Hundreds of protesters shut down stores, light-rail trains and traffic to the airport Wednesday afternoon, creating a rolling wave of disruption on one of the busiest travel and shopping days of the year.Is the idea to win people over to a cause? Or is it something else?
Organizers with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had announced plans to protest at the Mall of America as they did before Christmas one year ago, but they expanded the protest beyond the mall, splintering into smaller groups to take over several light-rail stations and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Multiple law enforcement agencies showed up in full force, ushering protesters off roadways to and from the airport terminals, patrolling light-rail stations and shutting down security checkpoints at Terminal 2 (Humphrey) in case protesters tried to access the secure area on the day before Christmas Eve. There were more than 100 officers at the Mall of America alone, mostly from the Bloomington Police Department.
“We accomplished exactly what we came here to accomplish — we wanted to shut down the highway, shut down the airport and show solidarity with other Black Lives Matter groups,” said Michelle Barnes of Minneapolis, one of the protest organizers.Again, what does it accomplish?
At the airport, some travelers may have missed flights due to the closed roads and extra traffic congestion. Samantha Herman, 16, of Madison, S.D., was hurrying to catch a flight to Detroit to visit her father for Christmas, but she said she was worried she would miss the flight even though it was delayed an hour.So a 16-year old person who is attempting to travel from South Dakota to Detroit needs to have their day disrupted and their travel plans wrecked. There's a moral imperative in that?
“We waited for an hour just to get into the stupid airport,” she said, adding that there was no other flight Wednesday to replace hers if she missed it.
“We raised the bar,” said Pastor Danny Givens of Above Every Name Church in St. Paul after protesting outside Terminal 1. “We let the nation and the world know that black lives matter.”When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, when the young men at the lunch counters in the South were attempting to have lunch, the goal was noble. Disrupting the travel plans of 16-year olds from South Dakota clearly rises to the same level of nobility.
You can see a gallery of pictures from yesterday at the Star Tribune; this one gives the game away:
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| Self-absorption matters |
4 comments:
I think it maybe a little too early to judge if BLM is on par w/ Rosa Parks or the lunch counter sit-ins. People were pretty upset with those sit-ins affecting businesses and there were attacks and beatings with some of them. So let's see as it may burn out like the Occupy Movement or it may not if BLM truly has some legitimacy.
It's hard for you to watch the locals from where you are, but I see several key differences. First, the civil rights movement was willing to accept the punishment of the State to demonstrate injustice. These guys disrupt things and then try to lawyer their way out of the consequences. The point of the bus boycott was to ensure equal treatment. The point of these protests aren't immediately evident.
Jamar Clark was not a good person and the reason he encountered the police was because he had committed multiple crimes, including a violent attack on a woman he was involved with. He should have been in prison for earlier felonies he had committed, but instead he was out on the streets.
Shutting down the airport is especially egregious, because many of the people n passing through MSP aren't even from here.
What we're seeing here isn't a call for justice. This is something else entirely.
The actions at the MOA and airport are clearly to show that BLM can cause economic disruption, and if you don't want to see more economic disruption in the future you will have to pay. Not unlike some large guys coming to your store and saying, "Nice place you got here. Pity if something were to happen to it." Money will be set aside in "Justice programs" that certain extortionist leaders will be put in charge of, and no one will ever look in the books again. And the protesters will think they've done their part to "stick it to the man", though they themselves will see precious little in the way of justice or their own opportunities.
Money will be set aside in "Justice programs" that certain extortionist leaders will be put in charge of, and no one will ever look in the books again.
its a racket that made Jesse Jackson a millionaire several multiple times over. cant blame others for trying, can you?
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