SL 791

Sorry, guys. Work Day here, so no time for a post. Just some links.

OMG. People are seriously talking about Martial Law. Um, please stop. Look, I was very upset about what happened to some of my favorite streets of Manhattan. I foresee long term repercussions; cities will never be the same. I feel really bad for local businesses in the Bronx. But the worst is over. Now, we have to rebuild our country and repay those businesses.

Here in the New York City Metro area, there is a long standing rivalry between Jersey and Long Island. We’re all Bridge and Tunnel people, but we each like to point to the other as the worst possible place on the planet. (Psst it’s Long Island) So, when Long Island was trending on twitter for the worst possible reasons today, I couldn’t help but be amused.

Recent purchases on Amazon: hand weights, because I’m actually doing tv workouts even though I feel stupid; an electric kettle, because I have a bad track record of torching stove ones; printer ink, because the home schoolers burn through it. I just got a box from Stitch Fix, because I needed something to make me smile.

We were planning on going to Venice this summer. I wanted to show it to the kids before it sank into the sea. Sigh. Maybe next summer. Glad the city is having some much deserved peace from tourists.

On topics related to race, I do think that, as a Karen, I really should defer to the experts. I support the effort, but I think it’s best to let other people do the talking. In the past couple of days, I’ve seen quite a few people make missteps.

Two good article at The Atlantic — one by Jeffrey Goldberg on James Mattis. The other, which I’m still reading, is by Anne Applebaum on Republican sheep.

I’m ready to talk about police reform. Happily. Joyfully. But another day.

25 thoughts on “SL 791

    1. We haven’t, but the protests might make it impossible. But, I guess not everyone is going. And, I guess it might not be impossible to test ten thousand people.

      The majority of cases in WA are among farm workers and meat packing plants now, but with a set among essential workers (healthcare folks, but also grocery store workers and others with high contact).

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      1. “And, I guess it might not be impossible to test ten thousand people.”

        Chris Redd of SNL is working on raising funds for protesters to get testing and help for COVID.

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  1. “we each like to point to the other as the worst possible place on the planet. (Psst it’s Long Island) ”

    *side-eyes you*

    Merrick is ugh. Remember Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco? Amy Fisher was from Merrick. Lindsey Lohan was also from Merrick. I think I’ve said this before, but my sister used to work with Michael Lohan’s cousins, and they are lovely sweet people.

    I buy way too much on Amazon. Recent orders include a variety pack of 10 flavors of Trident gum, a jade face-roller (which I am really enjoying!), a face mask (watching myself on Zoom sessions has been too much for me), a microfiber hair towel, an oximeter, Miliko dot grid notebooks, and fine point markers to go with the notebooks (which will be bullet journals/calendars). I am also considering some sort of wall-mounted spice rack for my kitchen.

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    1. Our kitchen would not function without the wall-mounted spice shelf. To be honest, we need a bigger one (Every Grain of Rice has inspired a fair number of new spices to appear), but there isn’t really space.

      I’m probably about to buy more books to go into the years-high tbr pile (or electronic counterpart). The rest of Vasily Grossman that’s available in English (particularly The Road and An Armenian Sketchbook) and The Eighth Life, a gigantic novel of Georgia in the 20th century that was originally written in German. And then there’s apparently a shortage of light-ish science fiction and fantasy — some vintage Fritz Leiber or the conclusion to John Scalzi’s latest trilogy?

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      1. What I really want to do is custom-build a 7 foot long cabinet/counter in my long and narrow kitchen but my husband is demurring.

        bj, I’ve been using Miliko dot-grid notebooks for the past few years, but this is the first time I’ve bought markers to make them pretty. 😀

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  2. Here’s some follow-up from some previous threads, as we seem to be moving here.

