Things are changing fast in this world.

[DavidR]

And none of it would have happened if the police would do their jobs. The thin blue evaporated without a fight.

[Armybrat]

And none of it would have happened if the police would do their jobs. The thin blue evaporated without a fight.

Yep.
That’s on the City leadership and the Chief. Political appeaser cowards are in charge, letting protests morph into violence & riots.

[Bawanna]

And none of it would have happened if the police "were allowed to" do their jobs. The thin blue evaporated without a fight.

Fixed it for you. The mayor or Chief obviously told all the officers to stand down and let it burn. Just like so many other places, Portland OR for example which has had 100 plus consecutive days of rioting. Something they can be very proud of.

[I_Like_Turtles]

Fixed it for you. The mayor or Chief obviously told all the officers to stand down and let it burn. Just like so many other places, Portland OR for example which has had 100 plus consecutive days of rioting. Something they can be very proud of.

"Mostly peaceful rioting," fixed it for you*. Anyone that disregards how mostly peaceful this has been is clearly a racist with an agenda. OJ murdering his wife was mostly peaceful as most of that night, he wasn't stabbing two people to death. WW2 was mostly peaceful, most of the time there was no fighting.

*being sarcastic. What is happening in America right now, is a fasicst/communist takeover using "racism" as the boogeyman.

[I_Like_Turtles]

He is a 17 year old kid for God sake. And a good kid. Yes a Hero. unless of course you are a knee bender where there kids grow up like the scum bag Blake. Obviously you do not have a clue about Millenials or their age. I have more respect for him than some Old Farts that just like to run his mouth all day long behind a computer. And no matter how you cut it, a couple of scum bags are off the street. Easy to see what side your are on. You sound just like Don Lemon on CNN. And for God sake, he is not even a Millennial. Where you been? Kid probably has done more at his young age than you have done your entire life. And by the way there are a whole lot of young folks in the Military and have actually died protecting people's freedom, even like you. Yea, the world is not perfect.

Yes, if I meet him when he is 21, I would love to buy him a beer. If I happen to meet you, I would also buy you a drink. A Shirley Temple. Cheers!

That is both out-of-line and untrue. Berretabone, in my brief experience with this site, has been one of the most consistent and outspoken members, often going against the majority when it comes to certain topics. Further, I do not believe any member on this site, supports bad behavior or would submit/support this communist trash.

I guarantee each of us, since all of us appear to be men of action, have done the right thing although it was dangerous and even foolish. I have done armed, volunteer security, exactly what Rittenhouse was doing, but it was after the TN terrorist attack on the Marine Corp recruiting station. I learned of the volunteer security movement, asked a local organizer if I could come, and did my part to both defend those who were not allowed to defend themselves, but mainly I did a visible protest against the silliness of the Obama Administration. Those days were a great thing. I met some great people, many veterans, and I enjoyed the heaps of praise bestowed upon us by a grateful populace, including the recruiters themselves. I cried when a widow, her husband killed in Iraq, came by to thank us, got emotional, and cried as she hugged us. People brought us food, water, pizza, and one man tried to pay each of us $20.00. The money we refused. The food, not in sealed containers, we gratefully took, but tossed, just in case it was a ruse. It was the most humbling experience to have soldiers and marines, men I often thank for defending the country, thanking me, for defending them.
Twice, local police came by, that city's police, parked, walked over, and shook each of our hands, thanking us.
This was the most rewarding thing I have ever done....certainly "Top 10."

Was that foolish? Sure it was. Had an attack happened, things could have gone sideways and me lost my freedom, limbs, or even life. However, it is the duty of every good citizen to defend the defenseless. The movement possibly discouraged further attacks and it certainly exposed the idiocy of the Obama Administration's orders for recruiters to be unarmed. Soon after, that order was quietly reversed, putting the decision to be armed or unarmed onto the head recruiter of each office. The movement disbanded, no longer needed. We had won.

