Comment by Gareth321 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Gareth321 | Hacker News Reader

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> Yes there are protests, largely peaceful and in a tremendously small part of Los Angeles.

Firey but mostly peaceful protests are happening all over again. No, burning down cities is not peaceful. After just a few days, at least five officers, several journalists, and we don't know how many rioters have been injured so far. We don't yet have estimates of property damage, but tens of millions would be conservative. Similar riots have resulted in hundreds of millions in damages.

When the right does this, we call it what it is: violent riots. We acknowledge it's wrong to attempt to prevent the government carrying out its the duties it was democratically elected to carry out. We should hold that standard to the left as well. These rioters are anti-democratic.

What happens is that these protests start off very peaceful and then they become riots because the police make it so.

What you, and other's, need to understand is that the police have absolutely no mechanism to de-escalate anything. It's a concept completely foreign to American policing. As soon as the police are involved, the situation deteriorates rapidly.

For instance, almost all (95%+) of the BLM protests were completely peaceful. No violence or property damage. You wouldn't get that impression from the news. But, of the ones that did turn violent, every time the violence BEGAN with police overstepping. Pushing protestors, or shooting them, or throwing gas. And then, obviously, the situation deteriorates.

I think you've missed what the protest is. People are against the government action they are using the first amendment -- which is part of what makes america great -- to say they are against it.

You can say, rightly, there's a car on fire. You can also say the police shot at a journalist.

"burning down cities" would however be incorrect, as the person who literally lives here I can tell you that it is not happening.

Apparently we don't call it that when the right does it. It's only the "Radical Left" that actually gets these labels. And the tear gas comes first.

Well we should. American politics needs more integrity and consistency. Politics as a team sport is destroying the country.

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