't blame "white supremacy", and will continue to pretend this never happens to white people

Protesters across US attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns - "some armed individuals attending protests, identified as members of the “boogaloo movement”, have presented protesters with a troubling ambiguity.So-called “boogaloo bois” are members of a loose-knit, pro-gun, anti-government movement, which is preoccupied with what they believe to be a looming second American civil war."
When you want to abolish the police, encourage looting and have anarchy reign...
Now the very same people who called Trump a dictator for wanting to restore law and order will call him one for not preventing this

The George Floyd Riots: Where's Black Lives Matter When You Need Them? - "Ostensibly, the protests are about the alleged “epidemic” of “widespread” and “race-based” police brutality against blacks and the lack of confidence, in the case of Floyd, that justice will be done. The problem with these assertions is that they are false, not supported by the data.There is no “epidemic” of racist cops killing black suspects. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, police killings of blacks declined almost 80% from the late ’60s through the 2010s, while police killings of whites have flatlined. Meanwhile, in 2017, according to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Reports, non-Hispanic blacks were eight times more likely to be a victim of a homicide (homicide death rate: 23.2 per 100,000) than non-Hispanic whites (homicide death rate: 2.9 per 100,000).The No. 1 cause of preventable death for young white men is accidents, like car accidents and drownings. The No. 1 reason for death, preventable or otherwise for young black men, is homicide, almost always at the hands of another young black man. In 2018, there were approximately 7,400 black homicide victims, more than half of the nation’s total number of homicides, out of a black population of 13%. Of that number, the police killed a little over 200 blacks, and nearly all of them had a weapon or violently resisted arrest. In recent years, the police have averaged killing about 1,000 Americans per year. Of that number, half are white and one-quarter are black, with the race of remaining suspects of another race or unknown. Of the approximately 1,000 killed by cops, less than 4% involve a white officer and an unarmed black man.Recent studies not only find no “systemic” abuse of black suspects by the cops, but if anything, cops are more hesitant, more reluctant, to use deadly force against a black suspect than against a white suspect... In Baltimore, where in 2015, a black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody, how could one, with a straight face, argue that resident blacks suffer from “institutional” racism? The mayor was a black female; the top two officials in the police department were black; the city council was majority black; the state attorney who brought the charges against six officers was black; three of the six charged officers were black; the judge before whom two officers tried their cases was black; the U.S. attorney general was black, as was the president of the United States. Institutional racism?Finally, why didn’t President Barack Obama’s administration deal with this alleged “systemic” or “structural” or “institutional” police brutality against blacks in his eight years in office? Meanwhile, over Memorial Day weekend in Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago, 10 people were killed, and 49 were shot. In a city where roughly one-third of the population is black, 70% of the city’s homicide victims, according to the Chicago Police Department, are black.When and where do the protests begin?"
Black lives only matter when they can be used as a political weapon

Chicago’s most violent day in 60 years: 18 murders in 24 hours

Chicago alderman says city 'too afraid' to ask Trump for help to stop violence - "Alderman Anthony Napolitano, a former police officer, joined Fox & Friends Monday morning and said the city is desperate for assistance after Chicago officials reported at least 63 shootings and 12 deaths over the weekend... The president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police posted a letter to Trump over the weekend asking for help and slamming Chicago leadership, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot. "Mayor Lightfoot has proved to be a complete failure who is either unwilling or unable to maintain law and order here," John Catanzara said in the letter... Trump has repeatedly denounced the crime in Chicago and in other cities reporting similar crime, saying last week that it’s “worse than Afghanistan.”“When you have 88 shootings, that’s not even conceivable, that’s worse than Afghanistan. I hate to say it. That’s worse than any war zone that we’re in by a lot,” Trump said."

Manufacturer that burned as Minneapolis protests turned violent plans to relocate from city - "A Minneapolis manufacturing company has decided to leave the city, with the company’s owner saying he can’t trust public officials who allowed his plant to burn during the recent riots. The move will cost the city about 50 jobs.“They don’t care about my business,” said Kris Wyrobek, president and owner of 7-Sigma Inc., which has operated since 1987 at 2843 26th Av. in south Minneapolis. “They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.”... Two days after the riots began, Gov. Tim Walz described the city’s response as an “abject failure.” Walz ordered the National Guard into Minneapolis to restore order at the request of Mayor Jacob Frey... nearly 1,000 commercial properties in Minneapolis were damaged during the riots, including 52 businesses that were completely destroyed and 30 other locations that sustained severe damage. Owners and insurance experts estimate the costs of the damage could exceed $500 million. That would make the Twin Cities riots the second-costliest civil disturbance in U.S. history, trailing only those in Los Angeles in 1992, which were also sparked by racial tensions with police and had $1.4 billion in damages in today’s dollars."
Of course they will be called racist
Liberal logic: if you criticise the riots it shows you care more about property than human life. Apparently riots will bring George Floyd back

Chicago Mayor Begs Walmart, Other Looted Retailers Not To Abandon City - "While Chicago officials give slaps on the wrist to arrested protesters, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is begging Walmart and other major retailers who were hit by looting and vandalism to reopen their doors despite riots over the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer who now faces charges for second-degree murder."