    1. There has been a lot of outcry from nearly all quarters about questionable police killings and conduct the last few years. Quite a few conservative writers have written a lot (see David French, for example) and of course our libertarian friends have always had many concerns about police conduct. There is currently an unprecedented level of scrutiny whenever there is a police shooting as well as an unprecedented level of criminal liability for police officers.
    2. Given that environment as well as the swift action to arrest Officer Chauvin, the volume of current protests feels like pushing on an open door.
    3. There’s not a lot of clarity as to what exactly protesters want to see happen before they can stop protesting or what they would see as success. (At least some protesters would really only be satisfied by the end of capitalism and some sort of Marxist paradise involving free college, free Apple products, wifi, cheesecake and all the LEGO Star Wars sets you can carry.)
    4. There is a need for police reform…but it’s not at all clear what that reform should look like and the protests don’t bring us an inch closer to it. I especially have no idea what European protesters think they are accomplishing, aside from potentially spreading a deadly disease.
    5. I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the fact that nearly all of the major protests/rioting is happening in cities with Democratic mayors. A lot of the news coverage has treated bad or inadequate police conduct as if the police was a completely autonomous entity, ignoring the fact that the Democratic mayors are (at least theoretically) in charge and the buck ought to stop with them. A lot of people in elected office have been acting as if they are just bystanders.
    6. None of this is unprecedented. There were a lot of violent protests/riots in the late 1960s and of course I myself lived through the 1992 LA riots as a freshman college student in the USC dorms (we went up on the rooftops and got to see that were fires on all sides of us and we got to share our cafeteria with heavily armed National Guardsman). What came of all that? Well, Nixon for one, as well as a lot of the stringent 1990s crime legislation that people complain about today.
    7. Given the extremely poor track record of violent protests over the last 50+ years, I’m not impressed with the argument that people are compelled to engage in mass protests during the pandemic. This is a really complicated problem and there are no instant fixes.
    8. Given the actual level of unjustified police killings of black people in the US, it is very likely that the current protests will (directly or indirectly) cause more deaths of black Americans than the status quo ante.

    I’ll talk more in a bit about unforeseen consequences.

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    1. 8. I don’t think I am the only person who feels angry and demoralized by the mass protests. We’ve spent three months sacrificing many personal comforts and most normal life (and some of us our livelihoods and even our lives) for the common good and these mass protests are potentially throwing all of that out the window. Either outdoor transmission is a thing and the mass protests are going to lead to thousands of additional COVID-19 deaths or else outdoor transmission is not a thing and it’s going to turn out that a lot of deprivations that were imposed on us were unnecessary–and in either case, our months of small sacrifices were undone by the heedlessness of the protesters.
      9. Somebody is going to say, but it’s worth it, because justice! Sure, and we could also justify sending kids to school because education and socialization! I have a small ASD kid at home who has been decompensating hard the last few weeks, due to months without normal social interaction with peers. She’s been obsessing over her computer games and the last couple times we got together with friends, she was engaging in a non-stop loop of non-reciprocal chatter about her games. Thank goodness she’s doing therapy this summer, but it’s going to take a lot to get her back to where she was before. Why close the schools (cause they’re dangerous) and then shrug off mass demonstrations? That is ridiculous.
      10. I’m continuing to do a modified form of social distancing (my husband cut my bangs this weekend even though I could legally get a haircut and I’m sticking to outdoor socializing), but I need a pep talk as to why it’s worth it to make an effort. School is planning to do a belated prom in several weeks and we had been planning to keep our oldest home from that–but why should we keep her home from an event involving dozens of people when tens of thousands have been marching across the country? The demonstrators are setting a simply terrible example.

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      1. These school closures have been so, so, so hard on kids with ASD. I can’t even talk about this yet without getting very emotional.

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      2. If you go to the Campaign Zero site from the previous thread you can see some reforms that would help in their implementation. The Lincoln, Nebraska police department signed a new agreement yesterday: https://www.1011now.com/content/news/Lincoln-Police-and-community-leaders-signing-agreement-to-Hold-Cops-Accountable-570991181.html

        I share your concerns about the pandemic and the health results, very much so. At the same time, right now is the time people are out of work, scared, hungry, tired…this is the moment because, in a sense, we are all differently tuned in, at home, with more time and energy to slow down and think about the world we’re living in. I have stayed home so far, because I am trying to keep the way clear for protestors in the ICU and my MIL lives with us. I also have gotten involved in a local food bank delivery service for seniors and other vulnerable people, so that we deliver the food to them. You and I are contributing.

