Sounds like you’ve been utterly and thoroughly bamboozled and brainwashed by the media. Your comments could only come from someone who hasn’t seen what’s going on with his own eyes. I live in New York City and have been watching this going on up close every day. The idea that the protests turned violent only after cops got involved is absurd. Every night, groups of largely black teens and youths clad in masks and dark glasses have been congregating in certain areas where they normally wouldn’t be at all, and when dark falls and the cops are out of sight, the looting, rioting and vandalism begin. That stuff is happening when the cops AREN’T there. The hoodlums quickly disperse when the cops come into view. They have lookouts warning them when the cops are near. So your view that the cops are somehow precipitating the violence is ignorant and couldn’t be more wrong.
From what I’ve seen in the mainstream media, what they’re showing are almost exclusively the more peaceful protests, but even the peaceful protests often have lots of hateful rhetoric and misdirected rage going on.
As far as why I’m not upset at cops, I’m not upset at cops at all. They’re dealing with an absolutely impossible situation, and they’re doing it more professionally and peacefully than I could possibly have imagined, especially under these conditions when the mayor here has pretty much hamstrung them. When people are so out of control, there will inevitably be mistakes made, some blood shed, some overreactions, etc. You should be angry at the criminals, not the cops. The cops are trying to protect all of us law-abiding citizens and small businesses, etc. from violent animals that have gone out of control. Where is your empathy for all the small businesses owners who’ve just dealt with months of lockdowns and now have had their windows smashed and goods looted by goons? How does that help any social-justice-type cause in any way?
I’ve been retweeting Trump and Carlson (not Ben Shapiro quite as much) because I agree with them on these issues. I’m economically liberal (and further to the left than liberal, actually), and I’m not religious, so I don’t get excited by all that anti-abortion stuff and homosexuality-is-sin stuff, I’m pro better gun regulation and I’m also for legalization of most recreational drugs both to lower associated crime and so that the idiots who use them can pay taxes on them, but otherwise, I’m socially conservative. I’m a big proponent of civility, law and order and a big believer in the need for social cohesion. I hate identity politics because they’re both divisive and counterproductive. So, yes, I’m an independent thinker. I hated George W. Bush, for example, and thought he was the worst President in my lifetime. I thought Obama was average. I like Trump, despite his many flaws. I don’t consider myself a Republican or Democrat. But I do have strong views about what is going on now, and that’s what I’m expressing.