LGBT Organization Vandalized in DC George Floyd Riots - "The Pride At Work organization had parts of their building burned as the nation’s capitol was rocked by rioting. The building itself sustained significant damage in parts, as fires were set, windows were smashed, and politicized slogans were scrawled across the face of the structure...
'Our windows may be broken, but our resolve is not. We will rebuild as we continue the fight for racial, social, and economic justice. A building and it’s contents are just property. They can be replaced, but lives cannot.#BlackLivesMatter'"
So the language of the unheard is homophobic? Intersectionality! Or liberals can just blame the white supremacists who apparently are around every corner and hiding under every bed

79 Korean Businesses & Several Viet Businesses Looted and Destroyed - "Koreatown in Los Angeles was nearly untouched, largely due to the new generation of Rooftop Koreans standing guard and National Guardsmen"
Is the language of the unheard racist too? I saw people condemning Roof Koreans for being racist

VIDEO: Angry mom beats son suspected of rioting in Baltimore - "A suspected rioter in Baltimore got the smackdown of his life Monday by his mom on television.The mother saw her son on television throwing rocks at police, reports ABC Baltimore affiliate WMAR. That's when she'd had enough, dishing up a dose of discipline.The pair was identified as Toya Graham, a single mother of six, and her 16-year-old son"

Will Smith, Va., police chief, says rioters blocked firefighters from burning home with child inside - "Richmond, Virginia, Police Chief Will Smith choked back tears during a press conference in describing how rioters torched a home with a child inside and then blocked firefighters from responding."


'Eye-opening experience': Business owner and former firefighter raises $1M to rebuild Minneapolis bar - "A fundraising effort to help a black business owner and former firefighter in Minneapolis has surpassed $1 million, including with help from staffers for President Trump's reelection campaign."
Of course this says nothing at all about Trump. But if one of his campaign gives a cent to a non-kosher cause...

America on fire – and out of control - "This looting and destruction is shattering to the local community. Residents, many of whom are black and poor, will suffer most from the demise of shops and public facilities. Many of the businesses in these neighbourhoods are small and minority-owned. In this context, it is sickening to see leftists on Twitter providing convoluted justifications for the ruin following the rampages. ‘Property is insured and can be replaced. Lives cannot’, tweeted activist and writer Sally Kohn: ‘Check your priorities, America.’ As it happens, many of these black-owned small businesses do not have insurance, and full lives include people’s livelihoods, which have now been severely damaged. Floyd’s girlfriend, Courtney Ross, urged people to stop looting in his name, saying that Floyd ‘loved’ Minneapolis and seeing the city on fire would ‘devastate’ him. The descent into chaos in Minneapolis and other cities reveals two striking things about the crisis in America today. First, that there are significant numbers of people, especially sections of black youth, who have no firm stake in society. A range of public authorities, from Minnesota officials to attorney general William Barr, have suggested that out-of-state white radicals associated with Antifa were to blame for instigating the rioting. Those inspired by Antifa are definitely an element, and some videos showed black protesters pleading with them not to destroy stores or attack the police. But the focus on the minority linked to Antifa mainly serves to distract from a more homegrown problem – indeed, the vast majority of those arrested in Minneapolis were locals... That so many, including many young black people, were ready and willing to smash up stores and steal goods (and with glee in many cases) shows how thin the support for the rule of law and social order was before Floyd’s killing. That’s a bigger problem for public officials and other elites than they have reckoned with before now.The second, and related, revelation from the mayhem in the US is the lack of leadership and respected authority in politics and society. That starts at the top... But the more immediate leadership failure was local to Minneapolis. City mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota state governor Tim Walz had no clue how to respond to the first signs of rioting, preferring to hide from attention. Walz used carefully chosen woke language (‘I will not patronise you as a white man without living [your] lived experience’) and refused to condemn the rioting (‘The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish, unheard’). In an astounding move, Frey ordered the city’s Third Police Precinct to be evacuated, allowing the mob to burn it down. It was just ‘brick and mortar’, he dismissively said when challenged. The torching of the police station was highly symbolic, essentially signalling that officials no longer felt they had the moral authority to insist on order. It gave a green light to more rioting... neither Obama nor Biden could bring themselves to condemn the rioting, instead focusing on historic injustices. It took the black mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to say what her fellow Democrats were afraid to say: that the rioting was hurting the people they claimed to be fighting for. Bottoms’ excellent, impassioned statement, along with a message from the rapper Killer Mike (a fellow Atlantan), exposed the establishment Democrats as out-of-touch and patronising – they were clearly not aware that many black people did not support the rioters... With so many promoting a bleak outlook, it is easy to forget that nearly all Americans of all races agree that the killing of George Floyd was appalling and wrong. They know it was unjust. And at the same time, most Americans know that looting and rioting is bad. They don’t want to see their cities burnt to the ground. We’re suffering enough economic hardship from the virus-prompted shutdown as it is, and the riots only compound this"
Floyd's girlfriend must be a white supremacist too

George Floyd's brother calls for an end to the violence as he delivers emotional speech - "His younger brother Terrence broke down at the spot where his brother was taken into custody, telling the crowds: 'I understand you are all are upset. But I doubt you are half as upset as I am.'So if I'm not over here wilding out, if I'm not over here blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here messing with my community, then what are y'all doing? Y'all doing nothing, but that's not going to bring my brother back at all.'My family is a peaceful family. My family is God-fearing. Let's switch it up and do this peacefully, please. I know he would not want y'all to be doing this.'... 'It's OK to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way because we've been down this road already,' Terrence told GMA.'The anger, damaging your hometown is not the way he'd want'"
Of course, he cannot understand the despair and anger at racism that is making so many people riot

George Floyd had coronavirus, autopsy says

An0maly on Twitter - "Imagine claiming to be an anti-corporation leftist while having literally every major corporation in America pushing your narrative. It’s about destabilization, centralization of power & control. They just use weak & naive people."

