Freedom to Protest (What We Think is Wrong)

For John, BLUF:  One would think that an organization as large as Amazon would have someone on the payroll to advise when public announcements might be misread by the public or by the press.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Amazon suspends Black Lives Matter from its charity platform

From The New York Post, by Reporter Isabel Vincent, 17 February 2022, 5:49 pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

The beleaguered Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been kicked off Amazon’s charity platform for its failure to disclose where tens of millions of dollars in donations it received nearly two years ago have ended up.

AmazonSmile, which gives a portion of eligible purchases on the online shopping site to charities, said it “had to temporarily suspend” the group today, an Amazon spokesperson told The Post.

“States have rules for nonprofits, and organizations participating in AmazonSmile need to meet those rules,” the spokesperson said.  “Unfortunately this organization fell out of compliance with the rules in several states, so we’ve had to temporarily suspend them from the program until they come into compliance.”

Amazon plans to hold any funds that have accumulated for BLMGNF “until they’re back in compliance,” the spokesperson said.  AmazonSmile has raised more than $300 million for charities, according to its website.

The reasoning put forward is plausable, but with it being right after Black Lives Matter Louisville bailed out Mr Quintez Brown, arrested for attempted murder, is suspicious.

Freelance Reporter Andy Ngo Tweeted:

@BLMLouisville has paid the $100,000 to bail out Quintez Brown, the @courierjournal writer & leftist radical who is accused of trying to assassinate a mayoral candidate in a shooting.  Brown wrote columns about white supremacy & is a black nationalist.

What Mr Brown is accused of doing was wrong.  That he was arreated seems fair.  That bail was set in an attempted murder case is questionable.  But, if Amazon is cutting off Black Lives Matter so it can look good now that "wokeness" has gone out of fashion, that is a blot on Amazon.  The Blaack Lives Matter crew may all be Communists, but they have the same Bill of Rights I do providing them Free Speech protection.

The actions of the Canadian Government, and Go Fund Me, and TD Bank, in cutting off contributions to the Truckers Freedom Convoy demonstrating across Canada and especially in Ottowaa, is dispicable.  That folks in the United States would follow suit is embarrassing.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Hot Time in Portland

For John, BLUF:  Yes, mostly peaceful demonstrations.  It is the not mostly part that worries me.  While the demonstrators may feel they are cowing the people, but it could backfire and turn really ugly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'They're Trying to Kill Me.'  A Portland Antifa Death Squad Goes Head Hunting for Andy Ngo and Somebody Gets a Beatdown

From PJ Media, by Ms Victoria Taft, 31 May 2021, 11:42 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

Ronald Reagan said in his farewell address, “don’t be afraid to see what you see.”  That’s good advice for what we’re “seeing” on the streets of Portland.

The communist antifa and Black Lives Matter, Inc. mobs have now elevated their war footing against western civilization and have begun deploying head hunting death squads it appears.  What else can you call it?

On Friday, May 28, the usual black masked mobs slithered “like water” – their favorite phrase for staying hidden and moving from cops – to hold another planned riot and torching in “grief-stricken” homage to the anniversary of their George Floyd riots.

Antifa called it an “anniversary event” and Portland Police begged the mob to be nice.

Local weekly newspaper, Willamette Week, reported that Ngo was on the antifa hit list because of his “willingness to post the mug shots and other personal information of arrested protesters [that] caused many of the people in Portland’s leftist movement to see him as something like an existential threat.”

Remember when newspapers used to post mug shots?  Before the mob take over, antifa and BLM riots mug shots were de rigueur in the media.  Now, they’re an apparent invitation to beating any reporter including them in a story.  Reporters like Suzette Smith of Willamette Week and at least one reporter over at the alternative weekly The Mercury appear to be all-in with the mob.

