Peaceful protesters lament violence at George Floyd demonstrations, but understand the rage behind it

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Activists fear the vandalism and looting present in the George Floyd protests sabotages a message of social justice. On the other hand, they say, fury over Floyd's death is understandable — and it could be effective in changing public consciousness.

Long noted that the Martin Luther King Jr. saw violence as"a cry of the oppressed" but denounced it in part because he believed, like Mahatma Gandhi, that a peaceful goal requires a peaceful means.

During the early 1960s, Wasow said, civil rights leaders realized peaceful marches would prompt a savage response from police that would be captured by news media. Those"powerful narratives reflected the level of brutality in the Jim Crow South," he said, forcing changes in public opinion, voting and political action.

Early in the Minneapolis demonstrations, Wasow said, law enforcement appeared to overreact when confronted by nonviolent crowds. "It doesn't take a lot of excessive force to turn a peaceful protest into one where anger breaks out," he said. “It’s really frustrating because some of us have faced these guns,’’ he said. “We have seen people killed. Nothing has been done. So we get this constant sense that the tragedy always turns to farce."

The committee joined other civil rights groups Thursday in a letter urging Minneapolis leaders not to use military force against protesters. At the same time, Zelizer said, many instances of law enforcement misconduct would not come to light but for media coverage."You can't have a democracy without journalism," she said."The media need to be there as the eyeballs of the public."National civil rights leaders suspect some outsiders have infiltrated demonstrations to distract from the focus on police brutality.

 

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TrevorHughes Stop waiting

TrevorHughes Inbox me on how to earn $10,000 weekly without any form of labour Or stress in bitcoin mining process

TrevorHughes people are angry because to top 1% own 60% of the wealth of the whole fucking world !

TrevorHughes THEY WANT ALL OF THE OFFICERS INVOLVED TO BE ARRESTED AND RECEIVE ACCESSORIES CHARGES

TrevorHughes Justification doesn't make these criminal actions right under any circumstance?

TrevorHughes After what rioters did. I'm buying more guns and handing out ammo..

TrevorHughes do not play a game. Biden should shut up and looked at what did your party did in the past for US country,16 years your party make a weak US and now you take advantage of this situation and say tedious about violent.evildoer exploit mistake of one police to sabotage, theft.

TrevorHughes It’s George Floyd ....

TrevorHughes PoliceBrutalityPandemic PoliceThePolice ICantBreath stopkillingblackpeople

TrevorHughes Please edit to correctly state George Floyd's name.

Donald Trump's arrogance must be neutralized by eviction from Whitehouse.

Wow....he spent years in school just to figure THAT out? Bet he’s got tenure

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Nazi China assist criminal Antifa destroying USA

It’s not complex at all. Enough is enough. Not everyone has the same breaking point & not everyone breaks the same way

No reason for this

Stop propagating, instigating and facilitating hate! Did you forget he was defrauding innocent people for his own gain...

Это важный для меня пост

Get the USArmy and USArmyReserve in... Non is beyond law.. No nonsense in the name of some protest. . Just grab them from the head and get them into the cousdy for next 6 months. RT now SecPompeo

Just like in a Communist Cuba where Violent Socialist Apartheid Dictators kill Civil Rights Activists like Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Black Man.

Bunch of thieves, nothing else. Only thing they know how to do best is plundering. I wish them good luck with their plundering “rights” movement. And thank them for helping me to decide changing my vote from Democrats to Republicans.

Donald Trump's arrogance must be neutralized by eviction from Whitehouse.

Rioters......

So USATODAY, a simple question: Do you as a news organization condone or condemn the violence that happened last night across the country? What is the collective thought of all your reporters and editors? Put it up for public record please.

Your trying way to hard here!

White supremacy came to Rochester NY to incite violence

Looters needs to shot !!!

This is a crock of jlawrence’s feeble mind!

THE TRUTH IS AFTER ALL THIS DAMAGE THOSE THAT DESTROYED PUBLIC PROPERTY THINK THAT THE POLICE ITS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THAT DAMAGE WITH THEIR OWN MONEY! THAT IS 1 MORE REASON FOR TAXES TO GO UP AT THE THEY HURT EVERYONE ELSE

There is a criminal element which is opportunistic - taking advantage of the outrage to commit violent acts and/or loot. Vast majority of people protesting are peaceful.