Science Magazine on Twitter - ""The evidence of systemic racism in science permeates this nation." @hholdenthorp emphasizes in a new #SciMagEditorial that it's not just abusive police that need to be reminded that Black Lives Matter, but the scientific establishment as well"
So much for the ideal of science as politically neutral and about seeking truth

Forgiveness ritual: white cops and civilians wash black faith leaders' feet
Secular religion intensifies

The Conservative Latina on Twitter - "Don’t blame every Muslim person for what happened on 9/11, don’t label every Black person a criminal thug, don’t assume all Hispanics are here illegally, but DEFINITELY blame ALL White people for racism being alive today. 🥴 #Progress"

Surely Minneapolis, Of All Places, Must Have Cured Racism By Now - "Progressives and Democrats are the people who never tire of accusing their political adversaries of racism, or maybe even of “white supremacism.”  Elect us, the message is, and we will do away with these evils for good.If that proposition were valid, then clearly Minneapolis would be in the forefront of those places that have long since done away with racism.  Among bastions of woke progressivism in this country, it is almost impossible to top Minneapolis.  The place is currently run from top to bottom and at all levels of government by representatives of the far left wing of the Democratic Party; and that has been true for as far back as human memory stretches... The last Republican Mayor of Minneapolis was Richard Erdall, who served for one day in 1973. Prior to Erdall, the previous Republican Mayor was Kenneth Peterson, who left office in 1961... In our federal system, the states have their own sovereignty. Officer Chauvin worked for Commissioner Arradondo, who works for Mayor Frey. Arradondo and Frey are the people who are responsible for the conduct of the police in Minneapolis, overseen to some degree by Walz and Ellison. President Trump has no more authority to direct or control the conduct of Arradondo or Frey or Chauvin than you or I do. Oh, but wait. Is there some impediment that keeps Frey or Arradondo from bringing more accountability to the officers in the Minneapolis Police Department? Actually, there is. That is the police union, here known as the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis... The idea that public employees should have a right to unionize, and should be able to negotiate, through collective bargaining, protections to shield themselves from accountability — that, of course, is another basic pillar of the progressive government model... Has any one of the Minnesota Democratic politicians who hold responsibility in this situation — Walz, Ellison, Frey, Klobuchar, Smith, Omar, or the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council — ever advocated for a change to the Minnesota public employee unionization regime to enable the supervisors to bring accountability to the rank and file? Of course not. The public employee unions are the principal funders of their campaigns. These politicians claim to be seeking “social justice” and the end to racism, but in practice they do the bidding of their union paymasters, which means holding public employees free from accountability in all but the very most egregious incidents."

Minneapolis Mayor Asks Trump For Aid After Riots Cause At Least $55 Million In Damage
I'd hate to see what non-"mostly peaceful" protests are like

George Floyd: Feds deny Minnesota request for aid to rebuild - "The federal government has denied a request from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for federal funds to rebuild and repair fire damage from the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death.The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Walz’s spokesman Teddy Tschann confirmed that the request for federal aid was denied, saying the governor is “disappointed.”... Current estimates of the total damage exceed $500 million, the governor wrote in his disaster aid request."

Jackie walker on Twitter - "Why is the Nazi holocaust more important? We all know the answer!! Because it's white lives that matter"

Pelosi says portraits of former House speakers to be removed
"Let's also remove portraits of House speakers who eulogized former KKK members. Pelosi Remarks at the Funeral of Senator Robert C. Byrd | Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi"

Why Nobody is Systemically Racist - New Discourses - " “white complicity” is the relevant concept we need to comprehend to understand the present moment. This idea was developed in considerable depth in a moderately densely philosophical book from 2010, Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy, by Barbara Applebaum. In this book-length, defining treatment of the concept, Applebaum expands the usual definition of complicity from intentional participation in a crime to include everyone who benefits from any “oppressive system.” This passive “support,” defined as everything short of actively attempting to dismantle the oppressive system, is what Applebaum identifies by the term “white supremacy.” Her goal is to expand the concept of “white moral responsibility” far enough to induce all white and white-adjacent people to take up activism to unmake this system.This dangerous idea is presently in the process of remaking the world, and probably not in a good way... every white, white-adjacent, etc., person who benefits from “whiteness” and who isn’t constantly and actively working to dismantle the system that creates and enables it is a white supremacist (someone who isn’t working to dismantle the system in which whiteness has “dominance”) and a racist (someone who benefits from the existence of racial discrimination, prejudice, etc., of any kind). That’s Applebaum’s central thesis in a nutshell, and it is upon precisely this bizarre foundation that Robin DiAngelo’s concept of “white fragility” is built... systemic thinking, in the way that critical activist-scholars think of it not only does not but cannot clarify the problems it hopes to solve. In fact, it hopelessly muddles them, making them impossible to understand and impossible to do anything about except through symbolic contrition, feeling bad for one’s participation, however distant, for a “system” that sometimes produces bad results... the concept of “systemic racism” is, generally speaking, a bad one. It does not add clarity; it obscures it. It does not foster healthy relationships or conversations about race; it produces the opposite. It does not encourage personal growth or “doing better”; it induces unnecessary guilt, shame, and moral confusion. It does not encourage genuine responsibility; it displaces it... It only muddies the waters and invites us to confusion and unjustified overreactions... take heart: you’re hardly more of a racist because of accusations of “white complicity” in “systemic racism” than you are a murderer or manslaughterer because car accidents sometimes happen and you live in a society where people drive cars"
Basically, white people are evil

