wow, everybody sure has their own spin on what they see, read and hear... funny, I interpreted his comments so differently: compared to a human life which is one of a kind and priceless... a building going up is of secondary importance as it can be rebuilt and replaced...
Not saying your take on it isnt valid...sure says a lot about what we all value though don't it?

@Alchemy I think a looter and rioter is not a protestor, I think he is an opportunist who cares about nothing but himself and what he can get. A protestor is making a valid and valuable statement about needed change. A businessman is trying to eke out a living for those he loves. Of those three people, I think there is one we can do without.

@Normanbites: I had no dispute with your original post. It was just a different view but now you've given a definition of legitimate protests that flies in the face of historical fact and makes no sense, even though the majority of the ruling privileged class in this country are rushing around spewing it...

From whom and from where did you get this anemic, fantasy definition of a political protest or revolution?

Even Jesus Christ - the deity worshipped by the majority of capatalistic, property loving, privileged Americans as the "perfect example" of human behavior committed property damage and economic disruption as a form of protest:

13 And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16 and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.

Of course, there was this little thing called the Boston Tea Party - not the best example here as those folks were racist cowards who tried to deflect responsibility for their actions by painting their faces and dressing in the garb of "Native Americans" so they could commit the deed of destroying a whole shipment of "property". And they weren't potesting about anything as precious as the loss of human life, just a little tax money.

Oh, but then too, maybe its perfect as many of the "legitimate" protestors of the Floyd riots claim cowardly racists instigated much of the burning and looting thats been taking place here. hmmmm.

The French uprising known as May 68 included a fair amount of violence and property damage too...see pic attached. Go all the way back to the "French Revolution" though and it was even more so... In fact, imho, that whole revolution was based on looting...pretty close to every home of the wealthy AND the palaces were stripped - or looted - wholesale.

The take down of the Berlin wall was about property damage too...the destruction of a huge wall built with public funds was it's primary purpose!

This Rolling Stone article argues that the destruction of property is not only common to protests but is, in fact, one of the most productive forms of protests!

[rollingstone.com]

I could go on and on... since when has any revolution, any over throw of the status quo and its enforcers (unethical bullying cops in this instance) been peaceful or not destructive to those doing the oppression?

@Alchemy

Christ never existed. Prove me wrong!

The boston tea party was about an unwanted tax on domestic tea that benefited the India Tea company that happened to be docked in the harbor. It was not an indiscriminate looting of private property. The property damaged was the source of contention, it was not the Boar's Head saloon.

The Berlin wall was not private property, it was a public barrier with great specific symbolism, it was not a macy's storefront, A starbucks shop or a Wendy's franchise.

The damage of private property is not called for by any stretch of the imagination. You are simply off your nut.

Just to be clear, you are trying to justify rioting and looting. The following is a fine example of just such behavior;

@Normanbites your response is spurious, irrelevant, and disjointed.

1. I was not sypporting the concept of Christ... I was suggesting that the wealthy white ruling class in this country use Christ, mythical or otherwise, as the example of perfect human behavior... and the bible suggests Christ was violently opposed to greed and and the pursuit of profit above all else...

2. So you are agreeing, the Boeton Tea Party was about property damage and the fact that it was targeted property damage makes it more effective and valid? Interesting.

3. The Berlin Wall - so, again, you are agreeing and saying property damage is a valid form of protest...

4. I see you avoided addressing the French uprisings and revolution...

5. "The damage of private property is not called for by any stretch of the imagination. You are simply off your nut" lovely insult...ok I am off my nut... that doesn't invalidate my argument... lol, especially given that you just basically agreed with and supported my position...As to the validity of property damage in this instance...that is in the eye of the beholder, I did not say, one way or another, that this set of riots was valid... I suggested you where ignorant concerning of the truth of property damage and its use as a form of political protest...based on your response, I would suggest this ignorance is deliberate and based on, putting it politely, bias. "not called for by any stretch of the imagination" - really? A lot of other people disagree with you... including Mike Render and a few hundered thousand or more other people around the globe...A deliberate public murder, on the heels of dozens of other similar instances and 400 years of injustice... no justification...like I said - eye of the beholder...

I find it obscene that you went back twenty years to pull out one of the few examples of deliberate race motivated black on white murder to imply that rioting is an invalid form of political uprising...

@Alchemy No, you missed the point again!

Those were examples of targeted property damage, to send a specific message for the motivational cause.

What we are seeing today has no such targeted motivation and no message. What message is there in smashing a Macy's window and taking a TV set, then going 1/2 a block to smash a starbuck's window and getting your morning Joe?

As far as I can tell, the message is "Burn, Loot and Murder".

And that is the crux of the problem, the BLM movement, whatever it was initially supposed to be, has lost control of its narrative and let it slip into the hands of people with nothing but mayhem on their minds.

[spiked-online.com]

@Normanbites - Dude, now ya gone and done it. It was relatively clear from your post of one of the horrific black on white rage killings caught on tape from the Rodney King uprisings...that you are an ignorant, manipulative, gaslighting racist. Do you even remember the sick fact... that the men, each individual, who beat that man almost to death...did more time behind bars than that whole horde of cops responsible for the Rodney King beat down spent all totalled... proving that this country is racist and sick and that the "Black Lives Matters" movement is critical and needed.
The straight up white supremacists trash article you posted, is icing on the cake, no surprise, you ARE a new age white power racist.

Dude...really, thank you for sharing you true racist self.

@Alchemy Good Attempt with your false narrative and lies, but you are too late. CHAP/CHOP in Seattle have already revealed what the Burn Loot and Murder crowd are all about.

Whatever BLM was when it started, it lost control of its narrative and gave it to Thugs and Screaming Ninnies like yourself who have no idea what you are talking about. If Black Lives Matter, why are they killing black police officers trying to do their duty? If Black Lives Matter, why are they being shot, stabbed and murdered in places like CHAP/CHOP?

The truth is you are interested more in discord and mayhem than you are in any form of social justice.

If this were about social justice, we would be talking about police reform, economic equity, and doing away with unjust laws. Instead, here we are with you insisting on the "right" to label me as a "racist". While also insisting that these corrections must first be for people of one skin color before they are done for all.

It's obvious who the racist is here, it isn't me .... so Go Fish! And take your Burn, Loot and Murder crowd with you!!

@Normanbites, we are done. I hope folks will be kind enough to remember that I was not the one here to start name calling... Further, If yall care, not that I am really suggesting you do...I generally avoid name calling or slapping labels on others...it an ignorant pejorative behavior that I get angry at myself for falling into....of course...that is different from using colorful adjectives to describe things other than currently living individuals...
lol...have a nice day.

@Alchemy You don't think calling me "racist" is name calling nor "labeling" .... or you think you are somehow automagically absolved and I am not. Either way, now I not only call you "Ninny", but "liar" as well.

Either way, Good riddance!!

I don't have HBO either but I watch it on Youtube about midnight every Friday. Sometimes I can see the whole show but sometimes only "New Rules", Opening Monologue and Overtime is available that soon.

@Robecology He’s on YouTube? Is it live or a replay?