Meme - "The left: "I don't celebrate Columbus Day because I don't celebrate criminals"
Also the left: *George Floyd shrines*"
So much for him not being celebrated as a hero
Everywhere Statues Are Torn Down By The Mob, People Are Next - "The World War II Memorial to America’s actual anti-fascists was spray-painted, along with the Lincoln Memorial. A northern abolitionist boycotted in the South was splashed with blood-red paint and had a noose hung around his neck. A relief of heroic black Union soldiers was vandalized, the hero of the Union Army was torn from his slab, and a monument to three black victims of racial violence was defiled. A statue of Saint Junípero Serra was pulled down days later, with one supporter calling for his bones to be dug up and desecrated. Sacred religious statues depicting Christ as light-skinned “are a form of white supremacy… Tear them down,” race-baiting activist Shaun King wrote Monday afternoon. “All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down.” On Friday, a statue of a Confederate soldier was strung up and hanged from a lamppost in a ghastly warning of things to come. Policemen and reporters have been attacked, while mayors and journalists have defended the riots as “mostly peaceful.” When an historic church across from the White House was set ablaze, its leader welcomed the mob and decried the president. She was joined in her outreach by Washington’s Catholic archbishop, and the mayor named the street after the mob. Monday night as I write, her church has been freshly defaced and the mob has declared the mayor’s street their “autonomous zone.”... “Does anybody here know what happened to the people who did not get on board with the French Revolution?” a member of the mob shouted into a megaphone a week prior. “Chopped!” the mob chanted its violent response. A society that believes in itself builds monuments, a sick society does not, and a dying society watches as they are torn down. While Roman kings, French monks, American Tories, and Russian tsarists were unable to defeat the revolutions that first tore down their symbols, today in the United States we are simply unwilling."
NYC commission votes unanimously to move Thomas Jefferson statue from City Council chambers at City Hall (2021)
Statues of Washington, Jefferson Aren't 'Next,' But It's Complicated, Historians Say (2017) - "Is the president right about the impending threat to the founders? Historians who spoke to NBC News said such fears are slightly misplaced and that Trump is championing a murky interpretation of history... “The president can raise the slippery slope, but it’s a false slippery slope,” said Kevin Levin, a Boston-based historian who specializes in American Civil War history."
If Trump accurately predicts the future, it is a murky interpretation of history
The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again!
Meme - "Narrator: the slave trade was abolished in the US in 1808, when Jefferson was POTUS. He actively promoted the bill."
"Pointing this out won't make leftists want to save his statue. They hate him because he was a straight white male. Nothing more."
Did Black lives matter to Abraham Lincoln? It's complicated - CNN
First, they came for the Confederate Generals...
A civilisation that ceases to believe in itself is destined to collapse
William Pitt statue in Edinburgh could be removed despite him branding slavery 'curse of mankind' - "Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister, and a friend of abolitionist William Wilberforce, is listed in consultation documents in a section covering those “involved in sustaining the slavery-based economy and preventing the abolition of the slave trade”... If the public backs the removal of statues linked to slavery and colonialism, monuments to figures including David Livingstone, the missionary, and David Hume, the philosopher, could ultimately be purged by the city’s councillors... the Bute House residence of Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, could also be subject to council action because former residents were slave owners. The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh has been cited for receiving historical donations from slaveholders, while churches and schools have also been linked to the slave trade in consulation documents. Thoroughfares such as Queen Street have been brought into the consultation because five slave owners once lived on the road... But Robert Poll, the founder of the campaign group Save Our Statues, has criticised the work, saying: “This is what happens when Edinburgh Council hands editorial control of the city’s history to a secretive cabal of activists operating beyond public scrutiny. They feed mollifying words to the press, while secretly plotting to remove the city’s heritage.” He added: “We’re no longer talking about slave traders. We’re talking about Pitt, one of our greatest Prime Ministers and national hero who led us against Napoleon. “This shows the reach, and the folly, of this monomaniacal brand of revisionism, where we’re only permitted to view history filtered through the single lens of slavery.”"