Destruction of property qualifies as violence - "Breaking things and burning buildings is enjoying a vogue it hasn’t had since the late 1960s or early 1970s.Arson and looting are a perennial feature of urban unrest, but they have been pretty universally condemned for decades now — until the past week or so.Forced to choose between criticizing the George Floyd protests when they get out of hand and defending the indefensible, activists and writers on the left have been tempted into the latter.Their inventive, if completely absurd, contention is that the destruction of property doesn’t qualify as violence, and, at the end of the day, isn’t such a bad thing, maybe even a salutary thing.The Pulitzer Prize-winning architect of The New York Times’ 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, argued in an interview: “Violence is when an agent of the state kneels on a man’s neck until all of the life is leached out of his body. Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. To use the same language to describe those two things is not moral.”The editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, favorably quoted a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Network, who explained: “We don’t have time to finger-wag at protesters about property. That can be rebuilt. Target will reopen.”An article in Current Affairs asserted that applying the word “violence” to the destruction of property risks “making the term conceptually incoherent and — much more important — conflating acts that do very serious physical harm to people with acts that have not physically harmed anyone.”... Those who minimize looting often explain that businesses have insurance, so what’s the big deal?But Balla wasn’t insured, and neither are many small businesses.How about chain stores like Target? They have more resources. But there’s still a cost. They may decide it’s too risky to open back up in a neighborhood where a store has been looted. And these businesses employ black people and have black customers.It is ahistorical to assume that urban areas easily bounce back from the large-scale destruction of property. Cities like Newark, Detroit and Washington arguably never recovered or took decades to fully recover from the riots of the 1960s.Finally, there isn’t such a clear distinction between harming property and people. Some shop owners will try to defend their livelihoods or hire security guards to do it. We’ve seen business owners beaten and a security guard at a St. Louis pawn shop shot and killed by people who, presumably, started out “only” wanting to destroy and steal property.It’s easy to be cavalier about someone else’s property. The former ESPN NBA reporter Chris Martin Palmer celebrated an image of a building burning in Minneapolis, tweeting, “Burn that (expletive) down. Burn it all down.”Then, when rioters got close to where he lived, Palmer lashed out at them as “animals.”He subsequently explained that he doesn’t endorse the destruction of property and supports peaceful protest. That’s the right position, although one that is now, incredibly enough, controversial."
Strange how these are the same people who call speech they disagree with "violence"
Of course, if a mob burns down Nikole Hannah-Jones's house...

Melrose police chief launches investigation into traffic message reading 'All Lives Matter' - "The Melrose police chief has launched an investigation after one of his officers typed a message on a traffic sign that read, in part, "All Lives Matter."... Lyle said the traffic officer who changed the sign told him that he did not post the message with "either malicious or political intent." The officer claims that he was trying to type a traffic safety message in the limited amount of space on the electronic sign and that he did not realize the totality or impact of what he wrote... A Melrose resident who was parked near the sign told a WCVB photographer that the sign featured the following message: "The speed limit is 25 mph. Please drive safely. The safety of all lives matter.""
When you politicise the police...
Maybe 4chan's next job can be to convince liberals that parts of the US Constitution are racist, then people will be fired for quoting the constitution

University Administrator Forced To Resign Over Study Finding No Racial Bias In Police Shootings - "Physicist Stephen Hsu has been forced out of his role as vice president of Research and Innovation at Michigan State University (MSU) after he promoted 2019 study that found there to be no racial bias in incidents of officer-involved shootings. “The [Graduate Employees Union] alleged that I am a racist because I interviewed MSU Psychology professor Joe Cesario, who studies police shootings,” Hsu wrote in a blog post on Saturday. “But Cesario’s work…is essential to understanding deadly force and how to improve policing.”... “This started as a twitter mob attack, with very serious claims: that I am a Racist, Sexist, Eugenicist, etc.,” the professor wrote in a blog post on Saturday.According to The College Fix, Hsu also came under attack for blogging over the years about research involving genetic differences among different races.The GEU circulated a petition titled “Fire Stephen Hsu,” which included an open letter “demanding” that he be fired from his position as senior vice president of Research and Innovation... His critics posted a triumphant update on their petition website, thanking everyone who demanded Hsu be fired. “We sincerely thank all of you who had the courage to speak out and took the time to engage with this important work,” they said. “The reception we received was beyond our imaginings. It is clear this is a deep pain that has been bubbling under the surface at our institution for many years, and we are not done engaging with and trying to heal that damage.”"
Science is "racist" after all
Of course, we are still told that Cancel Culture doesn't exist
Apparently it is "courageous" to belong to a mob that has the power to bully everyone else into following its demands

Will Chamberlain on Twitter - "The city of Atlanta let looters and rioters run riot, destroying homes and stores, without consequence But when one of their police officers killed a black man in a clear, justified self-defense situation, they threw the book at him It's not safe to live under Democrat rule"

Gregory McKelvey on Twitter - "Yesterday Dominique Dunn was murdered by a white man in Portland in a racist attack. He was called racial slurs and then murdered while walking away. These attacks are not rare in Portland and continue to expose white suppremacy. The family is asking for prayers."
Andy Ngô on Twitter - "Antifa have amplified baseless allegations the suspect who shot a black male outside a Portland strip club yesterday did it in a "white supremacist" attack. Jordan C. Clark was arrested on a murder charge. His FB profile features MLK Jr. & anti-police content. #DominiqueDunn"

Vermont City Council Rejects American Flag Art After Pushing Through ‘Emergency’ BLM Street Mural - "The city council for Montpelier, Vermont, unanimously rejected a petition to paint an American flag and the phrase “Liberty and Justice for All” in front of the Vermont State House... Klar wanted to paint the flag on one side of an existing “Black Lives Matter” motto on the street, and the phrase “Liberty and Justice for All” in red, white, and blue painted on the other side... Klar has pledged to take the city to court for favoring one type of political speech over another in a public venue... Casey responded by calling Klar a racist... “I’m a former public defender, and I’ve raised over $25,000 for Ugandan children over the last five years""
Of course, we are still told that liberals don't hate their countries

Portland police declare riot as anti-cop protesters torch union building - "Anti-cop protesters in Portland, Oregon, torched the city’s police union headquarters Saturday night as local law enforcement officials declared a riot... Saturday marked Portland’s 52nd straight night of anti-cop protests... Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has called the demonstrations a “violent mob” and said local leaders “refuse to restore order.”"
It's clearly Trump's fault that Portland cannot run their own city

More Arrests Made During Portland's 46th Consecutive Night Of Rioting - "Officers were pelted with glass bottles, ball bearings, paint pieces of brick, and other objects throughout the night... Rioters also shined lasers into the officers’ eyes... a worker was hit by an object one of the rioters threw... Portland resident Rowan Olsen, 19, was charged with creating a hazard on federal property, disorderly conduct, and failing to obey a lawful order.Prosecutors said Olsen shattered the glass doors of the Hatfield Courthouse while trying to hold it closed to keep officers trapped inside... a rioter launched a mortar into the courthouse through the broken doors, causing and explosion near the officers inside the building.A small fire broke out as a result of the explosion... One suspect hurled an open pocketknife at an officer, missing him by mere inches"

