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Riot Destruction Far Worse Than We’ve Been Told
NRO posted an interview with progressive journalist Michael Tracey today. Tracey drove across the country to view the damage that was done and is being done by the BLM and Antifa rioters. Tracey noted that he was surprised by the extent of the destruction and the number of towns and cities that have been affected:
The number of boarded-up or destroyed structures I’ve seen across the country — commercial, governmental, and even residential — is staggering, and keeping an accurate count has been impossible. Given that I’ve managed to personally observe only a small fraction, this raises questions about the true scale of the wreckage.
He also noted that African Americans are often the victims of the rioting. Not surprisingly, the people impacted have a very negative view of what is going on:
I don’t know if I was “surprised,” but the divergence in opinion — between local black and minority populations about the ethical implications of the riots, and the activists/journalists who claim to speak on their behalf — is striking. Locals are almost uniformly condemnatory of riots, and often harshly so. They wonder why the destruction wrought in their neighborhoods has received so little attention. And they are more skeptical about what this suggests for the wider protest “movement” than you might expect. Their views don’t tend to be represented in media narratives.
Here’s his take on Portland:
Portland has a culture of perpetual protests that is distinct — almost as a kind of recreation. It’s also an overwhelmingly white city, which partly explains the zeal to keep a nightly protest going in perpetuity — one recent speaker compared their efforts to the Montgomery bus boycotts, so don’t expect this to cease any time soon. The anarchist element clearly calculate that the longer these actions go on, the more opportunity there is for a catalyzing event on the order of the George Floyd killing, which could spark further nationwide protests and riots. To be at the Portland protest zone on a Saturday past midnight is surreal; it does give the impression of a small-scale insurrection, with black-clad (overwhelmingly white) protesters in full armor and gear, wielding massive shields and wearing industrial-grade gas masks.
I wasn’t surprised by his statement that the progressive media routinely characterizes the protests as “peaceful,” and that it has generally ignored or downplayed the violence and destruction. I was surprised, however, by his claim that conservative media has largely ignored the destruction as well.
Published in General
Damn it. I’m so sorry, James.
Thank you. It’s nice to have the aerial view and the street view come together some.
I don’t agree that 99% of the protests are peaceful. BLM tee shirts are not acts of peace. They encourage the vandals. These protesters call for defunding cops. They insult cops, and enable the ones who do the damage. Borderline encitement to riot at least. BLM is one of the main organizers of the protests, and those innocent looking white millennials are being manipulated. Not all, as there are more than enough of them who are Marxists encouraging destruction. The protesters, black and white are used to make the protests look peaceful, but BLM and Antifa have a far darker agenda than simple protest.
Daytime marches might seem peaceful, but the fun begins after dark.- violence and destruction. “Peacefulness” is the propaganda tool used by the Left to avoid reality. The majority (not 1%) of the protests are designed to emasculate our police departments.
This is exactly the formula used by Islamic terrorists for so many years and we have seen how much damage a small minority of a huge associated group can do.
Here’s a link to an interactive map of the George Floyd protests in the U.S.:
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2020/06/03/map-protests-wake-george-floyds-death/5310149002/
According to the accompanying article, protests have occurred in over 1,700 towns and cities. Most are small towns like Deming, New Mexico, population 15,000. The demonstration there was, in fact, peaceful.
So, it may well be that 99% of the protests have been peaceful. On the flip side, there are well over two dozen cities in which the protests have been violent, and those cities are among the nation’s largest. And the damage done in those cities is often quite extensive – far more extensive than is commonly reported. Worse, as of July 30, 24 people had died in the violence.
At least one person has been killed in each of the following 16 cities:
Atlanta, Austin, California City, Chicago, Davenport, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Louisville, Minneapolis, Oakland, Omaha, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis
A moderate Muslim is one who doesn’t want to firebomb you himself, but is generally ok with a radical who’ll do it on his behalf. A peaceful BLM protestor doesn’t want to burn your property himself, either.