George Floyd Riots Caused Record-Setting $2 Billion in Damage, New Report Says. Here’s Why the True Cost Is Even Higher - "reporting from Axios reveals that the total insured property losses incurred during the George Floyd riots will come in at $1 billion to $2 billion... “[This will] eclips[e] the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King.”... not all the damages were insured... 75 percent of US businesses are under-insured and about 40 percent of small businesses have no insurance at all. Their untold millions in losses don’t show up in the $2 billion figure. So, too, insurance doesn’t account for the personal pain and suffering caused by rioting. For example, what about the more than 15 people who died during the unrest? Their lives and their families’ pain don’t get counted in any insurance company’s budgetary analysis. Nor does the pain of those such as an elderly businessman punched in the face while his store was ransacked in Kenosha, Wisconsin manifest itself in total reports on insurance compensation. Moreover, looking at mere insurance totals fails to factor in the lost sales revenue and unpaid labor that businesses victimized by rioters face. And that’s all without even considering the long-term economic impact rioting has on a community. We must also remember that riots leave a lasting shadow on a city that haunts its economy for decades. The afflicted areas face higher insurance rates, lower property values, higher prices, reduced tax revenue, and decreased economic opportunity... One study of the 1992 Los Angeles riots concluded that not only did the destruction cause $1 billion in initial property damage, over time it led to an economic decline of $3.8 billion in sales activity and at least $125 million in tax revenue. Moreover, a 2005 study examining similar riots in the 1960s found ‘negative, persistent, and economically significant effects of riots on the value of black-owned housing’ to the degree of ‘a 10 percent decline in the total value of black-owned property in cities.’ And seeing as the new reporting shows that the George Floyd riots were more destructive than the riots in either of the above periods, we can reasonably expect that the long-term economic consequences will be more severe as well."
Liberals will just blame the damage of the riots on "racism" and demand even more insanity
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "Former "Parks and Recreation" actor charged with vandalizing George Floyd statue"
"But I’ve been reliably informed that vandalism and destruction of property are valid and beautiful tributes to George Floyd’s memory"
'Riot Control Simulator' Game Will Let You Suppress Riots 'At All Costs' With Water Cannons, Tanks - " The game has attracted some attention from left-wing activists who claim the game is “racist’ because it is under development at the same time as violent Black Lives Matter riots threaten to engulf the United States in real life. However, none of the marketing or promotional materials for the game seem to indicate any influence from political ideology, and the gameplay is set in an apparently oppressive dictatorship."
Weird, yet liberals get very upset when one talks about the George Floyd Riots. The lady doth protest too much, methinks
WATCH: BLM Activist Asks When People 'Ready to Get Blood on Their Hands?' - "An activist speaking at Black Lives Matter Plaza asked how long before “people are really ready to get blood on their hands” to make change happen. His call to action came during a “Jail Killer Cops” rally in Washington, DC, on Friday evening. “Voting is not gonna bring us this (change),” Rahim B., a 21-year-old activist, said during a “Jail Killer Cops” rally held Friday night in the nation’s capital. “We voted in the new president, Joe Biden, but I told folks straight up — Joe Biden ain’t gonna do nothing for us because Joe Biden was in office as the vice-president when the Black Lives Matter movement started and ain’t nothing changed.”"
More proof BLM is peaceful
Abe Lincoln’s Warning About the Perils of Mob Rule - "“Whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands,” Lincoln said, “and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this government cannot last.”... It’s now all too common to read stories of activists showing up at the homes of elected officials at night, and either implicitly or explicitly threatening them and their families. It is still disturbing, but no longer surprising, to see videos clips of private citizens and innocent bystanders being bullied, and in some cases assaulted, by “protesters” in the streets of America’s cities. Equally as unforgiving is the digital mob, which descends upon its prey with a vengeance for real or perceived transgressions, some current and some decades old. These keyboard warriors destroy careers, reputations, and livelihoods. It is capricious, devoid of grace or forgiveness, and responds only to submission. Although our country is rife with tribalism, recognizing and condemning the mob should not be, cannot be, a partisan exercise. Peaceful protests are a foundational right of our democratic republic. Mob violence is the antithesis of it. It cannot be excused, whatever the underlying motivation, as a benign byproduct of protests that were -- as the media kept describing them last summer -- “mostly peaceful.” That phrase is an oxymoron, as this country’s moral leaders have always known. Mobs are fueled by passions that arise out of a sense of grievance, and modern elected leaders from both parties and the media have spent years stoking those passions, not lowering them."