Rioters Try To Set Up Portland 'Autonomous Zone,' Set Fire To Occupied Police Precinct - "Rioters looted and torched North Portland businesses and tried to burn down an occupied police precinct while working to establish an “autonomous zone”... Rioters hurled glass bottles and other projectiles at officers before ramming two dumpsters into the garage doors in an attempt to force entry into the west side of the precinct, the PPB told KVAL.When their efforts to bust in failed, the rioters opted to barricade the doors of the precinct so officers and inmates would be unable to escape, according to police.“Burn the building down!” a rioter with a bullhorn yelled at approximately 12 a.m."

Portland Mayor Says DHS Officers Are To Blame For Violence, Not Rioters - "“I told the Acting Secretary that my biggest immediate concern is the violence federal officers brought to our streets in recent days, and the life-threatening tactics his agents use. We do not need or want their help”"

Kentucky AG Has Police Arrest 87 Protesters On His Lawn - "Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) officers arrested 87 protesters trespassing in the front yard of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron"
I saw people on Facebook condemning this as being against the right to protest. Maybe they should organise protests at their houses since they support the right to protest at people's houses so much

Feds Arrest Black Lives Matter Organizer For Blackmailing Local Businesses - "Devonere Johnson, 28, was charged with extortion in connection with threats he made to multiple Madison, Wisconsin businesses. The federal criminal complaint also specified Johnson was attempting to obtain money and “property consent” through the use of force, violence, and fear, according to Fox 6. Upon Johnson’s arrest, violent riots swept through Madison, which left two statues destroyed, several windows smashed, and Democratic State Senator Tom Carpenter (Milwaukee) physically attacked by protestors near the state Capitol.  “I don’t know what happened…all I did was stop and take a picture…and the next thing I’m getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head,” explained Sen. Carpenter (D-Milwaukee)... Devonere Johnson also goes by the alias Yeshua Musa and has been present at every protest following Floyd’s death. Allegedly, many of the businesses Johnson attempted to extort were Asian-owned. Johnson has stated numerous times he is a proud Black Lives Matter member and has attended several BLM meetings in Madison. Johnson has been convicted and/or pleaded guilty three times, including felony theft for charges dating back to 2016. He was also charged and acquitted for felony first-degree assault charges in 2015, which left a Minnesota bus passenger paralyzed from the neck down"

Black Lives Matter Activist Charged With Extorting Businesses - "Violent activists tore down two statues and set a fire inside a city-county building that houses the Madison Police Department’s Downtown Station.Then about 300 people marched to the Dane County Jail and blocked traffic in the area, demanding drivers get out of their vehicles and join the protest, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.“This is not a peaceful protest, so if you came out here for a peaceful protest, you missed it,” one organizer said. “We’re done being peaceful. Now we demanding justice.” The windows were shattered in a state office building and street surveillance cameras were vandalized, spray painted, and destroyed... the man whose arrest inspired all the rioting and destruction had threatened to “shut down and destroy” a number of Wisconsin businesses unless Johnson and his friends were given free food and drinks, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.The criminal complaint against Johnson said that in one case, he told the business owner “give me money or we’ll break windows.” “You don’t want 600 people to come here and destroy your business and burn it down. The cops are on our side,” Johnson threatened the bar owner, according to the complaint. “You notice that when you call them, nothing happens to us.”"
When the thugs and rioters know that there is no political will to stop them...

Massive Brooklyn march demands justice and liberation for Palestine - "Multiple speakers highlighted the necessity of common struggle to fight for Black liberation and the liberation of all oppressed nations and communities alongside the struggle for justice, liberation and return in Palestine. The lead banner of the protest read, “NYPD=KKK=IDF: One Struggle for Liberation.” Indeed, many speakers focused on the centrality of struggling for Black liberation as a necessary condition for the liberation of Palestine. The rally lasted for nearly two hours as the crowd continued to grow, full of energy and militant spirit to struggle for Palestine. The march was widely attended by young people and by the Palestinian community in New York, and slogans like “Not just annexation – Not just occupation, Palestine won’t take it, Bring the whole thing down!” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!” filled the air."

NYPD Chief Who Knelt With Protesters In June Gets Injured In Clash With Protesters - "The highest-ranking uniformed member of the NYPD, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, who knelt with protesters at the beginning of June, was one of four NYPD officers injured during protests in New York"
So much for compromising the neutrality of your department by capitulating to the mob

Suspect Who Allegedly Attacked 3 NYPD Officials Is Released From Jail Without Bail
Amazing 4D chess means "white supremacists" and "police infiltrators" are attacking police officers in false flag operations to delegitimise the protests, which are really all peaceful

Liberals Blamed "Right-Wing" Nazis For Car Plowing Into Two BLM Supporters...Turns Out Driver Was a Young Black Man - "a white Jaguar plowed into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who were congregated on the freeway, wearing all black... The left wasted no time trying to politicize the story, blaming President Trump and all “white people” etc. etc.But they were stopped in their tracks when it was revealed that the driver of the car is a young black man.All the tweets they had published blaming Trump and his supporters began quickly disappearing…*delete delete delete* Now, the left has a problem…this outcome doesn’t fit the “Nazi Trump Supporter” narrative they were spouting when they thought only a white man would be driving a pricey Jaguar... Ironically, the account who spread this fake news goes by the handle “Truth Matters.” How’s that for irony?...
'An Instagram page credited to a person named Dawit Kelete showed multiple photos of a Black man having fun in various settings that resembled college life at Washington State University. The man in those Instagram photos appeared to be the same person in the photos circulating on social media.'"
On Summer Taylor and Diaz Love
Comment (elsewhere): "A young black man driving the car.
He'll most likely be set free. But that's fine, that's what she'd have wanted."

