The lockdown collateral damage and death thread

[SeattleUte]

The riots are greatly exacerbated by the lockdown. History teaches us that if you put 40 percent of the adult population out of work, most of them young, this is what you get. Take away their livelihood and don't give them hope, and we always arrive here. Totally predictable. Every time. I'm not sympathetic for the rioters, but I am philosophical about this.

The young have borne most of the lockdown's burdens and with the least to gain from it.

[Non Sequitur]

The lock-down didn't help, but this was mostly organic. The country was open for business when Ferguson happened, and from my perspective this eclipses Ferguson. These riots are mostly organic, and if you think they wouldn't be happening but for the economic shutdown, you haven't been paying attention. I'm sure it's not your intention, but the constant beating of this pandemic explanation sounds an awful lot like someone trying to minimize what happened to George Floyd.

[Uncle Ted]

Gun prices have jumped because inventories are low...

Gun sales surge 80% in May, says research firm

Gun sales surged in May as shops reported an uptick in interest and demand amid national protests after the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd and as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc and stoke fear across the country.

“Almost, you couldn’t even keep up with it. That’s how crazy it was,” said Joe Hawk, owner of Guns & Roses in New Jersey. “After Memorial Day, it spiked again. It just went crazy again.”

Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting, a private research firm, estimated that more than 1.7 million guns were sold in May, an 80% jump from May 2019.
[...]
Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt Guns in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the gun demand prompted by COVID-19 was already straining suppliers.

“Then you have this looting and rioting causing another demand, and it’s really putting pressure on inventory,” Mr. Hyatt said.
[...]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...research-firm/

[Clark Addison]

My back is missing my adjustable desk at work

[wapiti]

The lock-down didn't help, but this was mostly organic. The country was open for business when Ferguson happened, and from my perspective this eclipses Ferguson. These riots are mostly organic, and if you think they wouldn't be happening but for the economic shutdown, you haven't been paying attention. I'm sure it's not your intention, but the constant beating of this pandemic explanation sounds an awful lot like someone trying to minimize what happened to George Floyd.

The lockdown made the protests larger and the violence more intense.

[Uncle Ted]

Airlines...

I will be surprised if we don't see a few deaths.

[myboynoah]

Yep, the lock down got to these guys.

Embedded Tweet

[Moliere]

The riots are greatly exacerbated by the lockdown. History teaches us that if you put 40 percent of the adult population out of work, most of them young, this is what you get. Take away their livelihood and don't give them hope, and we always arrive here. Totally predictable. Every time. I'm not sympathetic for the rioters, but I am philosophical about this.

The young have borne most of the lockdown's burdens and with the least to gain from it.

The lock-down didn't help, but this was mostly organic. The country was open for business when Ferguson happened, and from my perspective this eclipses Ferguson. These riots are mostly organic, and if you think they wouldn't be happening but for the economic shutdown, you haven't been paying attention. I'm sure it's not your intention, but the constant beating of this pandemic explanation sounds an awful lot like someone trying to minimize what happened to George Floyd.

I don't think SU is the only one not paying attention.

[Non Sequitur]

I don't think SU is the only one not paying attention.

Do you think there would be riots if the pandemic hadn't happened? I'm not saying the shutdown wasn't a contributing factor, just that it was a very minor factor.

[Moliere]

Do you think there would be riots if the pandemic hadn't happened? I'm not saying the shutdown wasn't a contributing factor, just that it was a very minor factor.

Yes, I do think there would have been riots without the lockdown and pandemic. I also believe the lockdown was a contributing factor, as do you and SU. I just pointed out the place in your post where you soliloquize about them not happening but for the economic shutdown, which no one on this board has said or indicated (granted I haven't yet read all of Uncle Ted's crazy posts so maybe someone did say that...). I probably believe the lockdown had a bigger impact on the size of the rioting than you do, but that's a matter of degrees. I'd probably also just throw in that having Trump as president also probably is putting even more gas on the fire.

[Uncle Ted]

Do you think there would be riots if the pandemic hadn't happened? I'm not saying the shutdown wasn't a contributing factor, just that it was a very minor factor.

Maybe a lot of these Bernie Bros just don't want to go back to work so they are rioting to keep businesses closed thinking the government will give them another unemployment check.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Yes, I do think there would have been riots without the lockdown and pandemic. I also believe the lockdown was a contributing factor, as do you and SU. I just pointed out the place in your post where you soliloquize about them not happening but for the economic shutdown, which no one on this board has said or indicated (granted I haven't yet read all of Uncle Ted's crazy posts so maybe someone did say that...). I probably believe the lockdown had a bigger impact on the size of the rioting than you do, but that's a matter of degrees. I'd probably also just throw in that having Trump as president also probably is putting even more gas on the fire.

FIFY

[SeattleUte]

Holman Jenkins has long been a student of my posts.

If you think the riots don’t have something to do with the virus, you are probably one of many Americans living in a comfortable suburban or country house, with independent means or a high-paying job that can be done from a laptop, who have forgotten previous periods of your own life: what the lockdowns would have been like if you were 15 and stuck at home, or 20 and booted from college, or suddenly jobless in a crummy studio apartment or in a group home full of equally unemlemployed roommates. Never mind being a member of a large immigrant family jammed in a creaky high-rise or a single parent without savings or safety net.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/every-p..._copyURL_share

[SeattleUte]

The lock-down didn't help, but this was mostly organic. The country was open for business when Ferguson happened, and from my perspective this eclipses Ferguson. These riots are mostly organic, and if you think they wouldn't be happening but for the economic shutdown, you haven't been paying attention. I'm sure it's not your intention, but the constant beating of this pandemic explanation sounds an awful lot like someone trying to minimize what happened to George Floyd.

It’s prevalent on right and left to distinguishes the protesters from the rioters. I spend ten weeks a hear of my own time helping save indigent death row inmates. I’m largely a libertarian. Nobody hates what happened to Floyd George more than I do. But I hate all forms of civil liberties abridgment. I’m probably as or more more tolerant of this civil disobedience than anyone here. In the past there have been riots after cops murdered black people, but nothing like the scope and intensity of this. It’s now in Europe. This is 1930s or 1968 all over again, because the shutdown has only greatly amplified economic suffering that existed before and vastly created new suffering. It’s always economic suffering that brings out vast and unstoppable rioting like this.

It’s infuriating that the people with power in America couldn’t see this coming. It’s totally predictable. And it won’t go away until the economy is fixed.

[SeattleUte]

JL, please delete the silver linings thread. It’s embarrassing. A parody of this place.