ewen21

I know I have said it many times here, but don't live in Minnesota and never have. I live in upstate NY far enough away from the madness in NYC. I am so relieved to hear about things from people in the know. I have been to Minneapolis a dozen times and I love it. Last night I talked to a longtime friend who used to post on the mlb board years and years ago. HE is from Fridley, but lives in Denver now. We spoke for over two hours. My cousin John and his wife have lived in Manhattan for 25 years. I have done ZOOM with them a few times through COVID-19 and lucky for them they went out to their summer home in Fire Island (ironically enough) out on Long Island last weekend. They are still out there now. It was great to get a text and see pictures out there safely away from the madness. I was actually in Manhattan with my wife on February 22nd and that feels like a million miles away now. We took the train from Poughkeepsie. I am not sure when we will go there again.

Thanks. I didn't expect a like for anything I said, but at the same time I would like to have a conversation. There needs to be a clear distinction made between the protesters and the rioters. At the same time I believe the protesters need to take a break and regroup. We have COVID-19 to deal with still. Stores have been destroyed without fires and looters and now they are being burned and or completely ransacked. This has to stop, law enforcement needs to step up and for that to happen the ones how have been protesting peacefully for over week now should get out of the way so that can happen.

There are a lot of people of all races wearing Black Lives Matter shirts. I am not getting one of those shirts. I don't need one because I always believed all lives matter. I don't need to tie a string around my finger and I don't need a MAGA hat either. I find your choice of words interesting, though. The "Twins are pushing Black Lives Matter" Who isn't?

I get what you are saying, but I don't consider Antifa or radicals to be liberal. These folks are so far over on the spectrum that they can't be called liberal. What is stunning to me is that liberals by and large (at least here) justify the destruction these maniacs are leveling on American cities. How is that fair to anyone wanting to run a business or raise a family in these cities. How is it OK when at the time all this happened we were told to stay at home and practice social distancing? The actions of these people are literally insane. This is not a means to an end. The end result of this carnage will be that cities will take years and years to recover. Some may never recover. Detroit and Newark had riots in 1967 and neither city has bounced back. It is getting to the point now where the protesters need to assess the situation and take it to phase two. This is getting played. Start the actual healing process now.........and if not, then why not?

Well now there you go. Umbrella man was supposed to be evidence that white nationalists were looting and burning things. That never made sense to me. Clearly the rioters squared with a radical, anti-law enforcement, anti-American flag, anti-capitalism agenda. White nationalists were the ones with the AR-15s and American flags on the steps of the capitol building in Michigan protesting Whitmer's stay at home order. It is important to be able to discern who is who. As unnerving and disturbing as white nationalists are they are not the people demonstrating against the police, wrecking police cars and burning American flag. Maybe Derek Chauvin was a white nationalist. HOWEVER, the actions and antics of these lunatics do not square with a white nationalist agenda. I am not picking a side here because I am absolutely freaking appalled with what I see. At first, I was totally down with what the protesters are doing, but I don't see where continued protests are for the greater good at this point. Time for a break and if people don't want to stop and want to loot and burn then green light law enforcement to take more extreme measure. People with stores and people not wanting large groups of people invading their neighborhoods have rights too. This country has both ends going against the middle and so many lies are being told on both sides. I am sick of it. This is about bad policing in communities where violent acts are committed daily. It is everyone's best interest both sides be a whole lot more honest about what they might need to address and how their actions affect the rest of us. I know it isn't so popular around here to call out both sides on this issue, but someone has to do it

As the hour comes near I hope the peaceful protesters use better discretion and sit this night out. Go home. Take a day off and let businesses and streets get better secured. We need COVID-proof, looter-proof arson-proof storefronts. It will take time

I see why you like him. All cops aren't bad after all, right?

Do you think we need to set the bar so low that nothing should change in these dangerous gang infested neighborhoods? Can't two things happen at once? That is what's called cooperation.