1/1024th Liberty Memes - Posts - "A 27-year-old man drove a white Jaguar onto a closed freeway in Seattle and barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters, killing one."
"The driver wasn't white, but THE CAR WAS, so let's go with that

Spotted Toad on Twitter - "'“Somebody literally walked up to him&put a gun to the back of his head &shot him&we don’t know why,” said Smith Someone walking their dog found him bleeding around 11:15. He had been shot once. Neighbors said the shooting happened in front of a bus stop'
This response from the Chancellor of the University of California Berkeley is fucking horrific. Our country is ruled by monsters"
"We realize this is a difficult time for those of you who knew Seth. It is important to know that individuals may express their grief differently and we need to respect the different ways people react and support each other in the days and weeks ahead. Many of you may have had a close relationship with Seth and are feeling a sense of loss and disbelief. Others, like many of us, are experiencing stress, grief and anxiety related to the coronavirus pandemic and the recent murders of George Floyd, Riah Milton, and other Black Americans."
The poision of intersectionality. While we are told that one person's suffering doesn't negate another's, it's clear that in the liberal gospel some animals are more equal than others (this is like how feminists don't want to talk about men's issues because that will dilute the singular focus on women)

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'I think it's time for the protests to end' - "‘The protests of 68 had a purpose in mind. There were definite changes that needed to happen. There was segregation on a national basis.’
‘Perhaps Pastor Scott, there are many millions of African Americans who don't share your view. You once described Donald Trump as the most pro black president I've seen in my lifetime. Is that still your view?’
‘Yes, it is. The measures that Donald Trump has enacted for black people are not in response to social upheaval or social unrest. And so he's been proactive. His prison reform is proactive. Criminal justice reform is proactive, not reactive.’
‘But many taking to the streets, not those who are indulging in violence. But many taking to the streets peacefully say that under him, over the past four years has seen a progressive diminution of the economic status of black people’
‘Come on, you got to be kidding me… You're talking about... historically low levels of unemployment for black people before this COVID-19 virus. Black businesses were flourishing prior to this COVID-19 outbreak.’
‘You say prior, Pastor Scott, but given the economic collapse, given the absence of much to support people during the economic collapse, perhaps we won't be that great for what was coming before, the one that results from COVID.’
‘Okay, that's, that's worldwide, isn't it? That's not just confined to America. Those effects from COVID, come from COVID are worldwide. They’re over in your country just as much as they are over in this country. You're trying to make like this is an American virus and it's not. It's a worldwide, a pandemic means worldwide.’
‘I'm asking about the response to the virus’
‘You know what the problem is, there's a segment and it sounds like you're one of them, you're looking for a way to pin these riots on Trump and you can't. You want to. You want a face for this. And you want Donald Trump to be that face, but he's not.’
‘What about his language? What about his tweeting?... What about the fact that he uses a phrase about looting and shooting?’
‘What about the fact that in 2015, when they were rioting in Baltimore, Barack Obama said they were criminals and thugs. That's what Barack Obama said in a response to the riots of 2015 in Baltimore. He said, these… were criminal and thugs’
‘Looting and shooting is a phrase with a long history, Pastor Scott. You know it and I know it.’
‘I don't know. What are you talking about?’
‘Looting and shooting, which was the phrase that the President tweeted and Twitter had to stop’
‘Let me ask you a question. If somebody broke in your house, to steal all your possessions, vandalize your house and burn your house to the ground, you would shoot them. And you know it’
‘Well, no, I wouldn’t, because we don't have guns in this country. So I wouldn't’
‘Now, President Trump-’
‘So you’d just let them take it then. You just let them take your stuff. But we have guns in our country and the Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms.’...
‘Wouldn't people who listening to you Pastor Scott who are taking to the street saying, well, here we are. Someone who supports Donald Trump who is not really interested in major change’
‘I'm the CEO of the national diversity coalition. I'm the CEO of the urban revitalization coalition. I sat in on the criminal justice reform. I contributed 27 pages to the criminal justice reform plan for America. All I've been doing for the last two years is trying to affect positive change for the black community. But do I want them to go get Molotov cocktails and go down and burn up the cities? No.’
‘How in your view, does this come to an end? And what would your message be to people who are not going there for violence, but you may think are helping those who are?’
‘Most of the violence is done by outside agitators. There was a, there was a white woman that was spraying Black Lives Matter on stores so that it could be attributed to the black community. There's a criminal element in every society that tries to exploit and capitalize upon human pain, suffering, grieving and injustice. And so that, that faction is at work right now. There really is, I don't know what the endgame is for some of those protesters. And you look up a month from now, a lot of people will regret the fact that they participated in this’
‘The slogan Black Lives Matters is echoed not just in American cities over the past six nights but also on the streets here and all over Europe. The words were first used in a hashtag written in 2013 by Patrice Cullors after a jury acquitted a neighborhood watch leader of murdering an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin. When I spoke to her, she told me that officials and the media should focus on the cause of the protests and not on the violence.’...
‘We know that there's white supremacists that are definitely coming in and agitating. That are burning things up, that are shooting at people. That's true. And-’
‘Just white supremacists?’
‘And there's also police instigators’
‘There may be people on the left as well, I mean they’re not’
‘Possibly. I don't know any of those people, but I can confirm that there is white supremacists and I can confirm that there’s police instigators, this is, unfortunately, a very common tactic that happens inside of protests and protest movements is infiltration.’"
Since the cause of the protests is identity politics and lies and disinformation about policing...
How convenient. Violence is always by 'white supremacists' and 'police instigators'

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, More large protests across US but violence falls - "‘We see hundreds more people out here beside the White House again, as it was 24 hours ago. It is a predominantly white crowd, although it is mixed’…
‘I feel like every day is really important. So every day that you can come out and show up. It's really important’
‘Given what's happened, did you feel apprehensive?’
‘Yeah, definitely. But I think that especially as a white person, it's like, my life is much more productive right now than other people's lives.’
‘I felt like I needed to be here more… Because I left yesterday and I was able to go home and sit in my room. And there were so many people out here who are more vulnerable than me. And more in danger of these, the police like at night and I was able to go home and I felt so guilty not being out here when like, my life is not in danger here. And there're so many people out here risking their lives to save other black lives. And so I felt like I needed to be here more so than ever after how crazy last night was’"
Protests are white supremacy!

