Looting a Habitat for Humanity house??? Brilliant......as brilliant as protesting on a freeway and not expecting to get run over by a semi...sounds like the driver of said semi never went around any closed barricades. Why is he still in custody?
Seriously?
How fast would you approach a mass of people on the roadway?
Would it have occurred to you to stop the truck and let them pass?
Are you sure it wasn't a act of violence and he chickened out at the last second?
Sarcasm my friend. Hard to be anything but at this point.
But Seriously,
I wouldn’t protest in the middle of an open freeway. But maybe that’s because I would be at work. I have a hard time being sympathetic to any of these people at this point. The disconnect between rural and urban has never been greater.
If I missed the sarcasm i'm sorry.
However let me correct a thing or two on your response.
1) It wasn't a open freeway. It was closed.
2) It was Sunday and maybe only you would be at work. Many others would have the day off.
I will agree the disconnect is huge. For many reasons. One of the reasons is people assume just because a person protests they are scum, lack a job, are on welfare, are looking to loot and vandalize.
Facts are that was a peaceful demonstration as guaranteed under the constitution. They were on the freeway because thats where the Law Enforcement wanted them. When you are on the 35 bridge there is nowhere to go. You are "controlled " from exit to exit. To lump them into the same class of people as the looters would be like saying all farmers are uneducated and only survive under government farming programs.
As far as the semi goes, it was speculated he was on the freeway system when it was closed down. Last I heard they couldn't find footage of him going around a barricade or anything. I will say he was going far to fast. I will say he was likely scared for his life. Being Russian i'm guessing he barely speaks English and can hardly drive a truck. (stereotyping him I know, but I've interacted with enough Russian truck drivers to have a pretty good guess) Him being arrested does two things.
1) gives the cops time to figure out what happened.
2) kept him out of the protesters hands who would no doubt beat him to a pulp.
Sorry if I offended some here but i've read far to many bs theories on what should have been or could have been done. This is a bad deal with a guy getting murdered by the cops. No justifying that. However a lot of factors went into the looting and lawlessness we saw, not all of it preventable. I'm no buddy of Walz, fact is I don't like him but I think over-all he has done a pretty good job with this. As well as we can expect I suppose.
Dutch boy, from what I can tell our view points are not that far apart..but yet they are.
Not once have I said people don't have a right to protest. But breaking the law while doing it is a different story. And the fact is nobody should have been on that freeway if it was closed...not only the law but basic common sense should govern that..
Correct.... Your statement about farmers living off government subsidies and being uneducated is no different than you THINKING I lump all of the protesters together...
The amount of dollars spent on the farm programs, actual farm related programs is a drop in the bucket compared to the welfare portion of the farm bill. In fact around 80% of the farm bill is welfare and or food stamp related in some shape or form. Again more disconnect. The urban area wants cheap food but doesn't understand what it takes to produce it. And they should be happy supporting the farm programs because much more of it supports them than the guy raising their food..
So your telling me the disaster that has went on between Tuesday and Saturday (I'm giving you Sunday off)in this country, and started again Monday, not just MN, was done by mostly people that work.
the vast majority are not working, a large number of them are on assistance, and a large number of them did intend to loot and vandalize.
Now I don't care if your red,yellow,green,purple,black,white or any other color.....but if you spent the time working instead of protesting we would all be better off. If your unfortunate, and out of a job....Start cleaning up. Many did and I applaud that! That's going to go much further to help your cause and the divide between black/white/rural/urban/cop/civilian than protest, looting, burning, riots, and or destruction ever will...