        It will be interesting to see what happens with active case counts, IF the data is accurate. Quite frankly, I think in the US your data is so politicized it’s not useful. The spike in pneumonia in Florida was interesting. Here in Quebec our school experiment so far: https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/44-students-in-quebec-have-confirmed-cases-of-covid-since-schools-reopened – 44 kids, 34 staff members. The staff members is scary. Israel also reported outbreaks after schools opened. I’m with you on these concerns.

        On a personal note…

        I’ve felt strongly about the BLM movement for a while myself, mostly because when I was in media I had the privilege of working with two Black women who opened my eyes and subsequently I have witnessed so much. Just as one example, I hire a lot of 18-22 year old staff in my (now Covid-eliminated) job. These are good kids who have black belts. They usually work for me to afford cars. None of the white staff I have have been pulled over. Both black staff I have have been pulled over multiple times. This is in the Toronto area. One of them is Black, physically huge, and autistic. I honestly fear for his life…and he is amazing, like a.maz.ing teaching our young kids martial arts. The only answer is oversight.

        But even with those issues here in Canada, we don’t come close to the number of people killed in the US per capita nor, especially, close to the number incarcerated in the US. It’s not just about deaths. Have you looked into the statistics around incarceration in the United States? It’s worth a look.

        I camped in the US last year and also stayed in Philly, Baltimore, and Washington DC, my first visit since Trump was elected. I grew up spending most summers in upstate NY, lots of time in the Detroit area and I attended a Detroit high school very briefly in 1987. I have never, ever felt (just a feeling) as deep a racial polarization as I did last summer.

        I also felt such pride in showing my kids some of the most amazing things – the American Museum of Art and all the museums that surround it, the Smithsonian, and yes, the Lincoln Memorial. I’d neglected to teach them about my heritage as an American and it was amazing. I cannot believe one year later, Donald Trump gassed protestors for a photo op. Your country, our country, is worth fighting for. How do people balance that against a pandemic? I don’t know. But I do know November 3 is coming, that “looting results in shooting” happened NOW.

        Why are people around the world protesting? As an American-born Canadian I simply state why were there worldwide protests around Tiananmen Square? We here in the rest of the world have been watching President Donald Trump move the world political and military powerhouse towards this moment for a long time. You have unmarked troops, prison RIOT police who are not trained in things like the Miranda act, blockading citizens excising their right to be heard in your capital city. You have someone who had a counterfeit $20 bill killed on video and it took this movement to charge the people responsible. At which point in the move to fascism do you think the world should raise its voice in support of the principles that the United States has brought to the world? Equal Under the Law.

        On a practical note, I don’t think people are shrugging off the protests. I think it’s that you can’t really protest via Zoom.

        I hear about your child and it is awful.

        I hope the tone of this comes through that it is a pep talk. Hang in there.

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    2. lot of the news coverage has treated bad or inadequate police conduct as if the police was a completely autonomous entity, ignoring the fact that the Democratic mayors are (at least theoretically) in charge and the buck ought to stop with them. A lot of people in elected office have been acting as if they are just bystanders.

      They are often bystanders because the police are out of control and the Democratic mayors and governments have had their hands tied. See, for instance, this example of what happened when the Minneapolis city council tried to get the MAGA-led police union under control.

      What had been helping with these things in other cities was the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department stepping in and negotiating consent decrees. But Trump and Sessions decided to dismantle this division, have the remnants focus on “religious liberty,” and explicitly tell police departments to be *more* violent and *more* draconian. That worked out well.

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    3. Replies, I has them.

      1. “There is currently an unprecedented level of scrutiny whenever there is a police shooting as well as an unprecedented level of criminal liability for police officers.”

      Yes, on a scale of 0 (no scrutiny) to 10 (most scrutiny), it went from .1 to .5. Unprecedented!

      2. “Given that environment as well as the swift action to arrest Officer Chauvin, the volume of current protests feels like pushing on an open door.”

      Chauvin was arrested and undercharged, and his co-conspirators were not arrested. Since the protests happened, Chauvin’s charge has increased to second-degree murder and his co-conspirators have been arrested and charged.

      3. “There’s not a lot of clarity as to what exactly protesters want to see happen before they can stop protesting or what they would see as success.”