Business Owner Charged With Hate Crime For Painting Over BLM Graffiti On His Storefront | The Babylon Bee - "Drake said he was just "cleaning up vandalism," which is a well-known racist dog whistle."

ELIJAH on Twitter - "Protest organizer claims their mission is the “abolition of the United States as we know it”"

Antifa mugshots go viral online after Portland arrests - "The images are going viral for average citizens to know that Antifa are not so scary behind the mask. They’re actually a little weird."

Racism in the Arab world: Black Lives Matter protests prompts reflection - The Washington Post - "U.S. protests in recent weeks have been cheered by many in the Arab world, even as they have turned a spotlight on deeply entrenched racism in the region. Abeer Sinder, a black Saudi model and beauty video blogger, has used her online platform for years to discuss racism in the Arab world. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, she recently posted some of the offensive things people say to her, including: “This is your husband??!!” (referring to her lighter-skinned spouse), “How did you get this job?” and “It’s true you’re black but you’re pretty, bless Allah.”... In the Arab world, people often use derogatory words to refer to black people; President Barack Obama was frequently called “al-abd,” or “the slave.”"
So much for racial equality in Islam

Australia’s Coon cheese to change name in effort to help ‘eliminate racism' - "The Australian cheese brand Coon will change its name to help “eliminate racism” following a campaign stating the product name was offensive to Indigenous Australians.Friday’s announcement by Saputo, the dairy company that owns Coon, “to retire the Coon brand name”, comes after a decades-long effort to rename the cheese, including an unsuccessful 1999 complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission from Indigenous activist Dr Stephen Hagan.Hagan told the Guardian on Friday the decision was “a total vindication of 20 years of campaigning”.Coon, along with other businesses, artists and cultural symbols, has come under fresh scrutiny over racial connotations in recent months as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum in Australia.The brand, which was first sold in 1935, has long resisted calls to change its name, defending its historical decision to name the cheese after American cheesemaker Edward William Coon, who, according to the brand’s website, “patented a unique ripening process” used to make the dairy product."
Time for Buddhists to cancel the swastika

Demonstrators gather in Aurora to protest Elijah McClain's death - "Two protesters were shot and injured by another protester during a march over the death of Elijah McClain on Saturday night in Aurora.The group had made their way down East Alameda Avenue and onto Interstate 225, forcing the closure of the highway for a time.While over I-225, Sky9 captured a Jeep barreling down the highway as protesters scrambled to get out of the way... the group returned to APD headquarters and tore the fence surrounding the complex, prompting APD to declare the protest an "unlawful assembly" and ask those participating to leave the area. A tweet said that anyone who remained would be subject to arrest. APD tweeted that the protesters were no longer peaceful, as they were throwing objects, shining lasers and shooting large fireworks at officers. They had broken windows to the courthouses and started a fire in an office"
Presumably the protestor who shot the other 2 is a "white supremacist" or "police infiltrator", and so are all the other violent protestors. And leftists are claiming he was shooting in self defence, when the video clearly shows the vehicle wasn't in danger of hitting anyone

Biden: violent protesters should be 'arrested and tried' - "The former vice president struck a discordant tone with fellow liberals who insist protests against the May killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police are peaceful, and that authorities are to blame for any violence in Portland and other cities... Biden’s call for the prosecution of violent protesters may further alienate leftist politicians uneasy with Biden’s decades of centrist policies.This week, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said she would not endorse Biden and a co-chair of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, likened voting for Biden to eating a “bowl of s–t.” The event was the first time Biden took questions since a June 30 briefing. President Trump by contrast often takes reporter questions multiple times a day including at his resumed daily coronavirus briefings. He’s taken questions from reporters at least 15 times since June 30. Biden largely steer cleared of gaffes on Tuesday, but mistakenly said that Trump canceled plans to hold the Republican National Convention in Tallahassee, Florida, before correcting himself to say Jacksonville."

Louisville protests descend into chaos when armed protester accidentally shoots members of his group, injuring 3 - "Gunshots erupted during a planned protest in Louisville, Ky., Saturday and three members of the heavily armed militia group, the “Not F---ing Around Coalition” (NFAC), were injured by shots fired from one of their own member's guns... officers from the LMPD were on high alert, aware of the possibility of violence from highly armed militants dressed in all black -- many of whom are not from Kentucky -- claiming they are defending the Constitution and decrying the death of Breonna Taylor. Other racial justice protesters who have staged peaceful marches daily since the death of Taylor in March faced off with NFAC militants, saying they don't agree with their tactics of displaying guns and weaponry.The Louisville organization of Black Lives Matter has distanced itself from the coalition, accusing the armed group of being “outside agitators""
Strange how these "white supremacists" (as liberals dismiss all protestors who don't fit the narrative) are all black

Related: Black armed protesters march in Kentucky demanding justice for Breonna Taylor
Carrying guns only incites violence when white non-liberals do it
Orcs March On Minas Tirith In Mostly Peaceful Protest | The Babylon Bee - ""Everything is very calm, very peaceful here," said a reporter from Gondor News Network. "It's very tranquil."... Gondor's government was criticized for "police brutality" when, after a long period of inaction, Rohan's armies finally charged in to break things up."We were just peacefully protesting -- Gondor had no right to peacefully protest back," said one Orc. "Two of their agents were even having a contest to see how many of us they could kill -- and they were killing the majestic, endangered Oliphaunts! I'm literally shaking right now.""

