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Who's Gaming The George Floyd Protests / Riots?

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But surely looting is only the poor black folk getting what the white folk can get with their money ? ...

That's the simplistic interpretation, but it's even less universally justifiable today than it was 50 years ago.

"Poor folk" don't usually drive up with one or more rental vans carrying crews that clean out "big box" and / or obviously selected items from stores that coincidentally have just been breached, then get away within only a few minutes.
 
That's the simplistic interpretation, but it's even less universally justifiable today than it was 50 years ago.

"Poor folk" don't usually drive up with one or more rental vans carrying crews that clean out "big box" and / or obviously selected items from stores that coincidentally have just been breached, then get away within only a few minutes.
Yes, it's organised crime.
 
That's the simplistic interpretation, but it's even less universally justifiable today than it was 50 years ago.

"Poor folk" don't usually drive up with one or more rental vans carrying crews that clean out "big box" and / or obviously selected items from stores that coincidentally have just been breached, then get away within only a few minutes.

Agreed, it does appear a simplistic interpretation. But, as I wrote, I am quoting a Pulitzer Prize author.

If you can get the Amanpour article (I opened a thread on it) you will be left with some confusion. Well worth the viewing.
 
Agreed, it does appear a simplistic interpretation. But, as I wrote, I am quoting a Pulitzer Prize author.

You haven't "quoted" anybody yet ...
 
Back on topic...

There are reports of foreign countries meddling in the morass

From Politico yesterday: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/31/obrien-foreign-foes-racial-unrest-292147

"National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Sunday said foreign powers were trying to exploit the fraught state of U.S. race relations and protests over George Floyd’s death.

On Saturday night, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio — the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee — tweeted that he was seeing “very heavy” social media activity on nationwide demonstrations and counter reactions linked to at least three foreign adversaries. “They didn’t create these divisions. But they are actively stoking & promoting violence & confrontation from multiple angles,” he wrote.

On ABC’s “This Week,” O’Brien said that was “spot on.” He said he saw tweets from the Chinese taking pleasure and solace in the chaos in America. He also mentioned Zimbabwe and Iran.

Asked whether Russia — which tried to stoke racial unrest and other divisions during the 2016 election — is also involved now, O’Brien said there may be Russian activists playing a role. But he said that’s different from China, where “it’s coming straight from the government.”"


An interesting article in the New York Times which tried to analyse some of the online 'chatter'

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-protests-white-supremacists-antifa.html

"...Antifa-style protesters are hostile to law enforcement and are oriented toward street action, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, so these demonstrations provide an opportunity even if their goals are not the same as those of the original protesters. Still, he cautioned that in such a complex stew, not all the vandalism can be attributed to any one faction.

“While we have seen tactics they embrace at times during these protests, it is also unclear how many of the individuals committing violence or destroying property are antifa or just upset with the ongoing issue of police brutality,” he said.

Analysts noted a range of participants.

“We’re going to see a diversity of fringe malefactors,” said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “We know for a fact there have been far-right agitators both online and at these rallies, as well as far-left.”

Far-right adherents generated an avalanche of posts on social media in recent days suggesting the unrest was a sign that the collapse of the American system they have long awaited was at hand. These groups, known as “accelerationists,” attempt to promote any circumstances that might speed that goal."


I think we can safely say that The Umbrella Man may be a Russian Antifa Boogaloo on the run from Hong Kong/Zimbabwe who happened to have a Chinese-made hammer and an anarchist brolly....
 
I have spent a fair bit of the last week trawling through social media posts of the riots, as well as mainstream media.

What is clear is that there are some white people involved in the riots who are looting, vandalising, and committing violence.
It certainly is not just a simple outpouring of rage by African-Americans.
Though there is footage of an African-American man trying to break into a safe from a burnt down police precinct.

These white people look a mixture of groups - some definitely look trained and organised with political/social motives...by whom is another question.

Others look, for want of a better phrase, "Middle Class", almost like Frat and Sorority types who fancy a new skateboard or pair of Vans.
They look fashionably groomed and are dressed in Hipster clothes - though they may have just looted them.

