Comment by fzeroracer

Could it have? I don't know. What is encouraging is that in the past they would have put the officers on paid leave and treated them with deference while the investigation took place. In this case they were promptly fired within 48 hours of the incident by the police chief.

There were also a lot of statements from police leadership that this incident wasn't acceptable or normal police procedure which is a drastic change from in the past where you had people staying silent or even defending and rationalizing the perpetrators actions.

The looting and rioting weaken a cause that after many years of being in the spotlight seemed to have reached a tipping point of overwhelming agreement.

> So when people feel like justice no longer exists, there should be no surprise that they get angry.

I think this is the key here. The whole BLM movement has been going on for years and, for the most part, it seems like a lot of people are more aware. It doesn't seem like anybody from the top cares to do anything about it though.

I'd like to say, as well, that this is a statement of fact that can be observed by looking at media coverage, testimonial, historical and fictional books on the topic of the black experience in america. To deny this is a direct attempt to re-write history to justify an accumulation of power amongst the hands of a specific, ever-shrinking elite.

Things are, ultimately, knowable. Its not "political" or up to "opinion".

Looting private businesses and setting fires isn’t “self-defense”.

> This entire event is effectively self-defense from a community that has felt terrorized by the police for decades.

To put it with MLK: A riot is the voice of the unheard.

The systemic issues of the Black (and other foreigner) community across the Western societies, especially with police and laws specifically designed to target them (e.g. almost all drug legislation), have been ignored for way too long. I'm no friend of rioting myself but I will not judge upon those who have deemed it necessary to be finally heard.

> It could've been easily prevented by actually arresting someone that committed abject murder, but the city and the police chose to instead defend a man who has killed multiple people in the past and got away with it scott-free

I don't know if it could have been prevented by arresting just this murderer, as it's far from an isolated incident.

I do however think it could have been prevented by an edict from the top years ago, issuing a zero-tolerance policy for harassment, abuse and murder by police officers, with focus on clearly racially motivated incidents. I'm fom the UK, so don't claim to understand american politics, but I just don't understand why something like that hasn't happened, especially when Obama was president.

Your first claim is that the entire event is community self-defense, and your last claim is that police agents are responsible for the unrest.

You are totally right.

Not even close, but keep telling yourself whatevwr you need to to justify violent riots and indiscriminate looting. Never seen an HD TV looted in self defense before, but hey the media owned by God's Chosen People trying to use blacks as violent foot soldiers for marxism is just a conspiracy pushed by bigots and idiots, right?

Yes, one only need to compare the police treatment of predominantly white, armed brigades storming government buildings in Michigan to what happened to the first wave of predominantly black, non-violent protests in Minneapolis to understand there are other forces at play here.