Let's talk about the riots and the looting.

Specifically, let's talk about why not all of the riots and looting are created equal.

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter #NoJusticeNoPeace
1/

In some cases, the police are the aggressors, firing tear gas, rubber bullets, and other riot control weapons into groups of peaceful protesters.
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Sure, sometimes those protesters aren't following police directives, but given that police violence sparked these protests, why on earth would the protesters respect the authority of the police? In these cases, it is the police who turn a peaceful protest into a riot.
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In some cases there is an inciting incident. The Target across the street from the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis closed its doors to protesters trying to buy water and milk to help people who'd been tear-gassed. Only after that did protesters begin looting the store.
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In some cases, provocateurs start it. Several videos show people dressed all in black with their faces covered who come into an area where people are protesting, start smashing windows, then walk away when they are confronted by the protesters.
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These people are not part of the protest. There is speculation that some of them are cops in plainclothes, but I have not seen definitive evidence of that yet.
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In some cases, white people are doing the smashing and looting, often over the objections of black protesters. The black protesters know the worse the rioting gets, the worse the crackdown will be. And they know that they'll be disproportionately targeted by said crackdown.
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And in some cases, the riots are an overflow of grief, anger, and despair of people who have been protesting at a national level against police violence, especially as it disproportionately affects their community, with only uneven incremental improvements.
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If you are condemning the white people who are doing a piss-poor job of being allies to the African-American protesters, then your condemnations are just. To be an ally is to listen, and many of the white protesters are not listening to the black people they claim to support.
9/

If you're condemning the riots is general, then that is racist. Why? Because you are holding the protesters to a much higher standard than their oppressors. Remember, the cops are the primary aggressors in this conflict.
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The reason for the protests is important and valid. We CANNOT, as we have so often done in the past, use finding some fault in the way they are protesting as an excuse to ignore why they are protesting in the first place.
11/

It got this bad because we weren't listening. It is time to listen, not to condemn.

/End
#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter #NoJusticeNoPeace