The Black Lives Matter protests haven’t abated, although they’ve become less violent (as far as I can tell, anyway.) Los Angeles was forced to drop its curfew by an ACLU lawsuit, and the result seems to have been. . .less violence.
Mostly I felt like writing this post because the mayor of D.C. decided to try to throw the National Guard troops out of D.C. (apparently they were never Federalized as required). And, while I expect she’ll fail at that, she also did one of the best p’owns ever.
She had this painted on 16th Street across from Lafayette Square.
The pandemic isn’t getting better, though.
Los Angeles County new cases on June 5, from the LA Times.
I don’t even really know where to start with this post. I guess I’ll start in the middle, though I can’t yet see the end.
On May 25th, four police officers in Minneapolis murdered an African-American man in daylight, with witnesses and, of course, cell phone video. His name was George Floyd, and the police had been called by a store owner who claimed he was trying to pass a bad $20 check.
There were Black Lives Matter protests. Obviously. The Minneapolis Police Department tear gassed the protestors and started a riot. It has now spread through the entire US. In some places, police departments are handling it well, but in others the police are the problem. Militarized police forces have decided that the citizens are the enemy. LA County’s got a curfew now. It was “reopened” at Stage 3 (rather fraudulently as it was nowhere near the 14 days of declining infections requirement) for two days before the police riots and curfews started.
I’ve not seen a single elected Republican criticize this bloodlust. Not even Mitt Romney.
In the annals of “you can’t make this shit up,” the LA Police Chief, Michael Moore, pinned the blame for George Floyd’s death on protestors, getting time’s arrow wrong. And probably inflaming things, since we (used to?) have a right of peaceful protest. Garcetti should fire him. But I expect he won’t. LAPD (and other police forces) has been targeting reporters, making the threat clear. I never thought I’d say this, but I might be joining the defund the police crowd. UPDATE: Garcetti made Moore apologize. Better than nothing.
I just got hit by a rubber bullet near the bottom of my throat. I had just interviewed a man with my phone at 3rd and Pine and a police officer aimed and shot me in the throat, I saw the bullet bounce onto the street @LAist@kpcc OK, that’s one way to stop me, for a while pic.twitter.com/9C2u5KmscG
— Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (@AGuzmanLopez) June 1, 2020
There’s clearly been coordination amongst the night-time rioters and looters. Coverup Barr claims it’s “Antifa,” which is a right-wing bogeyman that doesn’t actually exist. More likely is the white nationalist groups, who have been calling for a second civil war. But clearly the anarchists are involved, too. Plenty of black clothed males doing destruction.
There have been a few moments of positive in this hell-week. One was a great speech by a rapper I’ve never heard of. Mayor of Atlanta apparently got him to speak in hopes he’d calm things down. I don’t know if he did, but the man gave no love to CNN! And he demanded organization and voting from his listeners in Atlanta. He might be more optimistic about the potential of voting than I am.
PS I should probably note that as of today, 106, 925 Americans had died of the pandemic. We’re still #1 in total deaths. With testing suspended due to the chaos, it’ll be weeks before we get reliable numbers again.