Some who were looting a store looked to me quite Slavic in appearance - that does not immediately preclude them from being American, there are a fair few Russia and Ukrainians in Coney Island, and Chicago amongst other places has a population of Polish descent, but these looters did not have the sort of white American mix that might be classed as typical - bit of Irish, bit of German, bit of Swedish, bit of English, bit of Dutch etc...nor did they look like Italian or Jewish Americans.

Conspiracy One:

A friend, who is African-American, is convinced that some of the companies who have stores attacked have paid teenagers to do it, so that insurance claims can be made. They reckon this happens in most American riots!

Conspiracy Two:

There are suggestions that the recent spate of killings of African-Americans are occult driven - based on their names and the times and locations of the murders.
I cannot see any occult connection, instead I see overzealous police and civilians (in the case of Ahmed Arbery) with a racial element, but if anyone on here can see an occult connection it would be an eye opener.
 
White Nationalists send out fake ANTIFA Tweets.



KggFqa8t_bigger.png


Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__


New + exclusive from me,
@BrandyZadrozny
+
@_esaliba
: This viral tweet claiming to be Antifa calling for violence in residential areas was actually tweeted by white nationalist group Identity Evropa, Twitter told NBC News. https://nbcnews.com/tech/security/twitter-takes-down-washington-protest-disinformation-bot-behavior-n1221456…
Image
12:52 AM · Jun 2, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

More details from Twitter, and how they confirmed Identity Evropa was behind the impostor Antifa account to come in the link below.
https://t.co/AwOBphuMB7?amp=1
White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/securi...-protest-disinformation-bot-behavior-n1221456
 
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The Umbrella Guy looks to be an older white man, maybe 30s. He's doing a very odd thing at a very odd time in a very calm and orderly fashion. He also has a very super-duper issue respirator. ...
The respirator is not unreasonable in the current circumstances, it also partially obscures his face. The umbrella is odd though, he could easily be mentally ill rather than "special ops" or something. ...

As already noted, the Umbrella Man's respirator isn't an unusual accessory during these pandemic times, and it therefore provides a non-extraordinary means for obscuring his face. It would also provide some measure of mitigation, if not protection, against riot control gases.

The umbrella has a variety of uses, as demonstrated by the Hong Kong 'Umbrella Movement.' It's conceivable the umbrella is symbolic, intended to invoke or insinuate some commonality with the HK protestors.

More probably the umbrella is intended to serve the same useful purposes as those wielded in Hong Kong - a portable shield against flying objects and a means for hiding one's identity from surveillance cameras and passersby.
 
A lot of the Twitter talk (or is it propaganda) tonight is of anti Trump people accusing him of using his speech tonight to send coded messages to the Far Right to start a civil war.


Looting in Manhattan.

This time it's African-American teenagers.
Taking advantage of the protests to grab what they want from Microsoft and Duane Reed.

https://nypost.com/2020/06/01/nyc-looters-clash-with-protesters-as-another-night-of-chaos-erupts/



Meanwhile over in California, The LA Times has captured some of the shopping sprees....


This Patriotic looter is helping himself to some expensive outward bound gear.

Loot.jpg



An environmentally friendly white boy helps himself to a bike.

Loot Bikes.jpg


And this health-conscious chap sees an opportunity to liven up his salad....


Olive Oil Extra.jpg

P.S. Am aware that I have used racial labelling for this post, on purpose, to show that everyone's at it.
 
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Here's a conspiracy angle for you.

* Russia want to destabilise the USA by provoking racial tension on all sides, as laid out in Alexander Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics in 1997 (source https://tec.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/aleksandr-dugins-foundations-geopolitics). Dugin is surprisingly influential at the highest levels of Russian politics for a fascist-occultist nutjob (though it is the land of Rasputin).

"to provoke all forms of instability and separatism within the borders of the United States (it is possible to make use of the political forces of Afro-American racists)" (248). "It is especially important," Dugin adds, "to introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements-- extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics"

* They have been targeting misinformation at both sides using social media for some time now (source https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/russian-disinformation-campaigns-on-twitter/). Presumably to stoke racial tension and the left-right divide, the two biggest fault lines in American society.

* Russia has an interest in triggering and sustaining a race/politics based civil war in the USA right now so they can fill the resulting geopolitical power vacuum.

* The riots have been stoked by Russia through targeted misinformation, infiltration of groups or the use of secret agents (they're not shy to employ agents abroad) as part of a plan to destabilise the USA and grasp the ascendancy.

