Comment by Balgair
5 years ago
To be clear here: Looting is not a capital offense. It's stuff. No TV/car/stereo is worth killing a person over. You have insurance for these things (hopefully).
Though laws vary widely in the US, in CA the punishment is about a year in county jail, give or take:
To be clear here: it's not just "stuff." In innumerable ways, the looting and rioting is resulting in loss of material items that cannot be replaced. Case in point: https://twitter.com/wakiyan7/status/1266350546249629699
Things that can't be replaced huh? Like human lives, say those of Floyd or the protesters being shot at by police?
So you chose to conflate the loss of irreplaceable Native American artifacts and historical records with the loss of a life, on a thread discussing material items?
I get that this is emotional, but that was not warranted. The rioters have destroyed the historical records of a Native American tribe and I'd like to think that they've suffered enough. The point was to show that it's not only cheap Target things being lost here.
To be clearer still: Minnesota does not have stand your ground / castle doctrine laws - you can't protect "material items" with deadly force, no matter how valuable or irreplaceable. Instead, there is are Duty to retreat laws.
I have recently looked into conceal carry, and many states DO NOT allow you to shoot someone who tells you they want your wallet. If they do not seem like a threat to your life, you are not allowed to use lethal force. Obviously, things can later be argued in court.
That's horrible.
That's still not worth shooting people in the streets over.
I was not arguing in favor of shooting anyone. I was simply pointing out that dismissing the destruction in generality as "stuff" is in error and minimizing the effect. Don't lose objectivity in the face of tragedy.
1. This is horrible.
2. This could've been avoided if the original policeman was brought to justice.
Sorry I needed to include some references here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/arts/design/van-gogh-stol...
and
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/us/politics/klobuchar-min...
"During her own presidential campaign, Ms. Klobuchar faced continued protests, as well as some calls to drop out of the race from local black leaders in Minneapolis, after news reports found numerous faults in the prosecution of a black teenager named Myon Burrell while Ms. Klobuchar was the prosecutor."
They are. Or do you want them dragged through the streets and hanged immediately?
There are reports that some of the fires are set by provocateurs from the police. But this is impossible to prove either way.
One's opinion may vary after the third time their home is broken into to steal the TV/stereo/laptops.
I'm going to give Trump a C grade on communication on this one. A better Tweet would have been something like, "Minneapolis is why we need the second amendment and stand your ground laws." Followed by calls to Congress on nationwide concealed carry reciprocity, stand your ground, etc.