OT - NO POLITICS Off Topic 2020 part XXIV - Can we get a refund for 2020?

[Fenway]

Yeah for sure. Then the question becomes was the text or other message/s merely opportunistic, or planned in advance?

Back Bay has been a ghost town at night for 2 1/2 months and suddenly you had cars everywhere. @Alicat can vouch that the Channel 5 anchors could sense this was organized.

 

[Glove Malfunction]

there are over 800,000 officers in the USA.... in 2019 1,004 people were killed... or 0.001255 percent of officers killed someone, and these are all reasons....doesn't say how many were warranted.

Last year, 41 of those were unarmed. This a pretty interesting website. I had seen a breakdown (from the Washington Post database) that 19 of those were white, 9 were black, and 6 were Hispanic. The other 7 were "other" or "unknown".

 

[Alicat]

Back Bay has been a ghost town at night for 2 1/2 months and suddenly you had cars everywhere. @Alicat can vouch that the Channel 5 anchors could sense this was organized.

The anchors are locals who know the area like the back of their hands. When Maria Stephanos made the comment I heard her counterpart Ed Harding gasp. Ed never makes those noises.

As someone who is in Copley Mall on a daily basis (in normal times), it was surreal to watch the windows get smashed in and swarmed quickly. Once those windows were smashed, the cars swarmed in.

It was clear this was coordinated. They targeted the key areas of commerce in the city to make sure they inflicted as much damage as possible.

The looted along Boylston Street. Everyone knows Boylston Street. They knew it would get a visceral reaction from people. They destroyed small businesses along the street while smashing windows of large chains like Crate and Barrel.

the targeted the 2 upscale shopping locations Copley Mall and Newbury Street. They destroyed Norman Marcus in Copley and the Ugg Store on Newbury Street and from what I hear, looted H&M across the street. My office happens to be in the same building as H&M. Was a bit surreal to see armed officers on one side of the building and looters on the other.

They targeted Downtown Crossing which is a main connector between 2 major subway lines and also connects two sections of the city. It houses many small businesses especially jewelry stores.

Lastly and probably the most devastating, they trashed Chinatown. They looted jewelry stores, vandalized buildings with spray pain and smashed windows of many businesses. Coronavirus had already decimated business and now there is a real chance that many stores will be forced to close because they won't be able to afford the cost of repairs.

This was calculated. This was not done by locals.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Back Bay has been a ghost town at night for 2 1/2 months and suddenly you had cars everywhere. @Alicat can vouch that the Channel 5 anchors could sense this was organized.

The anchors are locals who know the area like the back of their hands. When Maria Stephanos made the comment I heard her counterpart Ed Harding gasp. Ed never makes those noises.

As someone who is in Copley Mall on a daily basis (in normal times), it was surreal to watch the windows get smashed in and swarmed quickly. Once those windows were smashed, the cars swarmed in.

It was clear this was coordinated. They targeted the key areas of commerce in the city to make sure they inflicted as much damage as possible.

The looted along Boylston Street. Everyone knows Boylston Street. They knew it would get a visceral reaction from people. They destroyed small businesses along the street while smashing windows of large chains like Crate and Barrel.

the targeted the 2 upscale shopping locations Copley Mall and Newbury Street. They destroyed Norman Marcus in Copley and the Ugg Store on Newbury Street and from what I hear, looted H&M across the street. My office happens to be in the same building as H&M. Was a bit surreal to see armed officers on one side of the building and looters on the other.

They targeted Downtown Crossing which is a main connector between 2 major subway lines and also connects two sections of the city. It houses many small businesses especially jewelry stores.

Lastly and probably the most devastating, they trashed Chinatown. They looted jewelry stores, vandalized buildings with spray pain and smashed windows of many businesses. Coronavirus had already decimated business and now there is a real chance that many stores will be forced to close because they won't be able to afford the cost of repairs.

This was calculated. This was not done by locals.

I don't doubt it. Sounds terrible, and no help to the real issues that set all this in motion.

Is the organized looting supposed to be some sort of statement against the wealthy or powerful, or even against white people in general or the capitalist system, under the misguided notion that most store owners are both rich and white (they aren't necessarily either), or is it just taking advantage of the volatile situation for financial gain?

 

[Fenway]

This was calculated. This was not done by locals.

Yes to calculated but not sold it was by outsiders.

My radio geek engineering friends are chatting that an infamous pirate FM station (TOUCH 106.1) was back on the air last night. It was a station that Mayor Menino told the FCC was needed but back in 2013 they backed John Connolly for Mayor and Marty Walsh the following year had the FCC shut the station down. The station still exists online but last night they reappeared on the radio band on 88.1 which has been off air since MIT closed the campus silencing WMBR-FM.

BTW Bloomberg Radio wound up getting a legal license on 106.1 from the FCC with the support of the city.

W291CZ-FM 106.1 MHz - Boston, MA

I have no clue what will happen next.

 

[Alicat]

I don't doubt it. Sounds terrible, and no help to the real issues that set all this in motion.