(The last two points are the theory, i.e. I have no factual evidence for them. It's a conclusion drawn from the facts in the first two points)
 
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Twitter and the like play a large part in the “wrongety”, by allowing anonymous unaccountable keyboard commandos to spew bile, safe in the knowledge that they will never find themselves in the dock for it.

Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”

~ Jonathan Swift in The Examiner.

maximus otter
 
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You haven't "quoted" anybody yet ...

I quoted as close as I could remember the words of said author as she spoke them in a live interview with Christiane Amanpour last night.

I should imagine the program is still somewhere on the wed (maybe CNN home ) and you can listen.
 
You haven't "quoted" anybody yet ...

Just realised you can't read the post (thread) as it has been pulled.

Look up 'Nikole Hannah-Jones' and her interview with CNN's Christian Amanpour yesterday.
 
As already noted, the Umbrella Man's respirator isn't an unusual accessory during these pandemic times, and it therefore provides a non-extraordinary means for obscuring his face. It would also provide some measure of mitigation, if not protection, against riot control gases.

The umbrella has a variety of uses, as demonstrated by the Hong Kong 'Umbrella Movement.' It's conceivable the umbrella is symbolic, intended to invoke or insinuate some commonality with the HK protestors.

More probably the umbrella is intended to serve the same useful purposes as those wielded in Hong Kong - a portable shield against flying objects and a means for hiding one's identity from surveillance cameras and passersby.
Umbrella Guy was supposedly identified by his (ex?) girlfriend/fiance as a member of the police department. He was apparently wearing some of her stuff. The police department has denied this, saying he was elsewhere at the time.
 
I think this thread is valid.

The protests are a major socio-political event of our times ... but with Fortean aspects that there appears to be:

- A fair bit of propaganda and disinformation.

- Behavioural aspects linked to the relatively new world of social media.


One example from yesterday was the idea of #BlackoutTuesday:

This was suggested by Black musicians a couple of days ago, that by not posting creative content on social media on Tuesday 2nd June, they would show their worth to the entertainment industry and media and show sympathy with the protests in the USA.

Then someone had an idea to post just an image of a Black rectangle to show this campaign.

Then people posted the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter

This was then frowned upon by those from the original campaign, and also by the Black Lives Matter movement, who felt that people searching by this hashtag would just see loads of Black rectangles in response, instead of information posted by Black Lives Matter.

So then they asked people to delete this hashtag from posts and replace it with #Blackouttuesday

Then sports stars and companies began posting the Black rectangle to show sympathy.

Then masses of people did, whether Black or not.

Then some of the Black musicians who supported the campaign complained the original idea of it was lost.

And some people (ultra snowflakes in my opinion) campaigned that actress Emma Watson posted a white border on a black square, which was a cynical move to maintain her "Instagram Aesthetic".


So it showed just how social media can be used, but at the same time, is hard to control.

Was the taking up of posting the Black rectangle deliberate disruption to the original idea, or was it well meaning sympathies?

Probably both things at play.
 
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An article about the motivations of the far right 'boogaloo' movement in the USA. It suggests that some of them are earnest in wanting to team up with the black population to fight the police.

Roughly, boogaloo are accelerationists in that they actively welcome a new Civil War in the USA, and though they came from 4Chan originally, they came from another section of 4Chan than other alt-right groups and their primary interests are not in racial issues.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/
 
An article about the motivations of the far right 'boogaloo' movement in the USA. It suggests that some of them are earnest in wanting to team up with the black population to fight the police.

Roughly, boogaloo are accelerationists in that they actively welcome a new Civil War in the USA, and though they came from 4Chan originally, they came from another section of 4Chan than other alt-right groups and their primary interests are not in racial issues.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/

I'm all for destroying society but creating a new one afterwards is for wimps who can't handle proper nihilism.
 
I'd been hearing stories of pallets of bricks, etc. appearing at the sites of protests, seemingly to encourage destructive activities. Certainly warnings went out on social media that they were bait. I'd heard about them appearing in downtown Dallas the night of the particularly destructive protest there, but being there is so much disinformation right now, I was still doubtful. Then a friend whom I trust pointed out a cart full of hefty rocks had been placed - for no discernible reason - in front of her local mall hours before a protest was to start.