Don’t think so

They show who really they are

The message I see is any opportunity to loot is taken by the all the thugs marching, it’s a cover.

Definitely changed my consciousness I will always support the AA community but I will no longer be outspoken about it Support in silence

This is going to destroy an already damaged opinion towards the young generations of leftists. Theres no bright side on this except the democratic party losing a little foothold.

Protests are meaningless. There is no purpose. You can’t change the world of bandits. Other bandits will come.

It’s terrible when people exploit a situation.

Hello 'captain obvious' party of one.

The looters are just paying themselves back. Many of these companies use prison labor and many times for free or almost for free. Don’t believe me? Check this out:

lol, violence, looting, that's a good way to get the public support

Ferguson, Oakland, Baltimore, etc. There hasn’t been a riot that you could argue made a difference since Rodney King. All this is doing is showing that people who live in big cities aren’t worth caring about.

Вы делаете мою жизнь лучше

There’s nothing wrong with the public. The police are the problem.

Only one group of losers here and it will not be the police.

If looting & rioting changed public consciousness, it would have changed long ago. Like mass shootings, it provokes outrage until the next time. Individual acts of racism & cruelty need to be dealt with on an individual basis. There is no vaccine for hate.

America we are with you! I am against police violence! We are all one, we are invincible!

How can one justify the justice if it is sought in the same inhumane way and unlawfulness as the culprit police officer?

Riots are effective change in public conscience. Great. Let me remind this and make sure it will happen time to time

Unfortunate circumstances but I’m glad we’ve shifted focus to something that’s actually a clear and present danger: racism.

I’ll go ahead and inform you that looting, burning, and attacking police will in no way change awareness of racism. It will propagate fear and anger from those who the original message was meant for. Where is the modern Martin Luther King Jr? Doesn’t exist in this lot...

They make them selfs look like animals tho!!!

are you crazy whag sociak justice a cop purposrly and willfully with the aid of two of his buddied knekt on a Black man and killed him with hands in his pockets looking down watching the spit blood and piss flow from his body as he begged him to stop and stayed on him afterwards

Its not a protest when the violence starts... Im here for you usatoday

No Justice No Peace it's all about the racist B's andbpunk trump over 400 years peaceful sorest ain't got us no where so now we take action and we ain't hearing anything else

Who was this guy?

Fact one, most of these 'protesters' are heave TikTok users and TikTok is developed by CCP. Fact two, Trump kicked CCP badly and CCP sicking revenge. Fact three, ANTIFA and Radical Left never officially condenm CCP violence and killing in HongKong. CCP+violent groups=riot.

It definitely does. It has created resentment for the cause and the people behind it. It perpetuates fear of the people looting and rioting.

Its Called Mas Hysteria, Lunacy ,Out of control , You see some times when police or people make mistakes . Panic breaks out into a riot because they are afraid . im afraid of what they don't understand . its only going to get worse after pissing off the wrong people reverserolls

Social justice, i.e. socialism, i.e. redistribution of even more wealth from those who create it to those who can't or won't hack it and just consume it will appease these criminals? Good Luck! All it will do is to ruin the economy but won't stop the barbarians.

People are and have been conscious of bad police practices. No one is defending the officer that killed George. We are all on the same page. However the paid agitators are not out there for justice they are out there to cause mayhem and people are NOT behind that🙄

Okay burn USATODAY HQ next thanks for the target.

When we kneeled they stood there ground, when we marched in silence they didn’t hear us when we went home they broke in and shot us and when we arrived to the church it was in a casket.what we are witnessing is a package deal for doing nothing

Omfg just stop, journos.

Antifa Terrorists hijacked the protests These are far left WHITE communists. They are no friends of the black communities

Does it change the fact that a man was murdered by the people cast to protect him?

Violence can't prevail.

It worked so well in prior years. Protests about unnecessary violence while using violence. Pretty stupid 🙄

Was it effective every other time nope..They just ignore you just crying wolf now.

