It has become obvious there were two groups reacting to George Floyd’s death. His family/friends/supporters who wanted wanted answers from government and were exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances; and the Antifa, looking to cause trouble.
Antifa has been very careful – there have been no homes destroyed, nobody killed, no personal danger. They are destroying businesses to protest capitalism’s exploitation of low income and minority people.
Except . . . most businesses carry insurance and most of those policies cover “civil unrest” which means Antifa is really striking at insurance companies. Fine, they’re capitalist organizations, they deserve it.
Except insurance companies spread their risk over multiple lines – home, auto, business – so if the company takes a hit in the business line, they can cover it by raising rates in the home and auto lines. Which means Antifa is really attacking every home owner and car owner in Minnesota. Fine, they’re rich capitalist pigs, they deserve it, too.
Except . . . remember all those programs to help low income and minorities into homes? The escalator to wealth? The first step on the ladder? Those homes were all purchased with loans that require the homeowner to maintain insurance. For wealthy homeowners, no problem, pay the higher rates. But for marginal homeowners, it’s an issue. And it’s a bigger issue in the time of Covid, when minority and low income people have been laid off in higher numbers. Which means Antifa is really attacking low income and minority homeowners.
I know, it takes effort to understand your actions have effects which are SEEN and also effects which are UNSEEN. it takes effort to see the ripple effect of Black homelessness downstream from burning some schmuck’s bar. It takes effort to redirect your actions into productive, positive, beneficial work instead of mindless destruction.
But failure to think the problem all the way through, means you end up harming the people you intended to help. That includes your supporters, like Governor Walz’ daughter Hope and Attorney General Ellison.
Joe Doakes
We’ll need to revisit this in ten years, when the DFL power structure wonders where the &^%^% their tax base went.
“Antifa has been very careful – there have been no homes destroyed, nobody killed, no personal danger.”
Um, lotta people been killed.
Far be it from me to contradict the estimable JD, but I was under the distinct impression that some, many, or most of the small businesses were *not* insured and that even if insured often times, “civil disorders” are not covered.
Also thought it worth mentioning even tho’ it might be perceived as a threadjack, that the investigations of outsiders causing problems must’ve failed to show “white supremacists” and the like. More likely it’s Antifa and soooo, the Strib is reporting that “Officials back off after first blaming outsiders, extremists for Twin Cities violence”. Don’t know if the headline/article will remain as written (is the Red Star known for changing articles on the fly without change notifications?).
As focused as I’ve been on events around me, I’ve barely noted the riots in other cities. The images all look the same, except where I recognize a building or street. There have been a lot of deaths related to the violence elsewhere and we’ve been largely unscathed from that standpoint. Even a tanker truck running into a crowd of people on the highway didn’t result in any deaths (though there’d be justice if Ryan WInkler’s career died). Here at Ground Zero of the latest uprisings, despite the destruction. It’s pretty amazing. I used to live in an apartment at Lake & Nicollet (I could see the Wells Fargo – Norwest then – drive-thru from my bedroom window) that was all commercial on the first floor, and most of my neighbors were seniors. I felt a lot of dread watching that intersection burn.
When the news guy on the scene announced Saturday that the crowd there was moving west on Lake St. I thought maybe Uptown was the target, and I thought then that if that happened then stuff was REALLY going to get real. It is very sad that those who suffered the most are minority-owned businesses in the area. It speaks to the opportunity that is available here, though, that there were so many minority-owned businesses. It ain’t easy getting through the regulatory hurdles the State and City Councils impose. These latest events may represent a mountain too high to climb over, now.
In the end, it will not matter whether the extremists and anarchists are from the left or the right for few, it seems, are arrested and never do we see follow-up articles describing who they are or where they are from. Like vampires, these folks simply disappear back into the depths of society only to be awakened again during the next full moon having served their purpose to support the narrative from both sides.
We’ve seen this movie before. where marching around the streets, particularly night, sets the stage for so much misdirected anger, purposeless violence, and opportunistic crime. For the protestors, their cause is lost as, sadly, law abiding citizens will remember this only as a time where incalculable amounts of property, both public and private, have been destroyed and where neighborhoods are slow, if ever, to heal and rebuild.
kinlaw, I know there have been much nastier episodes of mob violence in other parts of the country but there were no deaths in MN, apart from the one shot by someone protecting his store.
The attacks and subsequent looting were limited to middle-to-lower-class areas of the city. It’s my impression that the suburban looting episodes were not accompanied by widespread looting but occurred with “flash mobs”. I would think these are easy to throw together and easy to disperse and would be especially effective in suburbia. Great impact, little effort.
I think this all indicates great planning – especially when considering that, as far as I know, none of the power-brokers in town, politically or otherwise, had to fear for their safety.
I admit, I’m confused.
How does all this “black lives” exclusion help the current “misogyny now” message being pushed by corporate America? When DeAndre goes home to a Becky does that mean he is less worthy of reprayshuns? Will the calls from ad agencies suddenly stop?
And if the fake news starts focusing on “black lives”, what will happen to the tranny movement, which is in full swing?
This is complicated.
Twitter says fake “Antifa” account was run by white supremacists
“Twitter has shut down multiple accounts that it says were operated by a white supremacist group posing as liberal groups encouraging violence.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-fake-antifa-acount-white-supremacists-removal/
You can trust Twitter to tell the truth!
Still waiting for the story about Hope Walz, Keith Ellison’s and Ilhan Omar’s evil spawn to be reported on by local media. Since all of the events were over twitter, there were some screen shots circulating. Wally’s little girl took her account down fairly quickly. Maybe daddy saw it.
I also have a personal question for our resident attorneys. Are either of you proficient in libel law and/or cyber bullying? I have an angry black man, on another social media site, that decided I’m a (insert several derogatory terms here) racist and he has threatened to “ruin my reputation”. I have screen shots of his threats and his nasty comments, including one where he allegedly spoke with my last employer and put out that I was terminated for being a bigot. I believe that he may have set up a fake account just to harass me, but he’s putting the stuff out in front of millions of people. Since I’m looking to score at least one more job until I actually retire, this could be a problem if he follows through.
kinlaw – I should have clarified that I meant there no deaths in the Twin Cities from the troublemaking group. They burned a pharmacy on Snelling but not the gas station across the street. Looted Target but were very careful not to stray across University into the residential neighborhoods.
I used to live on Charles Avenue, a few blocks from the Midway Target. There are a thousand modest homes within easy Molotov cocktail distance. With a decent breeze, you could burn to the ground everything from Pascal to the Capital in one night. They didn’t. They were careful not to. That speaks to planning, and organizing, not rage and reaction.
JDM – when I ran my own law firm, I carried Comprehensive General Liability which included “Business Interruption” coverage as a standard component of coverage. Riots were a covered event. I suspect that the business owners talking on TV don’t know what their policies cover and are speaking from shock and fear, which is certainly understandable.
I don’t know if “Governor declaring your business non-essential” or “Mayor declaring a curfew that cut into profits” were covered under my CGL policy – it didn’t come up in the conversation with the agent – which might affect the amount of damages I’d be allowed to recover.
Of course, the damages were covered only to the policy limits for that particular coverage. If I had elected $10,000 for business interruption, hoping that was enough to tide me over for a short interruption but the mob burned my business to the ground, I’d be covered but not enough to re-open the doors. And yes, there were months when looking at dropping coverage to save that premium was tempting, but I was too much of a worrier to do it.
I stand by my analysis – burning down Lloyd’s Pharmacy doesn’t only strike a blow at The Man, it also struck a blow at every low-income homeowner who will have to pony up more money for insurance on their homes and cars as insurance carriers recoup their losses. The Unseen effect of an action is just as real and possibly even larger than the Seen effect. It’s just a lot harder to notice when you have the matches in your hand.
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Boss, I’m sorry, I know nothing about libel/slander/defamation beyond what they teach in first year class, and that’s just enough to know how little I know, so I can tell potential clients to go to a lawyer does know something about it.
Both the Ramsey County Bar Association and Hennepin County Bar Association have attorney referral services. The Minnesota State Bar Association has a “Find a Lawyer” page. Sorry I can’t be more helpful. Best of luck to you.
Boss, I had to hire a lawyer to get Prof Kreapy’s head out of my ass, back in my twitr days. But that won’t work unless you have the identity info.
Telling him to go fuck himself is a good place to start, imo.
Thanks guys!
Yea, chopper I can’t seem to find him or his company and I’ve been searching for a couple of days. He claims that he has 20 years in the USMC, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, ending in 2012, but then there is a gap until he started his “business” in 2017. That’s why I think that he’s just a troll.
Tell me you’re not arguing with Negroes on Facebook, Hoss.
I haven’t heard of any big names being picketed out in the ‘burbs, but protesters were able to get Officer Chauvin’s home address in Oakdale and were out there hot and heavy. I think they got to Mike Freeman’s home, too.