Now, the kicker - it happened in my town, too, at our small protest. A mysterious pallet of bricks turning up the night before, like magic. My son and his friends saw it and told us, because it was weird, and it was certainly there the next day. Fortunately, the protest was peaceful.

Here's the thing...maybe this could happen in a big city without anyone noticing, but around here, no one would have been able to unload a pallet of bricks on our picturesque little plaza without some kind of permit. Cops patrol around it all night long, and what's more, this is the kind of small town where residents get sniffy if anything's slightly out of place. The police dispatcher complains that 99% of calls are just neighbors tattling on each other for minor indiscretions.

Consider me convinced as far the brick conspiracy goes.
 
I'd been hearing stories of pallets of bricks, etc. appearing at the sites of protests, seemingly to encourage destructive activities. Certainly warnings went out on social media that they were bait. I'd heard about them appearing in downtown Dallas the night of the particularly destructive protest there, but being there is so much disinformation right now, I was still doubtful. Then a friend whom I trust pointed out a cart full of hefty rocks had been placed - for no discernible reason - in front of her local mall hours before a protest was to start.

Now, the kicker - it happened in my town, too, at our small protest. A mysterious pallet of bricks turning up the night before, like magic. My son and his friends saw it and told us, because it was weird, and it was certainly there the next day. Fortunately, the protest was peaceful.

Here's the thing...maybe this could happen in a big city without anyone noticing, but around here, no one would have been able to unload a pallet of bricks on our picturesque little plaza without some kind of permit. Cops patrol around it all night long, and what's more, this is the kind of small town where residents get sniffy if anything's slightly out of place. The police dispatcher complains that 99% of calls are just neighbors tattling on each other for minor indiscretions.

Consider me convinced as far the brick conspiracy goes.
The bricks, rocks etc. were no doubt left by someone who wanted to encourage violence. Perhaps someone who wants to bring down law and order and ultimately the government?
 
One thing I noticed from photos that I saw of yesterday's London protest, was that 99% of people looked under age 30.

I think those older were either working, or feared they could catch Covid 19, which is more prevalent and fatal amongst Black people in the UK than amongst white people.

And at most half were Black.

Many of the white people looked to me like those who go on loads of protests...Stop The War, Anti - Brexit etc.
Like it's their hobby....students, recent graduates.

That does not detract from the anti-racist message intended by protesters, but it does make me think that there is more than a slight element of international organisation and agitation at work.
 
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Many of the white people looked to me like those who go on loads of protests...Stop The War, Anti - Brexit etc.
Like it's their hobby....students, recent graduates.

That does not detract from the anti-racist message intended by protesters, but it does make me think that there is more than a slight element of international organisation and agitation at work.
I realise you acknowledged this at the start of your post, but it does bear repeating that media picture editors often work to particular agendas, and look for certain (stereo)types to support their narrative. As a different example, there was that creepy trend for a few years to have front-page pictures of blonde schoolgirls jumping in the air to mark A-level results day, even in broadsheets that would have fastidiously claimed to be above that sort of thing.

The other question is ask is whether it's fair to criticise people for having a number of issues that will get them out on the streets. Everyone is a person of parts, with a variety of interests. It should be no surprise that certain Venn diagram circles intersect, and similar intersections will occur regardless of where you place yourself on the political continuum.
 
There seems to be - typically - an awful lot of confusion about this.

Milley is reported in some media sources to have been one of the voices against using the army, from the get go - which would not surprise me; in general terms professional military men hate being forced into policing roles. He's also reported to not have known that he was about to be involved in Monday's horribly crass photo opportunity. And to be honest, given the way things seem to work just now - I kind of believe him.

Re the fuss over his wearing BDU: As a commander he can probably permit himself to do so at any time - but I believe the accepted protocol is that you only wear BDU when no other alternative is more appropriate. Given that everyone else around Milley was wearing suits and ties it's difficult to see why BDU was more appropriate than his usual White House get up at that particular moment. There's some suggestion that he had just been inspecting National Guard personnel, which would be fair enough, but his body language in many of the images I've seen - as well as the film footage - is redolent of a man who finds himself at a funeral in a clown suit; I strongly suspect he'd been played, and knew it (yet another revelation for a future memoir, I suspect).
 
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