      I think there is clarity. People want the police violence against blacks and other people of color to stop. It’s that simple. They want police to be held accountable.

      Yesterday, Obama talked about the Campaign Zero recommendations, which are good ones. These are very do-able and even hashtaggable (#8cantwait).

      “At least some protesters would really only be satisfied by the end of capitalism….”

      Yes, and some Republicans will only be satisfied when women are barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. That’s not a useful comment.

      4. “There is a need for police reform…but it’s not at all clear what that reform should look like and the protests don’t bring us an inch closer to it.”

      Sure they do. There are reforms that can be done. See #3. The chokehold can be banned, for one. Knees on necks can be banned, for another.

      “I especially have no idea what European protesters think they are accomplishing, aside from potentially spreading a deadly disease.”

      International pressure on the US. Democracies in Europe should rightfully be alarmed by the move towards authoritarianism in the US. A show of support is a good thing.

      5. “I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the fact that nearly all of the major protests/rioting is happening in cities with Democratic mayors. “

      The data:
      13 of largest 50 cities in the US have Republican mayors
      2 are independent
      so mayors of 35 of largest 50 cities are Democrats

      The mayors of largest 6 cities are Dems
      San Antonio, whose mayor is Ron Nirenberg (Independent) is #7 but he is also basically a Democrat.
      San Diego is #8. Mayor is a Republican. However, San Diego has had plenty of protests/rioting. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/more-than-100-arrests-made-after-protests-in-sd/509-dc16da39-1915-439b-bf7b-41ef093d26b0 The National Guard has been called there as well.

      Also, a little Twitter research is showing that the SD Sheriff has ended chokeholds https://twitter.com/SDSheriff/status/1268315872403222529/photo/1 so I guess the protests are working there, too.

      “A lot of the news coverage has treated bad or inadequate police conduct as if the police was a completely autonomous entity, ignoring the fact that the Democratic mayors are (at least theoretically) in charge and the buck ought to stop with them. A lot of people in elected office have been acting as if they are just bystanders.”

      This is what happened in NYC the last time a Democratic mayor tried to make changes: https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/rudys-racist-rants-nypd-history-lesson

      “It was one of the biggest riots in New York City history.
      As many as 10,000 demonstrators blocked traffic in downtown Manhattan on Sept. 16, 1992. Reporters and innocent bystanders were violently assaulted by the mob as thousands of dollars in private property was destroyed in multiple acts of vandalism. The protesters stormed up the steps of City Hall, occupying the building. They then streamed onto the Brooklyn Bridge, where they blocked traffic in both directions, jumping on the cars of trapped, terrified motorists. Many of the protestors were carrying guns and openly drinking alcohol.
      Yet the uniformed police present did little to stop them. Why? Because the rioters were nearly all white, off‐​duty NYPD officers.”

      7. “Given the extremely poor track record of violent protests over the last 50+ years, I’m not impressed with the argument that people are compelled to engage in mass protests during the pandemic.”

      Your first clause talks about the poor track record of violent protests and the next clause talks about mass protests. You are conflating the two. There are violent protests, and there are mass protests. They occasionally overlap.

      First, violent protests have worked. See the 1992 anti-Dinkins riot by the police mentioned above.

      Second, mass protests are different and many have been very peaceful. I marched in NYC at the March for Women’s Lives in Jan 2017. I also was at the March for Women’s Lives in Washington DC in 1989. Every year, the anti-abortion rights movement has a March for Life in Washington DC, and I don’t recall them having any violence.

      8. “Given the actual level of unjustified police killings of black people in the US, it is very likely that the current protests will (directly or indirectly) cause more deaths of black Americans than the status quo ante.”

      It’s not just the killings. It’s the beatings and the fear. It’s basically terrorism of a community.

      Some years ago I read Herbert Gutman’s The Black Family in Slavery. And I was surprised to learn from that book (at least, I think it was that book; my memory could be faulty) that despite what Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other narratives said, the frequency of family members of enslaved people being “sold down the river” was actually kind of low. It was the constant threat of it that was traumatizing.

