MSN - On protestors, Trump adopts two very different standards

[TomCADem]

From calling for the shooting of demonstrators who are protesting racism to calling racist demonstrators very fine people, Trump enjoys dividing the American people and creating scapegoats of women, immigrants and minorities.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/on-protestors-trump-adopts-two-very-different-standards/ar-BB14LrmG?ocid=msedgdhp

"I can't stand back [and] watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard and get the job done right. These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts" is a phrase with an ugly and painful history. It also triggered a reaction from Twitter, which concluded that the president had violated the company's policy against glorifying violence. As of this morning, Trump's tweet is online, but it's obscured on the president's timeline behind a warning that reads, "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

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It was an unsettling scene in Lansing late last month, when hundreds of protestors went to Michigan's capitol building -- many of them brandishing firearms, including military-style rifles -- to condemn efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. By any fair measure, as we discussed soon after, the confrontations and apparent attempts to intimidate elected officials were frightening. It was very likely the point: the armed protestors were trying to scare elected officials and local law enforcement.

Trump, of course, sided with the armed protestors, urged Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to give them at least some of what they wanted, and praised the protestors as "very good people." Soon after, the president told Fox News, "All those people out there that are protesting, they're right." The comments came nearly three years after Trump defended some racist protestors in Charlottesville as "very fine people."

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Fascism, but they won't call it that.

[sop]

2. I haven't heard him say, "you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."

[MichMan]

3. I dont recall the protesters in Michigan ever setting fire to any buildings

I'm sure it would have made local news here

[TomCADem]

4. The Very Fine People In Virginia Ran Over People

I guess it is okay to murder people, but if you damage property it becomes a problem?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/12/virginia-unite-the-right-rally-protest-violence

Man charged with murder after driving into anti-far-right protesters in Charlottesville

A man has been arrested and charged with murder after a car rammed into a group of people peacefully protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 19.

Police said a 32-year-old woman had died and that they were attempting to notify her family before releasing more details.

Col Martin Kumer, the superintendent of Albemarle-Charlottesville regional jail, told the Guardian that 20-year-old James Fields, of Ohio, had been arrested following the attack on Saturday.

“He has been charged with second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death,” Kumer said in an email.

[MichMan]

5. Yet the protesters in Michigan did neither

Didnt cause harm to anyone or damage property. Neither did they break any laws.

[TomCADem]

6. Wasn't There A Stay at Home Order In Effect In Michigan?

And didn't they come with assault weapons and occupy the State capitol and frighten and intimidate lawmakers? And if this is legal, then doesn't prove the point about how the laws and how they are enforced are skewed against African Americans?

?ve=1&tl=1

It must be tough to understand how heavily armed folks can show up on the steps of a State capitol to complain about the government's efforts to stop a pandemic, yet they express outrage at the murder of an African American by law enforcement, and they are condemned as thugs by the President.

[MichMan]

7. Protests were allowed after the governors office was sued and settled the case

since protesting is permitted under the 1st amendment


There was also a protest last week at the same Capitol building with African American citizens armed with weapons, and no one was arrested then nor was there any violence either.

I don't agree that people should be protesting at the state capitol with weapons, but currently it is legal under Michigan law until that gets changed.

Are you suggesting that arson should be a form of protected speech under the 1st amendment in Minneapolis?

[TomCADem]

8. From the pages of The Bee, 1967: Armed Black Panthers invade Capitol

I just find it interesting how the same act could be treated so differently depending on the color of one's skin. Back in 1967, it was African Americans openly carrying weapons into the State Capital, because it was legal, but that did not stop them from getting their weapons taken away. Indeed, a Republican sponsored a bill to prevent that from happening.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/history/article148667224.html

May 2, 1967: Two dozen armed Negroes entered the state Capitol at noon today and 10 made their way to the back of the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed and marched away by the state police.

The Assembly was in session at the time and Speaker Pro Tem Carlos Bee ordered the men removed from the chamber.

Outside the chamber, the police took away the weapons. The men argued they could carry the weapons as long as they were not concealed.

* * *
Outside of the police office ... one man who identified himself as Bobby Seale of Oakland read a page-long statement of the Black Panther Party. It declared: “The Black Panther party for self-defense calls upon the American people in general and the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of black people.” He apparently was referring to a bill by Assemblyman Don Mulford, R-Piedmont, which forbids carrying a loaded weapon within an incorporated area.

[MichMan]

9. I cant speak for something that California passed 50 yrs ago.

I dont live there

Just that the protests in Michigan were legal and there was no violence in both instances I mentioned. One with armed white protesters and the other with armed black protesters. They were treated the same by the Michigan police.

Different states have different laws for reasons known only to those that create them.

Should the protesters in Michigan have been arrested and charged based on California law? Obviously that would be ridiculous

[TomCADem]

10. Openly Carrying a Gun Was Legal Then...

...yet the police had no problem detaining black protesters and taking away their weapons.

Likewise why do police show up in force with riot gear at protests over the killing of a black man, but do not take similar action when armed protesters show up to protest stay at home restrictions? It is nice that police showed so much restraint even with COVID-19 protesters screaming and spitting in their faces.

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1265759000357978117&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffirst-person%2F2020%2F5%2F29%2F21274891%2Fgeorge-floyd-cop-arrested-minneapolis-breonna-taylor