I don't think this place can be characterized as indifferent to issues of race. Not with the discussions I have had here. I also think the elephant in the room that has to be part of the discussion is the data on the murder rate amongst African Americans. It can't be easy policing in certain communities where bullets fly and cases don't get solved because they won't "snitch" Let's not act like this isn't a factor in all this. To simply brush that aside and chalk it up to "systemic racism" excuses the behavior. To hold one side accountable and castigate the other side will accomplish nothing. When two groups don't mesh well blame has to be shared and I fear it won't be on any level and "systemic racism" and "oppression" will be in the vernacular forever. I also fear that African American males will continue committing murder at a wildly disproportionate rate and it will be accepted as normal (or completely ignored and explained away) That's my fear. The data has never been discussed in an open forum without people shouting objections over it and losing their heads. It is data. Numbers don't lie, people do We aren't going to agree in certain areas, but thanks for letting me speak about this. The topic is way too important to ignore and I am glad people are waking up to it. I never ignored this. As early as 40 years ago I was reading about the civil rights movement. One of my favorite books was the autobiography of Malcom X. He is possibly one of the most misunderstood figures in American history. This is a very exhausting and emotional topic to discuss, but have to keep our heads when discussing it.

That is a bunch of crap. When someone burns down your house get back to me. Tell that to the shop owner who didn't do a damn thing and gets his store ransacked. I am all for a reaction with the intention to facilitate change, but this is sheer lunacy. Even worse, we are in the midst of a pandemic and this is going to only make things worse. How do we rebuild with all the jobs lost AND with all the destruction? If you want to endorse these actions then that's you. I think its strayed way too far from the initial purpose. Now we have new unrelated issues to solve. How is this insanity addressing police brutality? If anything it will coax more of it the longer it goes.

One can be outraged with what happened to Mr. Floyd and tired of the unrest at the same time. It is almost as though people assume you can't be both, or that if I am sick of all the riots I don't care about police brutality. When is this insanity enough? When do we move forward with a dialogue?

I am sorry, but that is inevitable when you have a mob of people destroying property, burning cars, blocking streets, looting, etc....if you extend the timeline out long enough bad things are going to need to start happening because the mob has become completely irrational. If anything the police have shown an unbelievable amount of restraint.

I don't agree with all of this because we are now still going strong after almost a week. The extent of the damage is too great now to level all the blame on police officers. Innocent people are having their lives turned upside down by the actions of violent protesters. This does nothing for George Floyd and it will only weaken communities that are already in bad shape due to the pandemic. This is not an appropriate response. I feel I need to ask you and others a very important question.... Is there a point where the violent protesters looting, burning, throwing rocks and generally overturning cities all over America need to get checked? It seems to me you are content to sit back and say...."well, that's what you get because the cops....." Let's say this goes on for another week. Would you begin to consider there is blame on both sides at that point? I sincerely doubt you will ever get there so please tell me I am wrong.

Solutions need to be discussed while engaging in some hard talk on both sides. We die without a solution. I am sorry if I made you feel like you condoned the actions of the looters. Some have,.

Pacifist? Hardly. I was for the protests and actually was proud to see a large number of white people being involved. That all changed when things started burning. I don't support irrational behavior and destruction. I am a grown up. Maybe when I was 21 I would have been down for some mayhem just to do it and there were tons of people like that out there from all races. Being more rational in my old age, I realize small businesses have suffered enough during COVID-19. How is looting going to help. I really don't care what community it is or where the people came from. If they were Minnesotan, white, black, radical, reactionary, is virtually meaning when we consider the damage done. The people who own those places and work there don't deserve that. Furthermore, I have been quarantined since March 16th and have no desire to engage in activities in big crowds. We have been hearing about social distancing for months and are still expected to adhere to it. These people were not. It is ignorant on several levels, but you seem to view it as justice. I will never agree with that. Sorry!

I think it is important that news media be counted as people as well. This was way too important and no interference from anywhere had to be tolerated