Body found in building torched during George Floyd protests - "“The body appears to have suffered thermal injury and we do have somebody charged with setting fire to that place”"
I saw supporters of the riots claiming that the body was placed there to get rid of it after the fire

Redwood City Scrubs Black Lives Matter Mural After Trump Supporter Asks to Paint ‘MAGA 2020’ on Same Street - "the city washed the sign away after being contacted by local real estate attorney Maria Rutenburg, who said that if the street was now a public forum, she wanted a sign of her own reading “MAGA 2020.”... Faced with the possibility of a political and/or legal fight, the city suddenly decided that Dan Pease’s sign was a traffic hazard that might cause accidents and they removed it in the middle of the night"

Cliff Maloney on Twitter - "I have a crazy idea, but stick with me... Why don't we just exchange all the pro-liberty Hong Kong protesters for our socialist and communist "comrades" who are so unhappy here? The citizens of Hong Kong get freedom. Antifa gets communism. Everyone wins."

Suspect wearing 'I Can't Breathe' t-shirt wanted for shooting, killing man in Northeast DC

James Woods on Twitter - "Communism has long fingers and many facades.
CCCP: *raised fist*
Black Lives Matter: *raised fist*"

BLM co-founder describes herself as 'trained Marxist' - "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists” – making clear their movement’s ideological foundation, according to a report.Cullors, 36, was the protégé of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her worldview"

Hulu Removes Episode Of Golden Girls Due To Spa Treatment Mud Mask - "“Hulu has removed an episode of ‘The Golden Girls’ that shows Betty White and Rue McClanahan in blackface.”Except that 1988 episode titled “Mixed Blessing” had two of the actresses wearing mud on their faces as a facial treatment, not in blackface... Roxane Gay, a black author, criticized Hulu’s decision on Twitter.“That Golden Girls episode isn’t blackface,” Gay tweeted. “What the hell?”“Removing this episode is weird, counterproductive and stupid,” Gay said. “It diminishes the effort to actually end racism. It’s just so dumb.”Black author Erica Williams Simon also was critical of Hulu’s decision... “First of all, they were in mud masks not blackface,” Simon tweeted. “And second of all, in what world does ‘Stop killing us.’ sound like ‘Please remove episodes of Golden Girls’? I didn’t see that ask on anyone’s protest sign…”"

Dennis Wingo on Twitter - "European Colonial History in six words:  “Is that yours? It’s mine now.”"
"That's human history. The Bushmen would say the same thing about the Bantu, the Persian about the Egyptian, most of the world, from the viewpoint of Ghenghis Khan. Making all history about White Europeans is diametrically opposite of your call for truth in science."
When Neil deGrasse Tyson is also a race hustler

Calvin Cheng - Posts - "PROTECTION OF MINORITIES - LEE KUAN YEW
Do you know what will happen if we let Americanised ‘woke’ Singaporeans get into positions of influence in Singapore? When the Black Lives Matter started in America, they tried to also start a Brown Lives Matter campaign. When the rioters in America tore down statues in America and the UK, they also asked for Sir Stamford Raffles statue to be torn down. The Americans are now erasing from their Universities, the names of Presidents that Social Justice Warriors deem racist. A few days ago, they tore down the statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the river. Already, you would have seen that these parroting-Singaporeans are putting out memes and articles calling Lee Kuan Yew a racist, in response to the police report against the Workers’ Party’s Raeesah Khan. Lee Kuan Yew has no statues for them to tear down, but I am sure if they get into positions of power, they will ask for his name to be removed from Singapore institutions."

Chicago Mayor Says Fourth Of July Weekend Was 'Mostly Peaceful' | The Babylon Bee - ""It was mostly peaceful, very calm, lots of people enjoying themselves, very fun," she said. "Yes, there were a few run-of-the-mill murders and shootings, but hey. We just call that a Saturday here.""Other than the people getting shot on basically every block, it was largely calm and peaceful." Lightfoot also pointed out that most people who committed murders were practicing social distancing and wearing masks. "Encouraging" surveillance footage showed that Chicago's murderers are using hand sanitizer and wiping their weapons down after each murder. "So, by that metric, I think it was definitely a success. We're making a lot of progress on that front."She further stated that she suspects the murderers are actually paid Trump supporters trying to make her city look bad."

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | The White House - "MS. MCENANY: — Greater New York BLM president has said, “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, [that] we will burn down [the] system…And I could be speaking…literally.” I’d call that a pretty hateful statement.
Q But, Kayleigh, he’s not —
MS. MCENANY: Yes. Ben.
Q — talking about the organization in his tweet. He says the words —
MS. MCENANY: Yes, Ben.
Q — he says the words, “Black Lives Matter.”
MS. MCENANY: Which — what’s the name of the organization again?
Q Black Lives Matter.
MS. MCENANY: There you go. You just answered my question."
Schrodinger's liberal activist - only representing the ideology/organisation when it makes them look good!

VIDEO: DA Decides Not To Charge Man Who Put Cop In Headlock - "A Bronx prosecutor deferred charges against a man caught on video putting a New York Police Department officer in a headlock... The cell phone video filmed by a bystander showed 29-year-old Wisnel Manzueta trying to interfere in an arrest that two NYPD officers were making... NYPD sources told The Police Tribune that the Bronx district attorney is notoriously anti-police and has always been reluctant to charge assault on a police officer... “She basically said it’s okay to assault a police officer and the streets now know officers are fair game,” the source said. “All you have to do is get a cop to take action and you can do whatever you want. It’s absolutely crazy that they would say ‘oh, because of this we’re not going to prosecute’ when if it was a cop who did the same thing, they would be all over it saying it was a chokehold.”“If the roles were reversed, the cop would be in a jail cell”"