Is the organized looting supposed to be some sort of statement against the wealthy or powerful, or even against white people in general or the capitalist system, under the misguided notion that most store owners are both rich and white (they aren't necessarily either), or is it just taking advantage of the volatile situation for financial gain?

From what I've seen online, many believe that businesses have insurance and will rebuild and be fine while those who die will never come back.

The problem is that not everyone has the insurance that covers things like riots and in some cases in the non affluent areas, they have no insurance.

 

[Jaguar God]

Leafs and Habs have made statements...very infuriating to see the Bruins remain silent again.

 

[Bruinaura]

The anchors are locals who know the area like the back of their hands. When Maria Stephanos made the comment I heard her counterpart Ed Harding gasp. Ed never makes those noises.

As someone who is in Copley Mall on a daily basis (in normal times), it was surreal to watch the windows get smashed in and swarmed quickly. Once those windows were smashed, the cars swarmed in.

It was clear this was coordinated. They targeted the key areas of commerce in the city to make sure they inflicted as much damage as possible.

The looted along Boylston Street. Everyone knows Boylston Street. They knew it would get a visceral reaction from people. They destroyed small businesses along the street while smashing windows of large chains like Crate and Barrel.

the targeted the 2 upscale shopping locations Copley Mall and Newbury Street. They destroyed Norman Marcus in Copley and the Ugg Store on Newbury Street and from what I hear, looted H&M across the street. My office happens to be in the same building as H&M. Was a bit surreal to see armed officers on one side of the building and looters on the other.

They targeted Downtown Crossing which is a main connector between 2 major subway lines and also connects two sections of the city. It houses many small businesses especially jewelry stores.

Lastly and probably the most devastating, they trashed Chinatown. They looted jewelry stores, vandalized buildings with spray pain and smashed windows of many businesses. Coronavirus had already decimated business and now there is a real chance that many stores will be forced to close because they won't be able to afford the cost of repairs.

This was calculated. This was not done by locals.

Sickening.

 

[DKH]

I invented a new chicken dish - I’m calling it Chicken Trump

breast of breaded chicken covered with pasta (I used spaghetti)

It’s important that you make sure you use enough pasta to hide the Chicken

goes great with some toasted garlic bread or that brown bread from Cheesecake Factory you can buy at Shaws

 

[Alicat]

Sickening.

Yes.

That said, I will not let these awful people diminish the peaceful protests that happened for over 4 hours yesterday. They were organized by young activists who made it clear that it remain peaceful. Marcus Smart and Enes Kanter came out in support and I know some City Counselors also marched. The crowds were divers in age and race. It was a proud moment for the city.

Boston is unique in that our Police Commissioner is African American who has an excellent rapport with the entire city. When he speaks, everyone listens. I have no doubt his words will be exactly what we need to hear.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

From what I've seen online, many believe that businesses have insurance and will rebuild and be fine while those who die will never come back.

The problem is that not everyone has the insurance that covers things like riots and in some cases in the non affluent areas, they have no insurance.

Indeed. Not easy for many shop owners and managers to just recoup their losses and carry on, especially in these tough economic times.

I'm starting to just maybe piece together what's going on in Boston, which I suspect is being replicated in other cities. It's very clear from what's been reported by you and Fenway and in parts of the local media that people, mostly young and of a variety of ethnicities, were organized to come into the center of Boston at the end of the legitimate, peaceful protests, for the specific purposes of looting and clashing with police. Not difficult to get youngsters to get in on some theft against 'faceless' commerce and maybe some harassment of police which allows them to indulge the anti-authoritarian streak of youth while scoring some free stuff with few consequences.

Then you spin it - many people on social media, some journalists, and even a local member of the MA house of reps, are now claiming that Boston police deliberately provoked and violently broke up peaceful protests at around 9pm, and that was the alleged main cause of the looting and violence that followed, which in this narrative was of course further exacerbated by police. Now there may be some truth in that, I don't know, but clearly it's far from the whole tale. But the story this way becomes that violence and property damage only occurred because of the actions and brutality of the police and authorities, furthering the wider national narrative and turning the local police into another enemy and representative of the haves against the have nots. So the group/s behind this plan it, use mostly gullible teenagers guided by a few hardcore activists to pull it off, then exploit the results for their own ends, which aren't difficult to work out and have far too little to do with the plight of poor Mr Floyd.

There's obviously a lot else going on and many different agendas and people involved in events as they continue to play out, but I find this method of exploiting tragedy to be really sickening, especially when people run with it who should really know better.

 

[CDJ]

I can't quite get my head around that. If the looting was organized, then by who? And why would you actively want to get publicity for an illegal activity? Drawing attention to a legitimate protest makes sense, but to plain stealing is just odd.

Unless...the best theory I can come up with is that there are people who wanted to encourage a confrontation with police by using thefts and property damage to draw their attention and hope that there are instances of violence that can be used to further the narrative of police brutality and over-reaction. That would be quite reprehensible, but it's just about plausible in these crazy circumstances.

they could make the argument when they target places like Target that they are attacking corporate America which more or less has a stranglehold on the country


For the most part I think they just want free shit tho

 

[HockeyMomx2]

I can't quite get my head around that. If the looting was organized, then by who? And why would you actively want to get publicity for an illegal activity? Drawing attention to a legitimate protest makes sense, but to plain stealing is just odd.

Unless...the best theory I can come up with is that there are people who wanted to encourage a confrontation with police by using thefts and property damage to draw their attention and hope that there are instances of violence that can be used to further the narrative of police brutality and over-reaction. That would be quite reprehensible, but it's just about plausible in these crazy circumstances.

Antifa.

 

[Beesfan]

I support the law abiding protesters, but they need to realize it is time to vacate when the curfew is imposed. There looked to be a number of peaceful college-type kids staying late in support the protest long after it had turned into a riot. Their presence gives the rioters the cover of a large crowd and makes it much harder for the police to protect public safety. If the only people out were the violent criminals and vandals, they would be vastly outnumbered by the police and easier to control.

Charlie Baker and Mayor Walsh should issue a warning that anyone in the crowd past curfew is liable at any time to be arrested and charged with rioting if they are in the vicinity of dangerous criminal activity taking place. If these decent kids know the stakes (e.g. a felony case with actual jail time) they will stay away.

 

[HockeyMomx2]

It became obvious that there must have been some kind of group text room where people were being tipped off at which store was wide open - cars were coming out of nowhere to load up.

there is out here. We got a text from a friend of screenshot of an antifa text that went around yesterday about hitting the neighborhoods next if curfew downtown was enforced. Here the majority causing destruction are white and antifa.

 

[DKH]

 

[BMC]

From what I've seen a lot of this looks organized & coordinated. By whom I don't know yet, there are a lot of scum bag groups out there who know this is the perfect opportunity for them and they're running with it. These people need to do hard time, no slap on the wrist fine or community service nonsense. If they end up with a felony record that will definitely cool if not end their enthusiasm for doing this.

I was following the protests in Hong Kong last year, a lot of those were coordinated using various phone apps, chat rooms etc to keep the authorities from finding out the identities of the organizers & participants and where and when the protests would happen. It seems a lot of people have studied their methods and are using them now.

 

[Bruinaura]

They need to lock some of these doofuses in a room with Chara. That would straighten them out in a hurry.

 

[LSCII]

From what I've seen a lot of this looks organized & coordinated. By whom I don't know yet, there are a lot of scum bag groups out there who know this is the perfect opportunity for them and they're running with it. These people need to do hard time, no slap on the wrist fine or community service nonsense. If they end up with a felony record that will definitely cool if not end their enthusiasm for doing this.

I was following the protests in Hong Kong last year, a lot of those were coordinated using various phone apps, chat rooms etc to keep the authorities from finding out the identities of the organizers & participants and where and when the protests would happen. It seems a lot of people have studied their methods and are using them now.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's multiple groups from multiple sides all doing their best to incite. Antifa, 3%ers, boogaloo, BLM, take your pick. None of them are above exploiting the situation for their own benefit.

 

[CDJ]

If I had to guess, I'd say it's multiple groups from multiple sides all doing their best to incite. Antifa, 3%ers, boogaloo, BLM, take your pick. None of them are above exploiting the situation for their own benefit.

pretty much. I’ve seen a lot of people protesting for the right reason even trying to stop assholes from being assholes. A lot of people are coming from out of town to cause destruction and leave, that says it all

Hell even our favorite guy ever Jon Jones is going around and bullying vandals into giving him their spray cans. He is not the guy I’d try and pull something with so it’s been working well for him lol

 

[Over the volcano]

Welp, we now have a body count protesting a death.

Almost. More like we have body counts leading to global protests.

 

[Over the volcano]

If I had to guess, I'd say it's multiple groups from multiple sides all doing their best to incite. Antifa, 3%ers, boogaloo, BLM, take your pick. None of them are above exploiting the situation for their own benefit.

You don’t have to guess though - BLM Boston made a statement explicitly not organizing, leading or sponsoring the protest yesterday.

Guessing responsibility for violence and identifying groups like teams to root for or against isn’t the way to go.

 

[JRull86]

I'm so tired of this shit.

I don't know what else to say honestly.

 

[Alicat]

It was no doubt coordinated. They started at Downtown Crossing due to proximity to the Common. While the cops were distracted, the looters headed towards Boylston Street, Newbury Street and Copley Place and the cars started rolling in.

From what I've seen today, organizers used social media and some sort of text/chat room apps to coordinate everything.

It is really sad that the actual protest, which was peaceful and diverse, is being overshadowed by the jerks who came out for nefarious reasons.

I support the protest 100% but the calculated and brazen looting, vandalism and arson, I condemn that.

 

[Over the volcano]

I'm so tired of this shit.

I don't know what else to say honestly.

How about this