Riots

Democratic New York City mayor Bill de Blasio raised eyebrows on Tuesday for his explanation as to why he continues to crack down on religious gatherings while allowing the George Floyd protests amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Following fierce condemnation, the mayor received for repeatedly singling out Jewish communities on social media for not abiding the shutdown guidelines, reporter Reuvain Borchardt from the Jewish newspaper Hamodia pressed de Blasio on his stance of the lockdown as thousands have taken to the streets, some even rioting and looting across the city.

While individual readers will weigh these arguments with their own values, there are legitimate reasons for viewing the anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests differently both from a medical and a societal perspective. The most straightforward argument is that the purpose of the anti-lockdown protests is diametrically opposite to medical recommendations while the Black Lives Matter demands are consistent with public health imperatives.

The list of government officials flouting or ignoring their own coronavirus restrictions to support or join protest marches has added another name in North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

Cooper has changed his tune on mass gatherings since the George Floyd protests started. In April, Cooper said about church gatherings, “When people gather together and are around each other for a long time, the evidence is overwhelming that the virus can spread so much more easily.” Cooper had capped church attendance to 10 people before it was struck down by the courts. Yet, Cooper joined the thousands who marched in Raleigh last week.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, also a Democrat, was especially caustic, calling the protesters who showed up at the Michigan state capitol “racist” and fretting that they were spreading the virus by assembling in public.

“This is not appropriate in a global pandemic,” Whitmer complained. “But it’s certainly not an exercise of democratic principles where we have free speech.”

Whitmer was especially distraught over the fact that some anti-lockdown protesters chose to exercise their legal right to openly carry firearms, interpreting the behavior as some kind of a “threat” rather than a visually poignant way for ordinary citizens to express their determination to protect their constitutional rights.

However, when rioters used the recent George Floyd protests as cover for violence, Whitmer issued a statement that completely ignored their actions. She then blatantly ignored her own pleas for “social distancing” while joining the marchers for a photo-op just a few days later.

A group of health and medical colleagues has penned an open letter to express their concern that protests around the United States could be shut down under the guise of coronavirus health concerns.

The letter — which went on to draw more than 1,200 signatures — focuses on techniques to reduce harm to people protesting racial injustice.

[…]

Open letter advocating for an anti-racist public health response to demonstrations against systemic injustice occurring during the COVID‑19 pandemic

On April 30, heavily armed and predominantly white protesters entered the State Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, protesting stay-home orders and calls for widespread public masking to prevent the spread of COVID‑19. Infectious disease physicians and public health officials publicly condemned these actions and privately mourned the widening rift between leaders in science and a subset of the communities that they serve. As of May 30, we are witnessing continuing demonstrations in response to ongoing, pervasive, and lethal institutional racism set off by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among many other Black lives taken by police. A public health response to these demonstrations is also warranted, but this message must be wholly different from the response to white protesters resisting stay-home orders. Infectious disease and public health narratives adjacent to demonstrations against racism must be consciously anti-racist, and infectious disease experts must be clear and consistent in prioritizing an anti-racist message.

White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID‑19. […] Black people are also more likely to develop COVID‑19. Black people with COVID‑19 are diagnosed later in the disease course and have a higher rate of hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, and death. COVID‑19 among Black patients is yet another lethal manifestation of white supremacy. In addressing demonstrations against white supremacy, our first statement must be one of unwavering support for those who would dismantle, uproot, or reform racist institutions.

[…]

[A]s public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID‑19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States. […] Protests against systemic racism, which fosters the disproportionate burden of COVID‑19 on Black communities and also perpetuates police violence, must be supported.

Therefore, we propose the following guidance to support public health:

[…]

● Do not disband protests under the guise of maintaining public health for COVID‑19 restrictions.

[…]

● Prepare for an increased number of infections in the days following a protest.

[…]

○ Donating to bail funds for protesters

[…]

This letter is signed by 1,288 public health professionals, infectious diseases professionals, and community stakeholders.

There wasn’t too much social distancing on display in London’s Black Lives Matter protests, but for some hardcore lockdown supporters, that didn’t matter as it was all in a good cause.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about the Covid‑19 virus, but after this week one thing is very clear. The virus is super-intelligent.

