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Comment by ctoth | Hacker News Reader

I don't really want to get into the weeds here, but when you take a step back and squint a little bit it's hard to tell if this message was written by someone complaining about Canadian Truckers or about the 2020 Summer riots. Maybe let's lean a little more towards letting people express themselves and not bringing in the people with guns?

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I had the exact same take on the riots in 2020 and I don't condone rioting in general. Disrupting public order, destroying property, or just causing economic damage and thinking the law is just some suggestion seems to be an increasing and pretty bad trend.

Expressing yourself is fine, disturbing public life because you don't get your will isn't. That's not how civilized societies resolve issues. This is now apparently a controversial take on multiple political sides.

I agree with you, but I also see violence as an inevitable consequence of growing inequality. If we continue to let wealth inequality grow, more and more people will feel the game is unfair, and choose to play another game, even if the "rising tide that lifts all boats" is lifting their boat somewhat.

> Maybe let's lean a little more towards letting people express themselves and not bringing in the people with guns?

Sounds awesome until I come to your place banging pots and pans all night and blocking your driveway, for an extended period.

As long as someone else is paying the price, standing on principle is easy.

It's not as if everyone who committed crimes while those 2020 protests were going on got away with it. They did arrest people.

And generally arresting looters and rioters seems quite popular on both sides of the political spectrum. They often didn't have anything to do with the protests, and were just taking advantage of the police being busy.

> And generally arresting looters and rioters seems quite popular on both sides of the political spectrum.

I beg to differ. Any attempts to contain the mass violence were decried as "Trumpist fascism".

And you believe every single liberal agrees with that idea? You're just holding up a minority opinion and smearing the rest with it.

That was the messsage being blasted at max volume by CNN, NYT, WaPo, and the rest. They were outraged when the capitol police responded to far left insurrectionists setting the national mall on fire. So yes, it is safe to say that was a mainstream viewpoint.

Conservative news sources put out insane stuff all the time. Do all Conservatives believe all of it?

It's not odd to publish editorials from activists when a bunch of protests are going on. That doesn't mean everyone is on board.

It was live coverage on major network television.

I don't think the protests were actually popular among every single liberal, but it was considered taboo to say anything against them. I lost several friends during this period, expressing my concerns about the protests, and more specifically the organization behind them. I was called an Uncle Tom.

My former workplace hired outside therapists to attend to us people of color, and held special town halls and discussions. Meanwhile, I was losing sleep because the local strip mall was being looted, and I had to listen to gu shots all night. I spent one night sleeping on the floor of my living room with my guns due to reports of break-ins in my neighborhood.

I'll totally agree that it was a bit of a taboo to speak badly of the protests in some circles, but the enthusiasm for the whole thing quietly died among many people for exactly the reasons you describe.

For one thing, they didn’t block access to hospitals or harass health care workers.

I mean I said I didn't want to get into the weeds here, just wanted to make a meta point. But if we must, then perhaps this is a bad criteria to use:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/la-hospita...

Snopes:

> While the sheriff's department said protesters at one point blocked entrances and exits at the hospital, no videos or photos confirmed that was the case.

[snip, most of the article about the shooting itself]

> Rather, video footage showed a handful of deputies standing in a driveway (apparently an entrance to the hospital’s emergency room), while the small group of protesters paced up and down a sidewalk feet away from them.

> At one point, deputies detained a journalist with LA’s NPR station, KPCC, who was reporting on the small protest, as well as a male protester who “refused to comply” with deputies’ demands to leave the area.

> The sheriff’s department said the reporter, Josie Huang, ignored deputies’ repeated commands and did not present “proper” press credentials. But she said and videos of her arrest show she didn’t have time or space to react to deputies orders before they shoved her and forcefully took her into custody. In one video, she can be heard shouting “I’m a reporter… I’m with KPCC” as officers push her to the ground. They cited her with obstructing justice, though KPCC is urging authorities to drop the charge.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-deputies-compton/

Adding onto this to say that the LA Sheriff's Department has less than zero credibility when it comes to any matter concerning either race or protests against police action. They literally have violent and racist gangs operating in that department. There is a reason why "Google LASD Gangs" has become a meme in LA and LA-centric circles of the internet. It is a known problem and almost no one in power is working to fix it.

I'm not sure that article is useful to your point, as it states that the Sheriff's office was claiming they were blocking the hospital, but that "The Independent could find no evidence of them blocking emergency exits."

I called 911 during one of those summer 2020 riots and got put on hold for close to 10 minutes. Tough luck for anyone who had a heart attack or stroke during those riots I guess?

Rioters should be and were arrested.

Easy to say when you're not the one being held hostage, unable to sleep for days on end.

There are peaceful ways to protest and expressing oneself, occupying a city this way and stealing food from a homeless shelter is not one of them that should be tolerated.

Edit: See my comment below for sources on homeless shelter

Stealing food? Can you cite that?

It was covered in the news well [1] [2] [3] [4]. Even Trudeau mentioned it in his comments.

[1] https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-homeless-shelter-staff-hara...

[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/31/canada-trudeau-deno...

[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/police-say-ottawa-tru...

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/world/canada/trudeau-truc...

Trudeau also called the protest “anti-trans”.

Since this protest is making him look bad, I’d take what he says with a grain of salt.

It is just not him saying this happened, of course he would use it for his political advantage.

I was just trying to show that the homeless shelter claim is beyond just random stranger on the internet ( he argubly is more credible than me however Low that maybe)

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/convoy-protesters-...

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