Meme - "Son, it's time for the talk. WHEN YOU'RE APPROACHED BY A POLICE OFFICER, FOLLOW ALL THEIR ORDERS. KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE THEY CAN BE SEEN, ALWAYS,ANSWER WITH SIR/MA'AM. NEVER ARGUE BACK. NEVER RESIST ARRESTS" - white father
"" - black son
Watch: This vid showing police saving a woman’s life shows how fast things go from zero to 60 in the line of duty - "One moment the home is empty and the officers asking the woman if her significant other has taken his handgun with him. The next minute, the dude jumps them from behind and starts firing. The two officers were both injured but managed to take the attacker down. Without them around, there's little doubt the woman would have left in a body bag... As we watch the next officer-involved shooting on social media, let's remember how fast these force-on-force scenarios play out, and how courageous these officers have to be to go to work each day."
Asheville, North Carolina, Approves Reparations for Black Residents - The New York Times - "The city, Asheville, N.C., will provide funding to programs geared toward increasing homeownership and business and career opportunities for Black residents as part of a reparations initiative... some said the reparations initiative by city leaders in Asheville did not go far enough. And others panned it outright."
Good luck to them. This will never end. As we can see it's already emboldened grievance mongers
Black Americans who will get $25,000 each as part of $10million in reparations from city say it's not enough - "SOME black Americans living in Evanston, Illinois, who will be given $25,000 each as part of the city's $10million reparations program don't think it's enough."
A Tale of Two Kennedy Brothers on Reparations - "When did the civil rights movement go off the rails? The answer is when proponents went from justly demanding equal rights to unjustly demanding equal results. As to exactly when this occurred, that’s more difficult to answer. But consider statements, made five years apart, from the Kennedy brothers, John F. and Robert F... 'We are too mixed, this society of ours, to begin to divide ourselves on the basis of race or color'... National Urban League Executive Director Whitney Young proposed a 10-year “domestic Marshall Plan” for Blacks to make up for past discrimination. His board of directors opposed it. The president of the Pittsburgh Urban League chapter said the public would ask: “What in blazes are these guys up to? They tell us for years that we must buy (nondiscrimination) and then they say, ‘It isn’t what we want.'”
After Reparations Study Suggests $151 Million for Each African American, Experts Say Money Alone Isn't Enough - "Another estimate, based upon wealth disparity, is around $14 trillion. Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, suggested this sum, which would amount to around $350,000 each for the estimated 40 million African Americans in the United States, giving them an amount signifying the wealth disparity between African Americans and white Americans."
Clearly the only reason for wealth disparity is slavery. Just like anti-Asian discrimination is why Asians are as wealthy as white people
Apparently fighting the bloodiest war in US history wasn't enough
When do Jews get reparations from black people for being slaves in Egypt (since many blacks claim the Ancient Egyptians were black)
The Votes of Black Americans Should Count Twice
Equality means abolishing one man one vote
My Testimony on Reparations - "our desire to fix the past compromises our ability to fix the present. Think about what we’re doing today. We’re spending our time debating a bill that mentions slavery 25 times but incarceration only once, in an era with zero black slaves but nearly a million black prisoners—a bill that doesn’t mention homicide once, at a time when the Center for Disease Control reports homicide as the number one cause of death for young black men... Black people don’t need another apology. We need safer neighborhoods and better schools. We need a less punitive criminal justice system. We need affordable health care. And none of these things can be achieved through reparations for slavery. Nearly everyone close to me told me not to testify today. They said that even though I’ve only ever voted for Democrats, I’d be perceived as a Republican—and therefore hated by half the country. Others told me that distancing myself from Republicans would end up angering the other half of the country. And the sad truth is that they were both right. That’s how suspicious we’ve become of one another. That’s how divided we are as a nation. If we were to pay reparations today, we would only divide the country further, making it harder to build the political coalitions required to solve the problems facing black people today; we would insult many black Americans by putting a price on the suffering of their ancestors; and we would turn the relationship between black Americans and white Americans from a coalition into a transaction—from a union between citizens into a lawsuit between plaintiffs and defendants. What we should do is pay reparations to black Americans who actually grew up under Jim Crow and were directly harmed by second-class citizenship—people like my Grandparents. But paying reparations to all descendants of slaves is a mistake. Take me for example. I was born three decades after Jim Crow ended into a privileged household in the suburbs. I attend an Ivy League school. Yet I’m also descended from slaves who worked on Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. So reparations for slavery would allocate federal resources to me but not to an American with the wrong ancestry—even if that person is living paycheck to paycheck and working multiple jobs to support a family. You might call that justice. I call it justice for the dead at the price of justice for the living... Reparations, by definition, are only given to victims. So the moment you give me reparations, you’ve made me into a victim without my consent. Not just that: you’ve made one-third of black Americans—who consistently poll against reparations—into victims without their consent, and black Americans have fought too long for the right to define themselves to be spoken for in such a condescending manner."
