Today's another day when it doesn't feel right to do a normal post, after protests (which started out so peaceful that the parks department was passing out face masks) related to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis (yeah, nowhere near here) turned extremely violent (as they all too often do in Seattle) earlier today. The center of the protests was right at the downtown flagship Nordstrom store, which had already been closed for a while due to Seattle's crazy COVID response (hence the boards that used to be on the windows) and which was looted, vandalized, and presumably fire-damaged today. The borderline rioting ended up with a curfew declared at 5 PM today, though as I write this (7:15 our time), there are still protestors and police facing off in downtown visible on the traffic cameras (... and it looks like the cops just set off tear gas). Sometimes I think I'd like to live downtown (if I was ever able to afford it!), but times like this make me glad I live on a dead end in a near-suburban part of north Seattle.
How's this time of rioting treating your cities? I know Seattle has a bit of a history of rioting, but we're certainly not alone with that right now!
From what little I've heard, there was a bit of a kerfuffle last night, but prior to that everything in Memphis has been peaceful. Not sure if anything has been taking place in Jackson, and doubt anything is going on specifically in DeSoto County. Honestly I don't care to look at the news anymore. Nothing's good, no one agrees, everything's an extreme, and most reporting is sensationalized and/or biased.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's good to hear. We had more protests today, but it seems like they were mostly peaceful (with the rioting moving east to Bellevue).
DeleteAnd wow, you sound exactly like my parents with that one! When it comes to TV news, I agree, but I do like to read news from newspapers and some other online sources which generally seem to do a better job.
...and last night was the opposite in Memphis, haha. I believe things turned violent here. And, you know, seemingly everywhere else. So good on Seattle for staying peaceful this time.
DeleteWell, that's too bad. Seattle's back to violent protests tonight, though nothing too bad compared to Saturday (at least as of yet). Of course, it's not like last night was great here -- Seattle itself was fine, but there was quite a bit of rioting and looting out in the suburbs.
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