Remember when "the Mob" used to mean the Mafia, the Costa Nostra?  That was the old days.  Now the mob is the collective of street thugs affiliated with ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter.  Neither of those groups seems to feel the current system of government is capable of dealing with America's problems and have elected to go outside the elective process and to go with intimidation.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Not All Deaths Are Equal

For John, BLUF:  It is not clear to me we have developed the statistics to help us understand the consequences of the protes, which oten became riots, in 2020.  Part of that equation is the response of local goverments.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Murder rates soar dramatically in cities after BLM protests with up to 6,000 extra deaths nationwide - massively outweighing the decline in police shootings, researcher finds

Here is the sub-headline:

• UMass PhD candidate Travis Campbell published findings in a pre-print study
• Found that police shootings drop 15% to 20% in cities with large BLM protests
• That equates to about 300 fewer police shootings nationwide over five years
• But murder rates rose 10%, an increase of 1,000 to 6,000 additional homicides
• The exact reason for the increase in murders remains a subject of study
• Campbell suggests that a decrease in police enforcement could be to blame
• He stresses that comparing murders to police killings is 'apples to oranges'

From The Daily Mail, by Reporter Keith Griffith, 22 April 2021, 16:01 EDT.

Here is the lede plus three:

A researcher has found that cities that had Black Lives Matter protests saw a significant decrease in police homicides, but a huge overall increase in murders.

Travis Campbell, an economics PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, published his findings in a recent pre-print study examining the impact of BLM protests on police use-of-force incidents.

His analysis, which is still undergoing peer-review, found that cities with BLM protests had 15 to 20 percent fewer police homicides than expected if the protests had not taken place, equating to 300 fewer police killings nationwide over five years.

But, in a revised unpublished version shared with DailyMail.com, Campbell finds that cities with BLM protests also saw a 10 percent increase in murders overall, equaling 1,000 to 6,000 additional murders nationwide.

Your average voter eligible citizen should be able to do rhe math.  Perhaps we are having a monologue rather than a discussion.

My speculation is that those hardest hit my a reduction in policing will be middle aged and older Black women.  Millions of them, who have felt some sense of security with the presence of police.  It will take some time for the data to flow in, but that is how I see this evolving.

The worst case outcome would be a demographic shift, with major cities becoming depopulated.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Who Are the Police?

For John, BLUF:  For over a year now we have had groups carving out their own little territories, like CHAZ in Seattle.  This is not a good will to build a peaceful, happy, community.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Portland BLM/Antifa Draw Guns on Drivers to Enforce No-Go Zone in Broad Daylight

From J Media, by Reporter Victoria Taft, 7 May 2021, 9:36 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

Portland’s revolutionaries from Black Lives Matter and antifa took over a busy street at noon on Wednesday and pulled guns on drivers who dared try to dart past the mob.  The groups were holding a rally for a gangland shooter who was killed by police in 2018.  That shooting was ruled justified (more below).

The chaotic scene included guns being drawn on white drivers by the multiracial BLM and antifa protesters and one driver drew his own weapon in reply.  Someone deployed pepper spray.

I don't think this is a good trend.  For a long time we have depended on the Police to police our streets.  Now, in some parts of the country, we are leaving it to private armies.  Are we turning into Mexico?

Some people think they are building a better America, but they are, in fact, destroying the fabric of our society and creating an alternative culture, and not a good one.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Class in America in Action

For John, BLUF:  There are signs that peaceful protests that turn into riots extractic a high cost from the People they are supposed to be helping.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Working-class people of color hate the riots the lefty elite keeps cheering

From The NY Post, by Professor Glenn H. Reynolds, 29 April 2021, 7:28pm.

Here is the lede plus one:

When Americans fight about race or culture, the fight is almost always really about social class.  And that shows up in today’s discussions about riots and policing.

The Daily Caller recently sent a video correspondent to Brooklyn Center, Minn., scene of many police-shooting-related riots, and to Washington, DC, home of America’s ruling class, and asked people in both places when and if rioting was justified.  The answers differed sharply.

