This is a post about the protests in Minneapolis and other cities.

[kitewithfish]

I didn't sleep very well last night. I suspect I am not the only one - tho mine was caused by the restlessness of my own mind, and not by any of the real fears that other people were facing last night.

Let me put this briefly, just so you get where I stand:

• Black Americans live in terror of the police. This fear is reasonable and grounded in lived reality.
• The police are dangerous, aggressive, overarmed, and are largely not accountable to structures of restraints or of justice.
• The police are frequently agents and tools of white supremacy. 
• Rioting is a legitimate form of protest, as is looting -  they are both part of the long tradition of treating white property as more important than Black PEOPLE. Riots and looting can be avoided by changing the structures of injustice and white supremacy in the US.
• Police like to push peaceful protests into riots - both by inserting their agents in to the crowd to incite violence, and by attacking people in large groups with hoses, gas, and nonlethal gunfire so that people panic and run and react with violence. 

Police caused this. White supremacy caused this. To stop it, stop murdering Black people. To stop it, stop destroying Black communities. To help stop it, show up for protests, donate to help bail funds in your area, listen to Black leaders and consider their advice - today and every day. 

The only way out is through. 

A person I follow on Twitter lost an eye tonight because she was shot with a rubber bullet. She's funny and thoughtful and I didn't even know where she lived until last night. She's a photographer - she said this won't destroy her career. But she was shot in the eye last night, and will be half blind for the rest of her life, because she was at a protest and police shot into the crowd. 

I found this Tweet about the rise of a specific form of brutality towards protesters, driving into crowds and ramming people with cars, to be a scary but useful window into tactics that right wing people consider useful. It's awful. I haven't watched the videos attached and I'm not going to.  
 https://twitter.com/AriWeil/status/1267271819817480193

I hope you are all well and safe this morning. I hope you are all well and safe tonight. 

Comments

[spikedluv]

It's so scary to know that the police are behind much of the violence at protests.

[bayliss]

My father understands why they are protesting, rioting, and looting. My mother on the other hand understands the protesting, but doesn't understand the looting and the rioting. I try to explain, but she still doesn't get it.

It's hard to live with someone who doesn't accept that most of the rioting and looting is caused by the undercover white police in-bedded in the crowds.

Edited to fix my forgotten "Not" on "doesn't"

[yourlibrarian]

A person I follow on Twitter lost an eye tonight because she was shot with a rubber bullet.

That is horrifying. I don't know why that's even legal to begin with -- it's not like it can't cause extreme injuries.