      I don’t live in fear of being stopped by the police and roughed up. I have white woman privilege up the wazoo. I’ve been stopped while speeding several times then let go with a warning. (I also have been ticketed for speeding 4 times in my life, full disclosure, twice in NC as a grad student, once in upstate NY, once in NYC coming off the Throg’s Neck. If you’ve ever gone over that bridge onto the Clearview, you know there is a downhill grade there and the speed limit changes a bit quickly. Cops like to hang out there.) (I do not apologize for speeding on I-88. That highway is whack.)

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      1. Wendy said,

        “Chauvin was arrested and undercharged, and his co-conspirators were not arrested. Since the protests happened, Chauvin’s charge has increased to second-degree murder and his co-conspirators have been arrested and charged.”

        Over-charging can lead to acquittals (see Casey Anthony).

        “I think there is clarity. People want the police violence against blacks and other people of color to stop. It’s that simple. They want police to be held accountable.”

        That’s a goal. It’s not policy. It’s the specific policies that need to be discussed right now, in detail. Hopefully the ones that you and other people have mentioned are good, but it’s time to hash out the policy. I guess I’m just pretty jaundiced about this, because the issue has been popping up in the news ever since I was a kid (there was even specifically a scandal involving fatal use of the “sleeper hold” when I was a kid).

        https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2014/12/portland_sleeper_hold_death_in.html

        I said, “At least some protesters would really only be satisfied by the end of capitalism….”

        Wend wrote, “Yes, and some Republicans will only be satisfied when women are barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. That’s not a useful comment.”

        Yeah, but the protesters I’m talking about have been in the streets this week, smashing windows, looting stuff, and setting stuff on fire, so it’s a bit more relevant to the current situation than what some Republicans may or may not want. My view is that we should bracket what the arsonists/looters/vandals want, because it’s sheer fantasy.

        “Your first clause talks about the poor track record of violent protests and the next clause talks about mass protests. You are conflating the two. There are violent protests, and there are mass protests. They occasionally overlap.”

        I agree that they are different and I’m not conflating them–it’s just that under the current circumstances, even a peaceful major demonstration is potentially extremely dangerous.

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  3. This guy has to be a record-holder:

    https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article243234261.html

    “The Fort Lauderdale patrol officer who inflamed a tense demonstration on Sunday, knocking over a seated protester just before a peaceful protest against police abuse turned violent, has been reviewed by internal affairs for using force 79 times in his roughly three-and-half years on the force, according to department records.

    “Most notably, Steven Pohorence has drawn his firearm more than once a month on average since he was hired in October 2016, according to personnel records released by the law enforcement agency on Wednesday. But the internal affairs reviews, which are standard after officers use force in arrests, also show he never fired his weapon or was found to have violated any department policies.”

    Yay?

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  4. OMG. People are seriously talking about Martial Law. Um, please stop. Look, I was very upset about what happened to some of my favorite streets of Manhattan. I foresee long term repercussions; cities will never be the same. I feel really bad for local businesses in the Bronx. But the worst is over. Now, we have to rebuild our country and repay those businesses.

    The city of New York is being transformed, in a way that promises a severe tax shortfall. Where do you think the resources will come from to repay the businesses?

    The real estate market, both commercial and residential, faces severe turbulence:
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-21/new-york-s-luxury-real-estate-winners-and-losers-after-covid-19

    “I think the second-home market in this crisis is suddenly viewed as an equal partner to primary residences,” Miller says. “We could see less of prices rising to the stratosphere for primary residences, and more resources devoted to a second-home market, so that people could realistically live in both at any given time.”

    (Talking to our electricians in this area, they are seeing many people remodeling their second homes to become primary homes. This lockdown has shown that you can work remotely.)

    The most affluent left during the lockdown: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/upshot/who-left-new-york-coronavirus.html

    Rents are falling: https://commercialobserver.com/2020/05/coronavirus-leasing-slump-new-inventory-falling-rents-nyc/

    People are buying houses in the suburbs sight unseen:
    https://nypost.com/2020/06/04/frantic-new-yorkers-snatch-up-unwanted-homes-in-the-suburbs/

    Moving company FlatRate Moving cited a 74 percent increase in relocations between New York City and Connecticut between March 15 and April 28. The mass exodus has been dubbed “a tidal wave.” In April alone, the US Postal Office received 81,000 mail-forwarding requests from New York City residents, 60 percent of those were to addresses outside of the city

    Less dense spots are hot; the city is not: Hudson Valley properties are in demand, too.

