The people behind the violence in the American protests of George Floyd.

poundofyourfinest said:

They are letting him off that’s why they are televising it so people can see they tried to put him away and hoping we won’t get out of hand again

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Leaders and elected officials in Portland, Oregon, came together Monday to demand an end to violence, criminal destruction and intimidation by “anarchists” as destructive protests continue in the city.

For nearly nine months protesters have called for police reform and an end to systemic racism in Portland, which has become a key city in the country’s racial reckoning. While officials say many events have been peaceful, there continues to be small groups smashing windows of businesses, threatening community members and assaulting police.

“The community is sick and tired of people engaging in criminal destruction and violence and doing it under the guise of some noble cause,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said during a news conference.

Images of the city spread across the country during the summer — photos of people grieving the death of George Floyd, thousands of people laying down on a city bridge with their hands on their back, and people carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs.

Other photos showed officers emerging from clouds of tear gas, dozens of people dressed in all black and throwing fireworks at officers and rows of businesses with plywood covering windows.

In the background of many of the images is the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, where federal officers had been stationed. Last week, fencing around the building was removed only to be reinstalled Sunday after multiple protests and vandalism in and around the building.

“The people who work here support the voices of racial and social justice and will not be intimidated from doing our jobs by the ugly graffiti or broken windows,” said Scott Erik Asphaug, U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon. “We do not confuse the voices of the many with the shouts of the few who hope to hold our city hostage by petty crime and violence.”

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported the Department of Justice has paid more than $1.5 million to repair damage to the courthouse.

Vandalism and destruction was not limited to the courthouse last week. On Thursday, vandals broke windows and tagged buildings downtown with anti-government and anti-police sentiments.

On Friday, about 100 people marched through the Pearl District, smashing windows and blocking the street using chairs and tables from outdoor dining areas. Police responded by creating a perimeter and detaining people in a block in a controversial tactic known as “kettling.”

Some threw rocks at officers and one person threw a full can of beer. Officers discovered numerous items left behind by the group including a crowbar, hammers, bear spray, slugging weapon with rocks, high impact slingshot and knives.

At least 13 people were charged with crimes

“I want to be clear that this was not a protest group,” said Chris Davis, Portland’s assistant police chief. “This was a group of people who have come to believe that they are entitled to damage other people’s property, threaten community members and assault police officers.”

Police said it was the same group they have encountered throughout the past nine months. Officials refer to the group as “self-described anarchist left” that is made up of mostly young white men.

“The misguided and miseducated anarchists reject civility and instead intentionally create mayhem through criminally destructive behavior tearing up our city. This must stop,” said former state Sen. Avel Gordly, the first Black woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate. “I say to them today, ‘Stop you are not helping, you are hurting Black people.’”

During the summer, right-wing groups were also responsible for violence in the city.

“We do not support criminal destruction — that applies to everyone regardless of your politics,” Wheeler said.

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Cline is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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A group claiming responsibility for the theft of a Confederate monument in Selma, Ala., laid out ransom terms in emails to local media Monday.

The price for the relic’s return? Not cash, but a demand that the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond hang a banner quoting a Black radical on Friday, the 156th anniversary of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at the end of the Civil War.

The Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair, which was first reported missing from Live Oak Cemetery in Selma last month, is an ornately carved stone chair that was dedicated in 1893 to the Confederate president’s memory and is estimated to be worth $500,000.

Jefferson Davis: The Confederacy’s first, worst and only president

Calling themselves “White Lies Matter,” the group sent a message to the Montgomery Advertiser and AL.com that included a proof-of-life type photo of the chair, a ransom note styled to look like it came from the 1800s and a photoshopped image of what their banner might look like hoisted above the UDC headquarters more than 700 miles away.

“Failure to do so will result in the monument, an ornate stone chair, immediately being turned into a toilet. See enclosed photograph,” the group said in the email to AL.com, with the photoshopped image below.

This maybe the wackiest Civil War memory story in a while. 20 years from now this will make a great vignette in a book on Civil War memory. https://t.co/sc8T1PwbhU
— Dr. Adam H. Domby (@AdamHDomby) April 5, 2021

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Until local media reported on the ransom emails Monday, many in Selma didn’t even know the chair had been stolen, including the local district attorney. He confirmed it with the police chief.

“Nobody knows what to make of this, it’s just really strange,” Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson told The Washington Post. “But you get used to ‘The Twilight Zone’ in Selma. Rod Serling would have a good time if he were down here himself.”

At first, the Black prosecutor thought the group was calling itself “White Lives Matter,” he said, until he realized it was “a play on words” — White Lies Matter — and meant “the exact opposite,” he said.

The chair was stolen on March 19, according to the Advertiser, the same weekend as the Selma Pilgrimage, an annual festival celebrating Selma’s antebellum architecture and featuring tours led by White women dressed in hoop skirts.

It sat in an area of the cemetery known as Confederate Circle, which holds the graves of Confederate soldiers and several monuments. The city sold the area around Confederate Circle to the UDC in 2011. Who owns the circle itself is a subject of debate, according to the Selma Times-Journal, though a sign posted in front of it says it is privately owned and maintained by the local UDC chapter.

Confederate Circle also includes a bust of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. The bust was vandalized several times before being stolen in 2012. It has since been replaced by the UDC and another local group.

White Lies Matter demanded the UDC, which is responsible for many of the nation’s Confederate statues and memorials, hang a banner the group said it had already provided on its headquarters in Richmond, Va. The banner reads: “The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives,” which is a quote by Assata Shakur.


On March 7, 1965, a young John Lewis led a group of peaceful protesters across the bridge, where they were attacked by police and a White mob. “Bloody Sunday,” as it became known, was a turning point in the struggle for voting rights.

John Lewis nearly died on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Now it may be renamed for him.

Following Lewis’s death in July 2020, calls swelled to rename the bridge after the congressman. The debated raged in Selma for several months, Jackson, the district attorney, said.

Jackson said he personally doesn’t support renaming it, because “John Lewis didn’t support a name change.” But he knows a lot of people are hurt by the continued presence of Confederate statues and images, and he supports taking them down if local communities want it.

In the meantime, Jackson and other authorities are trying to get a copy of an alleged video the group filmed of themselves stealing the chair.

If the thieves are caught, he said, “I’m the district attorney of everybody [in Dallas County], so yes, they will be prosecuted.” Because of the estimated value of the chair, stealing it would be considered a felony. They could also face extortion charges.

“If they do display the banner, not only will we return the chair intact, but we will clean it to boot,” the group claimed.
“For all that talk about heritage, they really haven't taken care of the thing.”

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/06/ransom-confederate-chair-selma/
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