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Comment by strictnein | Hacker News Reader

Know any of the scores of local businesses on this list? Because I have been to tons of them.

https://www.startribune.com/these-minneapolis-st-paul-buildi...

But screw them, right?

This isn't "protesting" anything. This isn't about the savage murder of a man. It's a riot and they're destroying scores of local businesses, including minority owned ones.

But I enjoy your really hot take on the situation and I'm sure you'll continue to be a keyboard revolutionary going forward.

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I don't agree with rioting and looting, but it is akin to the nuclear option of social unrest.

> This isn't about the savage murder of a man.

You're right, it's about much more than the murder that broke the proverbial camels back. What you're seeing is the output from the pent up rage of the growing systemic racial and socioeconomic inequalities that permeate this country. When people feel permanently trapped and abused, eventually they will snap. History it littered with similar examples.

Right, that's the point. People are acting in a blind rage - an understandable one, certainly, but still not one that's calculated to create effective change. Allies who truly care about the cause should be working on solving the underlying problems, not fanning the flames.

Those allies weren't around at the lie downs, the town hall meetings, the marches, the press conferences, etc. But you burn down a Target and supposed allies want to have a talk about solving underlying problems. The problem is the repressive, abusive police. When the allies have an answer to that then we can call it solved.

I think most people have been getting much, much more sympathetic to the police as the week goes on. Like, American police are abusive and terrible, but I'm forced to regrettably side with them over the people who are burning down cities.

Property over lives?

I don't believe those people ever existed. The ones you are talking about are only making excuses for why they support police brutality.

"Looting is a howl of rage that surfaces when people feel trapped by injustice and betrayed by institutions. It’s not what happens when the goal isn’t justice, it’s what happens when the goal of justice is thwarted by a society of corrupted ideals and decayed morals."

… or when the shops have running shoes, TVs, or booze. How many book stores or fresh produce shops get cleaned out ?

Don't be naïve.

(Which is orthogonal to the legitimacy of the protest itself).

The point is not what stores that gets looted. It's that stores are being looted at all. This only happens when people feel they are not being heard and when there is no other action than rioting and creating chaos. Looting happens because of the "protection" of the chaos, but you have to look further than just seeing people stealing stuff from stores.

The issue is so much larger and the system is actively forcing the people to create chaos, because there are no other way to get the leaders to listen to them.

People have been trying to fix this problem for decades now. Still the police is murdering US citizens. Of course people are gonna get mad as hell when that still happens.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, because both things can be true.

There is a tendency to glamorize and retroactively justify every action connected with something you support, as both positive and intentional.

It is possible, for example, to support burning the police precinct, but be opposed to looting the grocery store.

Sorry but you don't get to tell the world what it's about and what it means to the people protesting in the various ways that they do. The way to find that out is to listen to them.

So your point is that this justifies the expansion of the surveillance state? Do you consider all of the protestors responsible for looting? And should we just discount the evidence pointing to the presence of agents provocateurs?

A breakdown of law and order is an emergency situation, justifying the use of any tools in the state's pocket regardless of our normal concerns about using them. I don't want a permanent gendarmerie in the US either, but that doesn't mean I'm opposed to deploying the National Guard.

Most of the protesters do seem to be peaceful, but that just doesn't matter in Minneapolis at this point.

Seriously, "any tools"? You are commenting on an article about the use of new surveillance tools like facial recognition software that scrapes Facebook, not a discussion on whether the National Guard should be deployed.

One wonders in vain how a reasonable comment like this is downvoted.

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