    The commercial real estate markets are in trouble. It started with WeWork, was fed by the coronavirus panic, and now riots decrease the attraction of being in the city: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2020/06/02/as-chaos-rules-new-yorks-commercial-real-estate-market-remains-an-attractive-short/#305a3257575b

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  5. Here’s a story about Ben’s Chili Bowl in U St. in DC, which was founded in 1958 and was one of few businesses in its area to survive the 1968 riots.

    https://thedispatch.com/p/bens-chili-bowl-founder-on-civil

    The neighborhood was originally known as Black Broadway. ““The neighborhood that we were in provided everything we needed [to renovate the building into a restaurant],” Ali remembered. “We found the architect, the contractor, the plumber, the electrician, and the cabinet maker within a few blocks. They were African-American owned businesses.””

    “Perhaps because of this special status, the Chili Bowl remained standing through the riots while the rest of the block was reduced to rubble. “The neighborhood was literally destroyed,” Ali lamented. “And [it] took a downturn for the next 20 years.””

    “Many black-owned businesses put signs in their windows during the riots identifying them as such to stave off the wrath of the mob. The move wasn’t always successful. U Street was “literally destroyed,” Ali repeated for emphasis. “It’s a lot of money to go build your business over again!”

    ““Businesses did not reopen,” she continued. “The middle class began to move away. And then after that, heroin moved in, and then crack cocaine moved in, and we became a ghetto. And that lasted, as I said, 20 years.””

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  6. Its a good time to read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail: http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf

    and, an easier to read version in text: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

    I’ve been reading it all the way through. So much is still relevant and too little has changed. We can amplify the voices and ideas that the protests are rooted in without supporting the violence. Concentrating on reports of violence, without acknowledging the underlying distress and violence by the police, makes one who is

    “more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

    But, the whole letter is worth reading from beginning to end (or to listening to King read it).

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    1. bj quoted, “a “more convenient season.”

      It would be nice if protesters would delay mass events until after the pandemic is over.

      COVID-19 is still killing 1,000 Americans a day–and disproportionately African-Americans.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-americans-death-rate-covid-19-coronavirus

      A couple weeks ago, The Guardian wrote, “More than 20,000 African Americans – about one in 2,000 of the entire black population in the US – have died from the disease.”

      And that within just a few months.

      I’d like to think that MLK would care about that and would want to prevent needless deaths of black Americans, but you never know.

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      1. The Black leaders of the protests here in Denver are aware of the risks during the pandemic. The people I know who been in the meetings with them have all said this is an important part of the discussion. After all Covid19 is impacting their communities ; they’re not just holding protests for the fun of it. Also this is a demographic whose health needs have never been a priority in this country.

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      2. If only Dr. King were alive today to tell us if he would have agreed with the black community leaders who when they were younger worked with him or with the white conservative activists striving for the votes of the people who blasted his supporters with fire hoses.

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    2. Seriously, you read the letter and got from it a request to ask others to wait and then made an assertion about what MLK’s advice should be? Stating your own opinion is one thing, but it’s treading on dangerous ground to assert what you think MLK should do. That is the point of the entire letter.

      I am not changing my opinion that non-distanced protesting is not right during this time. I am hoping that we do not see spikes in increased infections. But I am certainly not making any assertions of what I think MLK (if he had not been assassinated) should do.

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      1. I’d like to think that MLK would care about that and would want to prevent needless deaths of black Americans, but you never know.

        People like to think a lot of things. Of course, often this desire is a product of a lack of understanding in the matter at hand and how the world actually works.

        I would agree with bj on this in that these protests are a public health disaster and also that I am not in a position to project MLK’s hypothetical desire. On the other hand, I have actually read Letter from a Birmingham Jail in it’s entirety and not just cited a quote that is in completely contradicts the point of the document. In fact, the entire letter is in direct opposition to your fanciful projection about where his sentiments would lie.

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