No. Violence is pissing people off. The message is not being displayed as social justice with vandalism, arson, & looting

They fear it? 100% of the nation was outraged by the killing of George Floyd. Antifa seized the opportunity to sow chaos, destroying the opportunity to move forward with genuine reform. Instead of reform we'll see massive urban flight.

George who? It’s a disgrace that city after city has been destroyed? Because of the pandemic folks lost their business or we struggling to survive- makes no sense to destroy your friends business and property.

The violence has totally drowned out whatever message they were trying to broadcast. Most of the nation, the great 'silent majority', want law and order restored at this point and are rooting for the thin blue line. Antifa, mostly white, have erased the memory of George Floyd.

No this bad police are you friends

At least they are wearing masks

Uprising of Democratic supporters.

Today is the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots, when white vigilantes killed 300 black Oklahomans & destroyed 35 sq. blocks, incl. “Black Wall Street.” Tulsa mayor gtbynum joins MSNBC 9aET to discuss reopening a likely mass grave & parallels to current unrest. velshi

Amazing so you support looting and destroying innocent people's business then

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First stop lawless cops from murdering people

Evil Hollywood will bail out Antifa. Joe Biden will match.

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Attorney General Barr: Peaceful protests over George Floyd 'hijacked' by 'far left extremist groups'Addressing 'rioting' in many cities, Attorney General Bill Barr said, 'the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements.' Trump to police “dont be nice” Namely himself and Donald Trump! They might be but no reason to not bring the full weight fo the DOJ down on the Minneapolis police.
Source: USATODAY - 🏆 100. / 63 Read more »

Police, experts condemn knee restraint used on George FloydPolice around the nation and law enforcement experts on Thursday broadly condemned the way George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody this week, was restrained by an officer who dug his knee into the man&39;s neck, saying no circumstances warrant such a dangerous technique. Deeply disturbing If nothing else he should be charged with felony stupid. When The Looting Starts When the looting starts The shooting starts Acting too tough Makes things rough For the Police and everybody Minneapolis is not Miami Copyright © May 29, 2020, Hébert Logerie, all rights reserved. I am confused about this. The cop that kneeling on the black guy and the black guy worked together for 15 years as bouncers at a nightclub. Why would you do that to somebody you know?
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »

Minneapolis police station torched amid George Floyd protestUpdates from protests against the death of George Floyd in police custody: • Protesters torch police station. • CNN crew arrested while reporting. • President Trump draws warning from Twitter for “glorifying violence.” Full coverage: This is what happens when the Mayors, the police departments and the police unions allow crappy cops to remain on the force. We need to hold these liberal Mayors, PDs and Unions accountable. HARSHLY Arrest the murderers!!! realDonaldTrump looking for opportunity to Floyd’s murder! 1st he acted as if he cared,to see if that gets him some black votes! If it weren’t election yr, he wouldn’t even mention it! Black ppl aren’t fools; we’ll never forget Charlottesville neonazis support or Central Park 5!
Source: AP - 🏆 728. / 51 Read more »

Ex-officer who knelt on George Floyd has been arrested, authorities sayThe arrest comes after three days of protests, which escalated in violence as demonstrators torched a police precinct that had been abandoned by officers. Good. Now they need to arrest the other three cops for being accessories to murder. He wasn’t the only one kneeling on Mr. Floyd. Prison for 30 years. Then prison for Trump until he dies. Then the USA will regain its prestige.
Source: latimes - 🏆 11. / 82 Read more »

Trump stokes tensions over George Floyd protestsIf President Donald Trump's initial response to the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minnesota surprised some as uncharacteristically measured, his threat of violent police retaliation and military intervention as protests raged thrust him more squarely into a familiar position as racial instigator and defender of law enforcement. CNN stokes tension with endless Fake News propaganda. Stop calling thugs protestors. They are criminals. When looting starts shooting starts is not stoking tension- it means that business owners are starting to shoot looters and national guard must intervene to stop more deaths. CNN is stoking tensions & fueling this emotional conflict. Justice for Mr. Floyd must be served...
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »