Left minimize 'property damage'; Victims see things differently

FPI / June 4, 2020

Many on the Left and in the major media have argued that the rioters rampaging through America's cities are causing "only property damage."

New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones on Tuesday claimed that the destruction of property "is not violence."

"I think we need to be very careful with our language," Hannah-Jones said in an interview with CBSN. "Yes, it is disturbing to see property being destroyed, it's disturbing to see people taking property from stores, but these are things."

She continued, "And violence is when an agent of the state kneels on a man's neck until all of the life is leached out of his body. Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. And to put those things- to use the same language to describe those two things I think really- it's not moral to do that."

The businesses have insurance, others contend, so nobody is really being hurt.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Townhall columnist Katie Pavlich noted on June 2.

Pavlich cited the heartbreaking video in which a disabled Minneapolis woman describes how the rioting has affected her.

"They went straight to Office Max, to Dollar Store and every store over here that I go to. I have nowhere to go now. I have no way to get there because the buses aren't running. These people did this for no reason. It's not going to bring George [Floyd] back. George is in a better place than we are," the woman named Stephanie told a local reporter.

"Last night, I'm going to be honest, I wished I was where George was because this is ridiculous. These people are tearing up our livelihood. This is the only place I could go to shop, and now I don't have anywhere to go. I don't have any way to get there."

President Donald Trump paid tribute Tuesday evening to a St. Louis policeman who was slain by rioters.

“Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night,” Trump tweeted.

Dorn, a retired 77-year-old captain working security during the riots, was shot to death in front of Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The Ethical Society of Police, a St. Louis black officers fraternal organization, mourned Dorn in a tweet as "the type of brother that would've given his life to save them if he had to."

According to the Associated Press, a video of the shooting of Dorn was taken down from Facebook Live.

Dorn spent 38 years with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department before becoming the police chief in Moline Acres.

Three other St. Louis officers were shot and more than 50 businesses in the city attacked by mobs in Monday night’s mayhem.

Italia Marie Kelly, 22, was killed early Monday during a protest in Davenport, Iowa, according to the Quad City Times.

She and a friend were getting into a car to leave a protest outside of a Walmart around midnight when she was struck in the back by a bullet that went through her shoulder and chest, likely killing her instantly, according to her aunt. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Her younger sister, Jasmine Kelly, 19, recorded a Facebook Live video where she was sobbing and pleading for protesters to stop.

“A protester shot my sister! A protester!” she said. “You are so mad at the police that you are hurting everyone else.”

She added: “This was the ignorance of every single one of y’all that decided to shoot into a crowd. That bullet just happened to hit my sister.”

Katherine Mahmoud, the owner of a Boost Mobile store in Milwaukee that was looted, said "If you really care deeply in your heart ... (protest) in silence, go to the courts."

Mahmoud told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she was awakened in the early hours on Saturday by a phone call from the alarm company. She drove to her store to find the windows were smashed, and the merchandise all gone.

Mahmoud said her store had "nothing to do" with what protesters were rallying against.

"I look just like them," she said, repeatedly asking, "Why?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed about George Floyd. ... It could have been my brother, it could have been my son."

What people need to do is "go above," she said — "change some laws so this won't happen" and ensure law-enforcement officers will be held accountable for their actions.

Free Press International