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "Earlier this week, gang members in Chicago had a shootout in the middle of the street and none of them were charged with a crime. Today, a black school shooter is released on bail less than a day after shooting four people. Tell me again who has the systemic privilege?
"But Dylan Roof was given Burger King!!!" Yeah they fed him as they were legally required. Now he's on death row. Name a white mass shooter who got out on bail a day later. Bet you can't."
Meme - "Kyle Rittenhouse: shoots three criminals in self defense - bait $2 million and no lawyers will represent him
Timothy Simpkins: brings a gun to school, shoots 4 people including a teacher - bail and released in less than 24 hours"
Meme - "SIMPKINS
SHOOTS 4 IN A SCHOOL
FREED WITHIN 24HRS
BAIL $75k
RITTENHOUSE
SHOOTS 3 IN SELF DEFENSE
2+ MONTHS IN JAIL
BAIL $2M"
White privilege!
Mike Sington on Twitter - "“He’s home that quick.” Where’s the remorse? Teenage Arlington Texas school shooter Timothy Simpkins parties at home with his family, while his victims remain in the hospital. He walked free in one day after being released on $75K bond. Oh, and let’s put it on Instagram with 🥰."
Meme - Erica @SchittHead0422: "They're already making excuses for the shooter "he got in a fight with someone". Okay, but who chooses to shoot people? White males are a problem #TexasShooter
Oh fuck. He's a POC..."
Meme - "We are looking for a shooting suspect in today’s incident at @mansfieldisd Timberview School. Please call 911 if you know the whereabouts of 18-year old Timothy George Simpkins who may be driving a 2018 Silver Dodge Charger with license plate PFY-6260."
"he's just a baby"
"Baby boy just ruined his life"
"OMG, this baby!!"
Suspected school shooter bullied for being wealthy, family says - "“He was scared, he was afraid,” Carol Harrison-Lafayette said at a press conference outside the family’s home. “It wasn’t just one person that would attack him and bully him, taking his money, harassing him because he had more things than maybe others. It takes us all to stand together against this bullying. It could have been a situation where he took the other turn and decided to commit suicide.”"
Meme - "you're white. Why did u think it was ok to say anything, especially this ?"
"you're right! I meant it about the queen. will delete."
"Awww purrrr. And Black Lives what, Maggie?"
"Black Lives Matter."
When you're in a cult
It's racist to disagree with black people
Facebook - "Steve Locke wrote: "This is what I wore to work today. On my way to get a burrito before work, I was detained by the police... “We had someone matching your description just try to break into a woman’s house.” “You fit the description,” the officer said. “Black male, knit hat, puffy coat. Do you have identification.” “It’s in my wallet. May I reach into my pocket and get my wallet?” “Yeah.” I handed him my license. I told him it did not have my current address. He walked over to a police car. The other cop, taller, wearing sunglasses, told me that I fit the description of someone who broke into a woman’s house. Right down to the knit cap... “For the record,” I said to the second cop, “I’m not a criminal. I’m a college professor.” I was wearing my faculty ID around my neck, clearly visible with my photo. “You fit the description so we just have to check it out.” The first cop returned and handed me my license. “We have the victim and we need her to take a look at you to see if you are the person.” It was at this moment that I knew that I was probably going to die. I am not being dramatic when I say this. I was not going to get into a police car. I was not going to present myself to some victim. I was not going let someone tell the cops that I was not guilty when I already told them that I had nothing to do with any robbery. I was not going to let them take me anywhere because if they did, the chance I was going to be accused of something I did not do rose exponentially. I knew this in my heart. I was not going anywhere with these cops and I was not going to let some white woman decide whether or not I was a criminal, especially after I told them that I was not a criminal. This meant that I was going to resist arrest. This meant that I was not going to let the police put their hands on me. If you are wondering why people don’t go with the police, I hope this explains it for you... “Thanks for cooperating,” the second cop said. “This is probably nothing, but it’s our job and you do fit the description. 5′ 11″, black male. One-hundred-and-sixty pounds, but you’re a little more than that. Knit hat.”... “I’m Detective Cardoza. I appreciate your cooperation.” I said nothing... The cops thanked me for my cooperation. I nodded and turned to go. “Sorry for screwing up your lunch break,” the second cop said... I thought about the fact my word counted for nothing, they didn’t believe that I wasn’t a criminal. They had to find out. My word was not enough for them. My ID was not enough for them"
Apparently this is meant to make the police look bad but they behaved in an exemplary manner - very polite and even apologetic. Of course liberals will keep pretending that blacks get shot every time there's a traffic stop. Maybe the intended moral is that black people should never be questioned by the police, even if the police behave perfectly
This is also a great example of liberal self-inflicted psychic harm that comes about from buying into their own hysteria (they will blame "racism" rather than their own delusions, of course). And of course if he had resisted arrest and/or attacked the cops, liberals would be making him out to be a hero
From when I shared this pre-BLM: "Chief: so it really was the first guy you questioned?