Remember, this is The New York Post, which, during the last national election had to be clamped down by Twitter for blurting out the truth about Mr Hunter Biden's laptop computer.  Who knows what kind of wild things they might publish.

The opinion piece ends:

That’s why the cavalier attitude of so many Democrats toward riots makes sense.  Democrats are now the party of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and upscale suburbs.  The people who have to deal with consequences will have to go somewhere else politically.  And they will.

We could be seeing the continuation of a major change in who supports which political party.  Yes, the Democratic Party always had its elite components, such as Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, but the Republican Party was identified as the Party of Business.  This has been shifting for some time.  Yes, the Democrats, in the 1960s, took the Civil Rights Plank from the Republican Platform and made it their own.  In doing so they seemed to sluff off other [all] working class people.  And, now, it has become a class divide.

When Pollsters and Commentators note that college educated voters go Democrat, they are noting, but not noticing the class divide.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Man Bites Dog?

For John, BLUF:  I try to reserve the initialism BLM for Bureau of Land Management, but to each his own.  If you live in Middlesex County, BLM isn't a big deal, but if you live in Alaska or the Rocky Mountains Region it can have a big impact.  Black Lives Matter has its own regional impacts.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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BLM Calls Out Biden:  Claims 'Our Communities...Terrorized' More Now than Under Trump

From MRCTV, by Reporter Nick Kangadis, 21 April 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

The “useful idiots” are firing back against the hand the feeds them the attention they so consistently crave.

The Marxist Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization not only called out President Joe Biden on Tuesday, but they tweeted that his regime is treating their communities worse than former President Donald Trump, which might be the worst thing since Hitler that you can call a leftist.

BLM noted that Biden’s first 100 days in office are up very soon and that things have only become worse under his reign.  Essentially, BLM is upset about a practice that has been going on for years, which is the U.S. military providing police departments across the country with hand-me-downs that they're not going to use anymore.

I am not sure surplus military stocks are a real issue, although lethal arms could be.  Although in a sniper situation (active shooter) a couple of trained police personnel with M-16 (AR-15) rifles might be useful.

This does show that Democrat Politicians in DC do not have a unified front.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Suppressing "Colonial" 🎶

For John, BLUF:  I neither read music or play an insrument, but I see the value.  Apparently, Oxford does not.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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University of Oxford considers scrapping sheet music for being 'too colonial' after staff raise concerns about music curriculums' 'complicity in white supremacy' after Black Lives Matter movement

Here is the sub-headline:

• Professors set to reform music courses to move away from the classic repertoire
• Staff argued curriculum focuses on 'white European music from slave period'
• It is thought that music writing will also be reformed to be more inclusive

Where Are We Now?

For John, BLUF:  Last Summer the Black Lives Matter marchers, and ANTIFA, were threatening the Nation, one block at a time.  This is from that period.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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BLM leader:  If change doesn’t happen, then ‘we will burn down this system’

From The New York Post, by Reporter Mark Moore, 25 June 2020, 9:19am.

Here is the lede plus two:

The president of Greater New York Black Lives Matter said that if the movement fails to achieve meaningful change during nationwide protests over George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police officers, it will “burn down this system.”

“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.  All right?  And I could be speaking figuratively.  I could be speaking literally.  It’s a matter of interpretation,” Hawk Newsome said during an interview Wednesday evening on “The Story” with Martha MacCallum.

“Let’s be very real,” he told the Fox News host.  “Let’s observe the history of the 1960s, when black people were rioting.  We had the highest growth in wealth, in property ownership.  Think about the last few weeks since we started protesting.  There have been eight cops fired across the country.”

The question is, how will this Summer turn out.  The election of Democrat Joe Biden is no guarantee of peace in the streets.  Further, in some Cities Police forces have been reduced.

It could be a very interesting Summer.  I wish President Biden and his Administration the very best of luck.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff