solarbird | Today's News (2020/5/31): Evening Edition

UPDATED: If you saw fewer than 11 articles, reload. New articles are at the bottom.
These aren't in good order, sorry. It's been a day. Selected additional police violence (tho' there is more than this), and a variety of articles and symbolism.

I also keep thinking about what this is going to do to the COVID-19 numbers. It's not like any of that has gone away. Being outdoors will reduce the impact, but it's still not going to be zero.

10,000 people have surrounded riot police at the Justice center and demanding they take of their riot gear and kneel.
For last 15 yrs been involved or teaching terrorism/counterterrorism courses to law enforcement around the country, last 3 years, it’s gotten weird.
Lights that usually illuminate exterior of the WH have been turned off.
Police violence, Rubber bullets at protester at distance: Spokane, Washington
Police violence, police shoot MSNBC reporter: Washington, DC
Police violence, unprovoked tear gas: Louisville, Kentucky
Trump criticized as ‘most cowardly tough guy’ for Twitterstorm while being rushed to protective underground bunker
The police scanner in Chicago was just blocked with Chocolate Rain
America is at a low ebb, shaken by multiple blows, and Trump adds to the distress
CPS suspends food distribution program ‘based on the evolving nature of activity’ in Chicago
UPDATED FOOTAGE: Semi driver attempts to mow down dozens of protestors on I-35

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Anti Fascist Jew
twitter.com/JordanGWrites
9:49 PM · May 31, 2020

https://twitter.com/JordanGWrites/status/1267317260990980096

There is something absolutely incredible happening in Portland right now.

10,000 people have surrounded riot police at the Justice center and demanding they take of their riot gear and kneel.

[SEE ALSO VIDEO:

https://twitter.com/solidarity_goth/status/1267323328047583232

]

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Clint Watts
twitter.com/selectedwisdom
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/selectedwisdom/status/1267180275307548673

[THREAD]

Regarding the President, politics, law enforcement & Antifa - we have a problem. Here’s my story - for last 15 yrs been involved or teaching terrorism/counterterrorism courses to law enforcement around the country, last 3 years, it’s gotten weird.

[THREAD CONTINUES]

For years I’d conduct an exercise for cops evaluate extremist threats in their jurisdiction. First decade AQ/ISIS, by 2015 mix domestic/Int’l then last 3 years - Antifa suddenly became #1 threat for majority class. Some in the classes from major cities never heard of it.

[THREAD CONTINUES]

was confused, we’d nearly always just seen an ISIS or White supremacist attack in the news. I’d ask,”who is the leader of Antifa?” No answer. “When was last time someone from Antifa killed someone?” Silence. Usually amounted vague recollection of property damage might be Antifa

[THREAD CONTINUES]

Some that said antifa was the top priority, literally did not know antifa stood for anti-fascist. As a result, I just stopped doing the exercise as it became way too political.

[CONTINUES AT LINK]

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Mark Knoller
twitter.com/markknoller
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1267291138655956992

Lights that usually illuminate exterior of the WH have been turned off.

[EMBEDDED IMAGE of White House without lights]

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Cam Mason
twitter.com/camasonn
31 May 2020

we were being peaceful “they shot my fucking ass” #spokaneprotest

[EMBEDDED VIDEO]

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ALT-immigration
twitter.com/ALT_uscis
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/ALT_uscis/status/1267293217084637185

Cops just hit the twitter.com/msnbc reporter with a rubber round live in dc on 16th.

[EMBEDDED VIDEO]

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Hayden Ristevski
twitter.com/HaydenWDRB
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/HaydenWDRB/status/1267262052294447105

Just watched law enforcement in downtown Louisville escalate what has been a peaceful protest all day. It was 8:19, 41 mins before curfew. It did not appear there was a threat to life or property — police announced it was an unlawful assembly and fired tear gas.

wdrbnews

[THREAD]

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Trump criticized as ‘most cowardly tough guy’ for Twitterstorm while being rushed to protective underground bunker
May 31, 2020
By Sarah K. Burris

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/trump-criticized-as-most-cowardly-tough-guy-for-twitterstorm-while-being-rushed-to-protective-underground-bunker/

Twitter couldn’t help but notice that President Donald Trump was talking tough while hiding in his underground bunker.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump was rushed to the underground bunker that has only been used during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when passenger planes were headed to Washington, D.C. Trump, by contrast, didn’t experience a terrorist threat, a few hundred protesters surrounded the White House complex, which is blocked off by several fences and surrounded by Secret Service and police.

It was something that many noticed contrasted with former Vice President Joe Biden, who spent Sunday listening to the concerns from protesters on the streets of his hometown.

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*asks you to steal gobstoppers*
twitter.com/alexcollyard
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/alexcollyard/status/1267265346014191616

The police scanner in Chicago was just blocked with Chocolate Rain

[EMBEDDED VIDEO]

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America is at a low ebb, shaken by multiple blows, and Trump adds to the distress
May 31, 2020 at 11:42 am Updated May 31, 2020 at 8:31 pm
By Dan Balz
The Washington Post

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/america-is-at-a-low-ebb-shaken-by-multiple-blows-and-trump-adds-to-the-distress/

America is at a low ebb. Pain and destruction strangle hopes and dreams of people across the country. People are dying – alone from a terrible virus or from a knee on the neck in full public view. Cities burn, destroying businesses and inflaming divisions. Tens of millions are out of work. The president makes it all worse.

This is the state of the union as the nation reels from multiple blows, each one arriving with swift and overwhelming force. Long-standing, untreated inequalities have been exposed anew, and they, in turn, have highlighted the country’s real vulnerabilities. What has been just below the surface, known but barely acknowledged and rarely addressed seriously, is now impossible to ignore.

America experienced a wave of burning cities in the aftermath of a racial killing in 1968. America was hit by a pandemic in 1918 that killed even more people than the 102,000 who have died of the coronavirus. America was battered by a Great Depression in the 1930s and laid low by a Great Recession just a decade ago. America has never experienced all of this kind of tumult in the same moment. It is more than the system can bear, and people grieve for the country.

The heinous killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police – one officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged – provoked instantaneous outrage that united nearly every racial and ideological group in the country. It was a collective cry of anguish and a demand for change to what has become commonplace, the killing of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement.

But today that unity brought about by Floyd’s death is fraying, as what began as peaceful protests over yet another senseless killing of a black person quickly turned to violence and looting and businesses and police cars in flames. City leaders on the front lines, many of them black Americans, struggle to express their sympathy and solidarity with the underlying conditions that provoked the demonstrations while trying to quell those protests so they can save their communities from further damage and division.

Through all this, President Donald Trump has spewed division with ill-chosen tweets about looting and “shooting” or “vicious dogs” and overpowering weapons. He has attacked Democratic leaders as their communities burn. He flails rather than leads, his instincts all wrong for what confronts the country.

At a time when presidential leadership is most called for, at a time when Americans look to a president for words to unify and heal, many hope this president will resist that call – an extraordinary condemnation of the way he leads in crisis.

“He should just stop talking,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is like Charlottesville all over again. He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet, and I wish that he would just be quiet.”

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CPS suspends food distribution program ‘based on the evolving nature of activity’ in Chicago
The district, the nation’s third largest, has given out more than 12.5 million meals since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
By Nader Issa
May 31, 2020

https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2020/5/31/21276564/cps-suspends-food-distribution-program-evolving-nature-activity-chicago

Thousands of families will now have to look for another way to get food for their kids after Chicago Public Schools suspended its meal distribution program “based on the evolving nature of activity across the city,” officials announced late Sunday night.

The district, the nation’s third largest, has given out more than 12.5 million meals since the start of the coronavirus pandemic through a food program that has been widely praised by parents who rely on schools as a primary food source. Of CPS’ 355,000 students, 271,000 come from low-income families and about 17,000 are homeless.

The decision to suspend the program was an abrupt change from a letter sent to parents earlier in the evening by CPS CEO Janice Jackson that said the district would continue to provide the free meals for all students.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., the district posted on its social media accounts that “based on the evolving nature of activity across the city, we are suspending grab-and-go meal sites and all other school and administrative office activities tomorrow.” CPS said staff will work from home and remote learning will continue Monday.

In a letter to families, the district said the decision was made “in recognition of the potential challenges families and staff could face trying to reach school buildings and offices tomorrow.” CPS said it would monitor the situation and give an update on meal distribution Tuesday.

The Chicago Teachers Union criticized the move in a late night tweet.

“CPS is already forcing children living in areas of extreme unrest and trauma into remote learning tomorrow. Now it’s cutting off their access to food,” the union wrote.

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Boyd Huppert
twitter.com/BoydHuppert
31 May 2020

https://twitter.com/BoydHuppert/status/1267243913250836480

New cell phone video of a tanker truck driving into protestors on the 35W bridge. Video shot by witness Treye Harrison.

[EMBEDDED VIDEO]

[EDITOR: This is better footage of the attempted mass murder of protesters by a semi driver who drove around barricades in an attempt to smash into a crowd of peaceful protesters occupying the highway. I reported this earlier, but the video was inadequate - this shows more of the attempt. The driver is now in custody.]