Sgt: yes sir!
Chief: good work Sgt! Where’s the guy now?
Sgt: uh... we let him go sir.
Chief: what?!
Sgt: no worries sir! We have a photo of him, and his address.
Chief: why’d you let him go?
Sgt: well he showed us his ID and car keys. So we knew he worked where he claimed, and that he definitely drove a car! Seemed legit.
Online people: *in agreement* what exceptional police work!"
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent be questioned by the police
Even according to the account of someone who obviously is inclined to view everything through racial lenses, the police behaved exceptionally"
BLM leader Hawk Newsome threatens 'riots' after sit-down with Eric Adams - "A Black Lives Matter leader vowed there’ll be “riots,” “fire” and “bloodshed” if Mayor-elect Eric Adams follows through with his promise to bring back plainclothes anti-crime cops to battle New York’s surge in violent crimes. New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome debated the plan for a return to tougher policing with Adams during a contentious sit-down at Brooklyn Borough Hall... The controversial BLM leader took credit for Adams’ election, claiming his movement allowed him to “achieve power.”... Adams told leaders that as the city’s second black mayor, he was the person best equipped to bring meaningful socioeconomic and educational change to the community."
Clear proof that BLM is not pro-crime
So much for electing a black person
Someone Put Up A "White Lives Matter" Sign In CA And The City Slammed It As "Racist" And Said They're "Disgusted By This Despicable Act Of Vandalism" - "Somebody put up a banner in Union City, California that said "White Lives Matter" ... and the city thinks it's a really, really big deal... Is that really such a horrific thing to say, especially after the BLM movement along with all its radical social and political implications has been shoved down our collective throat for the past year? After huge crowds chanting "black lives matter" literally burned cities to the ground, terrorized citizens, and were responsible for dozens of deaths?"
Weird. We are told that "Black Lives Matter" doesn't mean "Only Black Lives Matter". Maybe the only lives that don't matter are white ones
Meme - "It doesn't matter that George Floyd put a gun to a pregnant woman's stomach in the past. It doesn't matter that Rayshard Brooks was abusive. Their past is irrelevant and this is just baseless shaming. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to get someone fired, expelled, doxed, and their entire life ruined for an offensive joke they made on twitter 6 years ago."
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "A 16-year-old girl is trying to stab someone to death with a kitchen knife. A 13-year-old boy is out at 3 AM shooting at passing cars. You think the police are causing this problem? How about parenting your kids? Have you thought of that solution?"
Chicago police may soon need supervisor's OK to chase suspects on foot: mayor - "Police officers in Chicago may soon require permission from a supervisor before pursuing a suspect on foot, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said... Police methods have faced new scrutiny recently following the release last week of video footage from the March 29 police shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo... City Alderman Brian Hopkins told FOX 32 that city police already need a superior’s permission to launch a vehicle chase for a suspect... a suspect on foot could be long gone in the time it would take an officer to get the required approval... police are seeing more vehicles flee from officers because suspects know about the permission policy."
Jim Jordan: Republicans Condemn Violence While Democrats Pay Bail - "Jordan said the Democrats have not been consistent, which is why they are so “fired up” about opposing the amendment from the Republicans that would prevent police agencies from being defunded by refusing to grant money to local governments which do so."