Rather uniquely, it can tell if people are breaking social distancing rules for a “good” cause, or a “bad” one. If it’s a “good” one, such as protesting racism, there’s not much chance of anyone getting infected. Well, at least that’s what we’re supposed to believe.

Compare and contrast the reaction towards recent protests in London. A couple of weeks ago there was a small anti-lockdown protest in the capital. Online vitriol was directed at the protestors. They were putting lives at risk. They were being criminally reckless. Some openly wished they’d be infected by the virus.

But when much larger numbers protested in London this week against racism, lockdown enthusiasts suddenly weren’t so bothered about hitherto all-important social distancing rules. And that includes the police.

“Been social distancing since March. Today I broke it to join the #BlackLivesMatter demo outside Parliament and take a knee with thousands of brave young people calling for Justice,” tweeted the former Labour Minister Barry Gardiner.

[…]

“We need to fix this – ASAP,” tweeted the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood on Monday, with a photo of a crowded south-coast beach. Yet just 48 hours later, the same Tobias Ellwood MP tweeted a photograph of protestors outside Westminster with the words “Moving to see this powerful and peaceful demonstration of solidarity outside Westminster right now. Scenes like this are happening across the world. Politicians must listen.”

In the first few days after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, rioters tore through dense stretches of Minneapolis, St. Paul and other metro communities in retaliation, causing millions in property damage to more than 1,500 locations.

In their wake, vandals left a trail of smashed doors and windows, covered hundreds of boarded-up businesses with graffiti and set fire to nearly 150 buildings, with dozens burned to the ground. Pharmacies, groceries, liquor stores, tobacco shops and cell phone stores were ransacked, losing thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise. Many were looted repeatedly over consecutive nights.

Other property — like gas stations, restaurants and even parked cars — was set on fire, with much of it completely destroyed.

Protesters across the United States are seething over the death of George Floyd, and the collective furor has sparked massive demonstrations against police brutality from coast to coast.

Some demonstrations are peaceful, while others have been marked by looting, vandalism, arson, and clashes with police. The death toll associated with the wave of violence is adding up.

A 22-year-old black man, identified as James Scurlock, was shot and killed late Saturday outside a bar in Omaha, Nebraska, called the Hive.

As protests continue in many cities, gun violence has surged.

After the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes May 25, many cities that were engulfed with riots have also seen record numbers of shooting victims.

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant told reporters that 2020’s July 4 weekend was the “most violent weekend” that he could “recall,” with 16 homicides in June marking a record in violence not seen since 2003.

In New York City, shootings surged by more than 358% in mid-June when compared to the same time in 2019. Unfortunately, the violent streak continued into July.

Many of those victims were the most innocent among us — children who were shot and injured or killed, often while playing outside or at a celebration or holiday cookout.

One child was shot near the scene of protests over the death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. “Black lives matter … killing your own,” Secoriya Williamson, the child’s father, said after his 8-year-old child’s death over Independence Day weekend. “You killed an 8-year-old child. She ain’t do nothing to not one of ya’ll, she just wanted to get home to see her cousin.”

Among those killed as protests over the death of George Floyd have roiled American cities in the past week are a retired police captain, a beloved owner of a barbecue restaurant, and a former star football player known as “Mr. Indianapolis.”

As of Monday, an informal tally shows 17 people have died in incidents stemming from the unrest following Floyd’s May 25 death….

Black lives matter, and that should include the lives tragically lost in the riots following the horrific police killing of George Floyd. The riots have destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments. As Black Lives Matter activists continue to repeat the names of unarmed black men and women killed by police, Americans should respond with the litany of victims killed in the George Floyd riots.

Some of these victims died at the hands of police, but in every case, the riots created the tense situations that led to their deaths. Left-leaning commentators continue to insist the protests were “mostly peaceful,” and it is true that the vast majority of people in the streets — especially during the day — were peaceful protesters. However, many instigators used large crowds as an opportunity to loot, vandalize, and destroy. Portland journalist Andy Ngo has explained how antifa instigators weaponize such situations, and some “Boogaloo” extremists may have done the same.

While the protests were peaceful, extensive riots across America emphatically were not. These riots came with a death toll of at least 21 people.