It's a tough call......do you sit back, safe, and watch your city burn, other cities burn, or do you do something? You may pay dearly. For some reason, and we all know this, doing the right thing costs. It costs more money to fix it right. It takes more work. More time. Being fit costs money, time, and is difficult. You will hurt yourself exercising. I completed P90X this summer, all 90 days, lost weight, gained muscle, but pulled a muscle and now cannot exercise for 6 weeks. That was the cost of doing the right thing....getting into better shape.
When a person steps up to stop evil, to fight it, they run big risks. Picking up a dog, hit by a car, may mean the dog bites your. Happened to my father. Stopping to help a broken down motorist may mean getting robbed, killed, or hit by another car. That is the price of doing the right thing.

For some reason, God makes the right things harder to do, with less reward, and with greater risks. I believe He does this for a reason. The path to heaven is hard, narrow, steep, lonely. The path to hell is easy, wide, and paved. God does this to teach us courage, the most rare quality. Most will pass by a wounded man and do nothing if there is risk. But the courageous, will shoulder the risk and come to that man's aid. Are they stupid? Yes. Will God remember? Yes.

The truly stupid people are the voters who elect cowardly and corrupt leaders. The truly stupid are the rioters themselves, bent on turning USA into Nazi Germany. The truly stupid are those that sit back, safe at home, and do nothing, until its their turn...........and there is no one left to protect them.

Honestly, every freedom loving, good American should be out there stopping this. We don't though, lacking courage, telling ourselves "we're smart."

All evil needs to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

[DavidR]

Fixed it for you. The mayor or Chief obviously told all the officers to stand down and let it burn. Just like so many other places, Portland OR for example which has had 100 plus consecutive days of rioting. Something they can be very proud of.

Blame properly assigned but the end result is the same regardless of who
is to blame.

In major cities across the U.S. the thin blue line is gone. The authorities have been unwilling to stand up to large scale leftist violence and intimidation.

[berettabone]

For the record, I don't support what ANY of them are doing. Stupid once and stupid twice still makes stupid. Stay the hell home. Let the professionals handle things. If they want to let things burn, let it burn. Eventually, because humans are kind of slow, they'll finally get pissed off enough to do something about it, one way or another. Don't put yourself in harms way and turn in to a poster boy for the liberal movement. Just more ammo for their foolishness/ideals. Inserting yourself in to certain situations and expecting good outcomes is nothing short of insanity. We need to send in REAL men like rats..............................they'll use their testosterone and hero worship to help defend poor useless computer people like myself. You know, the computer tough rat guys. They'll take care of all of this.......................

[dustnchips]

The kid wandered two blocks away from his group and the business he was suppose to be defending. Foolish. They were suppose to be a united front to ward off the vandalism, not to go roaming around the town. As a single armed person he became a target and do to his immature foolish actions he will now end up in jail. Don't forget that he shot one unarmed man in the back. An armed 17 year old has no business at a riot. Too immature to fully understand the situation and being armed made him a target. It is a shame, and his life will be destroyed because of it.

[I_Like_Turtles]

That's a bit contradicting. "Stay the *** home," "let it burn down," but [someone else] will "..do something about it."

So a case of "as long as it doesn't hurt me, don't care"? That's fine, certainly one's right to do nothing. Reminds me of the Kitty Genovese case.

***

"Shot unarmed man in the back." Not sure about that, is it in the video? I have read where that happens often, an attacker can turn around to run before the self-defender has time to back off the trigger. I've read about that in some of Massad Ayoob's writings.

So at what point do the fires get "too close to home?" Three houses down? Next door neighbor? Mother's house? One's detached garage? Front porch? Just curious.

[dustnchips]

It isn't a matter of doing nothing. A 17 year old does not have the maturity to go into this situation and he proved it by leaving the group. Let adults handle the situation. He was with a group of adults before he left them. Safety in numbers and cooler heads to prevent this sort of thing.