I guess Jacob Frey was wrong to take responsibility for the comments he made about most of the people from being out of state: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minnesota-officials-say-most-people-who-acted-violently-at-protests-are-not-state-residents/ That was debunked already and both Walz and Frey walked back the comments. The part about "why would people who are the most oppressed be burning their own businesses" isn't for anyone to determine. Look at the riots in Detroit and Newark. They burned down their own neighborhoods and the cities never recovered. It was not rational then and it isn't rational now, so asking why they would do this assumes people were being rational. They were not. People trash their neighborhoods sometimes. When I was a teen, my friends and I vandalized things a couple times. Take a drive around Chicago and you will see neighborhood destroyed by young men living in them. YOu can ask WHY would they do it, but you are coming from a place that is rational. They are not. More to the point, these mobs demonstrated irrational behavior and that was why the National Guard had to be called. This riot and the ones in other cities around the country showed me that white people surely love to riot and really could not care less about destroying property in their own neighborhoods. These neighborhoods in Minneapolis where not all that poor and disenfranchised. The people destroying stuff were black and white. The people living in many of those neighborhoods were a mix. I don't know without out a question where they came from but you can't speak in absolutes saying "much of this came from people out of state" The arrest reports indicate otherwise https://www.kare11.com/article/news/investigations/kare-11-investigates-records-show-arrests-mostly-minnesotans-as-george-floyd-protests-riots-continue-minneapolis-st-paul/89-73f3e0e8-0664-41d5-8d3e-4467d04da7cb This idea about who is responsible for the looting, arson and mayhem is meaningless to me. It seems to me that this site has a large number of posters pushing the idea that "white nationalists" did a majority of the damage. I find that to be incredibly unlikely, but find it odd because I know people want to believe that so much for some reason. How is it that a large group of "white nationalists" came in and did what they did when BLM, the NAACP and all sorts of activists staunchly against them couldn't even recognize or identify them? Would there not be confrontations between the disparate groups? Maybe a few renegades got in there and did damage, but where is the evidence of widespread damage from "white nationalist"? Some white guy dressing in black carrying an umbrella? I am not saying it is impossible that some "white nationalists" flew under the radar, but let's get real here. Yeah, no. I am not interested in assigning blame at this point, but it seems to me a lot of people would like to believe "white nationalists" were responsible for this. It is far more likely that anti-law enforcement whites and anarchists were the ones trashing police cars and burning them--and make no mistake there were a lot of them. This behavior more lines up with that ideology if we are going to attempt to understand the culprits who perpetrated the vandalism and chaos for five days. White nationalists were the ones in Lansing holding the gun in front of the capital building demanding Whitmer reopen Michigan. That makes a whole lot more sense. The anti-police hysteria lines up with something entirely different, but again...........I am completely disinterested in pursuing that diversion,.

Oh the white supremacist theory. Yeah. I find it hard to believe that white supremacists are there in numbers, running amok zig zagging between BLM, the NAACP, and all sorts of activists. If they are part of the picture then they can go to hell, too. Sorry, I am not apathetic. I think all this looting and destruction is ignorant. We are buried economically by COVID-19 as it is.

Have you been watching the news? We are in the middle of a pandemic and yet there are mobs of people burning stores. Haven't small business owners suffered enough? And YES. I see burning the third precinct as a terrible thing. I also keep seeing ACAB. That stands for ALL COPS ARE BAD. Sorry, man. That is insanity. What was that line in the song "Revolution" by the Beatles? "When you go talking about destruction don't you know that you can count me out" That's where I am coming from. Do you actually have trouble with that?

Wow. You advocate burning down the police precinct? I am sorry, but that has only emboldened the looters and rioting to take it a step further. I thought the protests early on were hopeful. I saw white and black people peacefully assembling in protest and it was perfectly appropriate. What you are endorsing is not. I think the death penalty is something that should be immediately administered in some cases. With what Chauvin did, what is there to talk about? Same with school shooters. That said.... I am sorry, Brock, but this kind of action isn't going to fix the problem. This is not justice. Not at all.

I live 1,000 miles away, but .....could rioters stop burning down buildings, looting and destroying business? Not sure I want to say anything more than that

Reads to me like he was just talking about baseball. Everyone please. Baseball has little to do with the real world in the way that it operates. Over the last 30 years players salaries have increased by over 500%. The boom happened and now it is going to experience a correction. At least I hope it does. If baseball reminds me of anything it is the housing industry

Stop. There literally is no analogy in the corporate world for baseball. Furthermore, Amazon is a service that has become essential at this point. Baseball is not essential. People who work for companies like Google and Amazon out west are earning $60, $70 a year and can't afford housing. So please.....OK? Get some perspective. Players don't need to spend a dollar of their own money during the season. They are put up in first rate hotels and get their meals checks daily. The average salary in baseball in over 4 million dollars a year now. If there are players who are fiscally irresponsible that is on them. Bag groceries or something. Make yourself useful if you aren't going to play

This idea that the players aren't earning a fair wage is sickening to me. They take on zero risk and have guaranteed money. Nowhere in the world of reality for slobs like us does this exist. Even average players earn more in a year than a lot of highly capable contributors to society make in their lifetime. I can't for the life of me understand the player advocacy I see here. They have advocates, a union, lawyers, agents, etc....doing that for them. They really ought to play even if it's just some prorated amount. Even the 25th man on any MLB roster will out earn all of us in just a few months of riding the bench. Sorry if I don't rush to their side when the try to flex their muscles. These are unprecedented times and the players are acting like they are above it all. That is pretty hard to take for me

They stay away