As unnecessary as the Friday night Police beatdown of protesters was, Saturday night proved to be even more unnecessary. Give cops and certain protesters 24 hours to prepare, and the toxicity is already stinking the city up by mid afternoon. Protesters gathered, pissed off because of the video murder of George Floyd ,the lynching of Ahmaud Arbory and a lifetime of disrespect and outright hostility by Police Departments towards the people of color in whatever city for decades, hell centuries. The cops showed up with literal armored vehicles, riot squads were there by 5pm, the busiest intersection of a city of half a million people was shut down, barricades were put on medians to prevent protesters from crossing the street in effect corralling them on whatever corner they stood on. MAGA morons showed up in trucks with Blue Lives Matter flags hanging off the back. The whole atmosphere was much more dangerous than the night before.
The police, and I believe the problem here is not so much Omaha Police but Douglas County Sheriff's deputies, began to take incoming from some asshole with a carton of eggs, and a few water bottles flew out of the crowd. Ok, allow the good folks there for a reason, George Floyd, to police themselves and put a stop to boneheads there to cause trouble. They did that, shouting down people with too much time on their hands breaking shit and throwing stuff. By 430 PM Nebraska State Patrol already were gearing up for fun. By 540 cops began arresting people. This damn demonstration was NEVER going to be allowed to happen. The common sense solution is to let it happen, get it off their chests and in some instances join arms and march together like in Camden, NJ, Santa Cruz,Ca , and Flint, Mi . But this is really not a common sense town. Like most other cities cops exist not to Protect and Serve, but to crack down on anything that stops the daily grind of Midwest values, in other words, keep the white people comfortable.
The City Prosecutor declared the First Amendment "unlawful" around 7pm and the tear gas, the pepper balls, the lock step marching of Sheriffs riot squad and the State Patrol pretend riot squad began moving the people in the street into a corral. It is just so unnecessary for cops to provoke people with a show of military might. The crowd drove off the MAGA idiots real fast who drove off in fear.
This was basically over.
What they didnt realize was that downtown, a whole different band of protesters were gathering around Omaha Police Headquarters.
Tear gas, pepper balls, beat downs, it all just moved downtown. This demonstration was much different. This demonstration contained many more people who probably couldn't spell George Floyd much less say his name. And the riot continues but much like the night before by 10 pm the people genuinely concerned had gone home, and all that was left were the vandals trying to smash windows (one particular weakling trying to smash a window and failing each time was particularly pathetic) and invite trouble.
And then it happened. A person was shot to death. Not by cops. But by somebody else. The vandals attacked the EMT's and were stopped by other people there for a legitimate reason. George Floyd again has been forgotten and now somebody else was fucking dead.
I do blame the cops for all of this. The killing of these unarmed black men and women with no consequences lit this fucking fire. The cops internal desire to show everyone their awesome power and act upon it with no consequences throw gas on the fire. A Leader in DC with a base of out and out racists doing nothing except threatening to invade American cities and encouraging the killing of his fellow citizens is to blame also. The consequences of this mans reign of terror MUST happen on November 3rd. The whole atmosphere of the Police being not there to Protect and Serve but to be an occupying force in certain neighborhoods makes all of this happen.
Yet also, vandals and lawbreakers in demonstrations need to be dealt with internally. Dont throw bottles of fucking urine, or eggs, or anything at cops. Like the MAGA dopes, you're asking for trouble. Because of a few lamebrains, it allows cops to go wild. Now I cant guarantee they wouldnt just start acting all fascist anyway, but goddamit, dont provide an excuse.
A person died last night in Omaha. It wasn't by Police, it was by us.
That doesnt honor the legitimate victims of police murder. Its inexcusable.
UPDATE
The person who was killed was a protester killed by a white Trumper business owner screaming racial slurs while carrying a gun. Just gets better and better huh?
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