OK, let me try here. First, I think to say that their "primary" focus was on the antifa good/bad question, just because they asked some questions about it up front, is a little bit of a cheap shot. Perhaps they viewed it as low-hanging fruit compared to the rest of the report?
There's a lot to say about Bob these past few months. He's very wary of the blame being placed squarely on the two Black men in positions of authority, with good reason. At the same time, accountability needs to be had.
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I don't think this report re-litigated "antifa" good or bad at all. I think it started and ended with the assumption that the question of who instigated what violence was a question for someone else to answer.
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This is in many ways unsatisfactory, especially from where I'm sitting (i.e., as someone who was deeply emotionally and physically affected by j8, a11, and a12). But I'm not going to fault a report for not doing something it didn't seek to do.
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The report did in several places call out times when the UTR folks instigated violence. That kind of went under the radar.
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But what is really missing from the conversation about violence isn't instigation, it's proportionality. And it's evident who was disproportionately violent in all of these events. Hint: it wasn't "antifa."
End of conversation
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This is a point where I'm genuinely interested in hearing more people's thoughts. I understand why people are concerned about the racial issues around Thomas being scapegoated. But he's the police chief and the police screwed up in a huge way. How could that not come back to him?
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It should definitely come back on him. But it should also come back on Mitchell, Pleasants, and Lewis in equal measure. I fear that will not be the case.
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After J8 I stood up in a press conference before the police station and called out *specific* failures of policing. I'm a former defense contractor. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this stuff. I publicly called out that they need to revisit their skills.
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And while the Heaphy report heaps blame on activists for not cooperating and gives the CPD an excuse that they couldn't coordinate at all with the activist community, here's the reality:
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- I spoke to Heaphy voluntarily, at length, at the request of an activist group; - I presented the threats of violence document to CCC and handed a copy to Maurice Jones; - The CPD never reached out to me once during this process.
End of conversation
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