Leader of BLM paramilitary group indicted by Kentucky jury for allegedly pointing rifle at police | The Post Millennial - "57-year old John "Grandmaster Jay" Johnson, the leader of the Atlanta-based "Not F*cking Around Coalition," a BLM paramilitary group, was indicted Monday on five counts of wanton endangerment in Jefferson County, Kentucky... A protest was going on, of which Johnson was a part of, where he allegedly aimed his rifle at law enforcement agents at the time, including several Louisville police officers, as well as a Secret Service agent and an FBI agent. Because a federal officer was involved, Johnson is also facing a federal charge in addition to these new state charges... The Not F*cking Around Coalition had appeared in numbers on Sept. 4 to protest the police-involved death of Breonna Taylor, the Courier-Journal reported. A man suspected of shooting a Daytona Beach officer in the head was captured in June after a multi-agency manhunt found the alleged gunman on three-acre property affiliated with the the black nationalist paramilitary organization. Flash bangs, rifle plates, body armor, two rifles, two handguns, and several boxes of ammunition were located in the tree house where Othal Wallace, 29, was hiding. A large arsenal of weapons was also discovered in the main residence."
Liberals will claim this is "proof" that the police are racist since they don't charge white people for carrying weapons in public, pretending that that's the same as pointing weapons at people, and ignoring all the black people who carry weapons in public and are unmolested
The Washington Post's 'Toy Weapons' vs. Cops - "On Monday, April 19, Edgar Luis Tirado went on a one-man crime spree -- important details of which are not recorded in the Washington Post’s often cited "Fatal Force" database of killings by police. Other accounts, though, were clear about the threat Tirado presented. The 28-year-old Texan, who suffered from bipolar disorder, started small, stealing from a Fiesta Mart in Far North Dallas early in the afternoon. When store workers tried to stop him, he produced a black revolver, pointed it at them, and then ran. The next police heard of Tirado, it was nearly 4 P.M. He was in a school parking lot, wielding the handgun in an attempted carjacking. When police caught up with him half an hour later, he reached for the gun, which he had in the back of his pants, and leveled it at officers. The police held their fire, and Tirado fled. Half an hour later, the man robbed a CVS drugstore, threatening the store manager with his pistol. When the police next caught up with Tirado, he ran across multiple lanes of traffic, dodging cars and leaping over concrete barriers before turning and again aiming his revolver at police. This time, officers shot and killed him. But the Post’s “Fatal Force” tally notes Tirado’s death simply: He was “a 28-year-old Hispanic man with a toy weapon.” One might be forgiven for thinking, from that description – “a toy weapon” -- that Tirado had an orange plastic water gun or some other obvious plaything. But Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia explained at a press conference that Tirado had in hand a “replica handgun,” a fake “that looked exactly like a revolver.” It wasn’t just police who thought Tirado had a real revolver; the grocery and drug store employees who found themselves on the business end of Tirado’s fake gun believed it to be the real deal. So why does the Post’s seminal database for researchers on police violence, begun in 2015, call it a “toy weapon” when even the short wire report it carried on the killing notes it was a “replica handgun”? RealClearInvestigations reached out to the Post’s “Fatal Force” team for comment or explanation, but got no response. “Using the word ‘toy’ is a bit deceiving,” says Patrick Burke, the executive director of the Washington DC Police Foundation. “These are made to look like lethal weapons, and often an officer doesn’t have the time to distinguish whether it is real or fake." The paper didn’t always fail to distinguish between fake guns and toy guns. When it was two years into the Fatal Force project, which won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2016, the Post reported that 86 people in its tally had been killed by police while brandishing weapons that “looked real” but weren’t. Many had been carrying BB guns, others had pellet guns or replica weapons. The Post labeled only two as carrying “toy” guns... Since the beginning of 2020, its “Fatal Force" database has described 34 of those shot by police as wielding “toy” weapons, differing from the outside local reports referenced as sources, which make clear that all but three of those weapons were realistic-looking fake guns, including replicas, BB guns, and pellet guns. The three outliers were also not toys per se, but other objects that looked like guns. “Most if not all of these items are not toys,” said Alan Kaufman, a senior vice president at the Toy Association. Instead, they are “non-powder guns” such as BB, pellet, airsoft, and paint guns. “These items very often look much like powder guns, often intentionally,” Kaufman says. He emphasizes “these items are definitely not toys.” The distinction would likely be readily evident to shoppers perusing Amazon.com – whose founder, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post. It sells toy guns as well as many replica pellet and BB guns, including revolvers nearly identical to the gun used by Tirado. But in the Post database, when it comes to most cases involving BB guns and the like, readers are left with the impression police regularly shoot suspects armed with nothing more threatening than a child’s plaything."
When you need to farm outrage
Thomas E. Ricks on Twitter - "In fact, my presumption is that anyone tweeting that American cities burned last summer is either working for the Russians or a dumbass dupe of them."
Replies: "So I wonder who you're working for if you tell people that remembering the reality of the left's recent history of horrific deadly violence means you're a foreign operative ..."
"Your duplicity won’t work. Some of us have eyes, a functioning brain, and a memory that goes back further than 10 minutes. *photos, including infamous "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" headline with burning city in background*"
"Idk man this look like a fire to me *church parking lot with "Black Lives Matter" sign on fire*
"People literally flipped a cop car, pooped on it and then proceeded to set in on fire. Right in front of my home."
"Washington DC 2020 *buildings on fire*"
"I heard several blm supporters make the argument that if even if 95% of cops are good, the 5% of cops that are bad make the rest bad by not stopping them, does that not go for protestors too? Or do they get special exemptions from guilt by association?"
"Weird, the mayor in my city instituted a curfew due to burning buildings and rioting. Maybe I’m remembering that wrong"
"Russians? Seriously? You guys should really pick a new foil."
"As others have commented, I also lived and shopped in the burned cities and, yeah, they looked pretty burned up to me. Gaslighting at it's finest."
Naturally, it's a blue check mark
‘What Are We Going To Have Left In Our Community?’ Aldermen React with Panic, Sorrow to Unrest - "As unrest swept the city Sunday, aldermen pleaded with Mayor Lori Lightfoot to help them protect their communities from roving bands of criminals clashing with police and looting businesses. WTTW News obtained a recording of an online conference call held by the mayor’s office to brief all 50 aldermen on the city’s response to the unrest touched off by the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police... “It’s like, what are we going to have left in our community?” Harris asks her colleagues before answering herself. “Nothing.” The Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus criticized Lightfoot’s decision to use 375 members of the Illinois National Guard to block off the Loop and the central business district starting Sunday morning, making business corridors on the South and West sides an “easy target” for looters and criminals because they “did not have the same level of protection.”... Lightfoot said a crowd of 30-40 people gathered outside a clothing store near 111th Street and Michigan Avenue as a “dude with a sledgehammer” broke into the store to allow it to be looted. “I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen s--t like this before, not in Chicago”... Lightfoot vowed to launch a “Herculean effort” to convince businesses to rebuild and reopen. Lightfoot said she had no choice but to shut down the CTA after reports buses were being “commandeered” by “anarchists.” Dowell asked Lightfoot to use the National Guard to protect grocery stores and pharmacies, but the mayor said “they are not a magic tool, they are the military.” In other cities, National Guard troops have made things worse, “not better,” Lightfoot said. Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th) said he had called 911 to report looting, and got no answer. Rich Guidice, the director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, acknowledged that the system was overwhelmed. “There are no easy answers here,” Lightfoot said. Organized groups of criminals were responsible for the majority of looting in Chicago, prompting nearly 65,000 calls to the city’s emergency operations center... “My ward is a s--t show,” Sadlowski-Garza said, adding that cop cars and banks were burned. “They are shooting at the police.” Sadlowski-Garza began to cry... Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) demanded that Lightfoot develop a plan to stabilize Chicago’s neighborhoods for five days, calling his Southwest Side ward “a virtual war zone” where gang members armed with AK-47’s were threatening to shoot black people. The call came to a screeching halt when Lightfoot declined to address the substance of Lopez’s remarks, and Lopez demanded that she respond. Lightfoot told Lopez he was “100% full of s--t.” “Well, f--k you then”... Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th Ward) told Lightfoot he was worried that the looters would attack homes where many people have guns and concealed carry weapons. Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) said he was concerned that residents would take matters into their own hands and become vigilantes. “This is far worse than it was in 1968,” said Burke, who was elected to the City Council in 1969."
Weird how "mostly peaceful protests" overwhelmed Chicago
