Posted in: Comics | Tagged: america, Comics, police, race

Comics Folk Respond To What's Happening in America Right Now

The United States of America is experiencing protests across its cities after George Floyd, an unarmed black man was killed under restraint by police. Protest has been peaceful in some places, and turned violent in others, often the reaction of the police seems to have informed that, and there are also allegations of bad actors exacerbating the situation. All this while America is suffering from the coronavirus pandemic like no other country. Plenty of comic book and comic book-adjacent folk across America and beyond have been commenting on social media. Here are a few examples of current commentary.

Cheryl Lyn Eaton: When black people burn down YOUR ****, it is publicly to make a statement about your abuse of us. We don't hide because you already monitor us and blame us for everything constantly. What would be the point? This would not have happened had they not murdered black people. It still would not have happened had they not fired upon peaceful protesters. And still would not have happened had they not let white supremacists destroy commercial properties under the cover of night.

Zack Davisson: No lasting, important change has ever happened in America without violence and revolution. That isn't the kind of country we are.

Pat Brosseau: People are looting stores in Beverly Hills—I love it!

Mike Wellman: Tomorrow should be interesting. There are protests/riots planned for the neighborhood my shop is in. All of my neighbors are cocked and loaded and someone offered to loan me a samurai sword. The Apocalypse just leveled up!

Alex Paknadel: He is going to Nixon '68 the shit out of this come November. "Law and order", .

Gary Frank: So they can just write laws on the spot?

Leah Williams: There are only two sides to this. No real room for nuance. #BlackLivesMatter or you are choosing to side with the fascists and racists at the expense of Black Americans.

Holly Penelope: I miss yelling at people to wear masks. Those were the good old days. Stay safe, people. The virus is still out there and now we got chaos exploding. Put people first and we'll get through this better.

Pete Woods: Tonight I've seen cops nearly run over a crowd, pull down the mask of a man with his arms up and mace him, fire rubber bullets at people with their arms up, attack people sitting on their own porch, & destroy a first aid station. All this is infinitely worse than property damage

Joseph Illidge: An Administration that demonizes journalists and People Of Color inspires and gives consent to this horrible mistreatment of law-abiding Americans.

Andy Khouri: This is so f-cked up. Cop just maces this woman in the back of the head, seemingly just for a laugh.

Alex Paknadel: Good Christ, I hope there's a hell.

Bill Sienkiewicz: Looting nearby last night at The Grove/Farmer's Market & shops on Melrose. Lots of sirens and LAPD copters doing sweeps. Hope fellow Angelenos are all safe.

Chris Weston: What's happened to all the gun toting civilian militia standing ready to take on the Government in such events

Dave Elliott: You mean where's all the gun-toting WHITE civilian militia? They're loving this.

Dean Trippe: "Destruction of property is not a valid form of protest" Jesus:

David F Walker: Peaceful protests are turning violent. Agent provocateurs are stirring shit up. Cops are bashing heads and turning of their body cams. To all my folks, go home, lock your doors, and protect the ones you love because the motherfuckers have more guns and teargas than you.

Ava DuVernay: White people talking to white people. More of this please. If you're white and you believe yourself not to be racist, yet you don't talk to your white friends like this or stand up beyond tweets for Black people… you simply aren't who you think you are.

John Boyega: Loud and clear. The world is going to become real tuff for the silent.

Patrick Zircher: They're acting like animals. And l mean the police.

Dee Cunniffe: F-ck the police!

John Cusack: Cops didn't like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike. Ahhm heres the audio

Ivy Noelle: I woke up with a lot of thoughts about the performative aspect of white allyship online and I want to remind my fellow white folks that this is not just about one moment, one donation, one retweet, but a lifetime of learning and unlearning that you MUST commit yourself to

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: I just want to say that the performative white "allyship" of making a big spectacle of oneself arguing with racists on one's platform or retweeting their hatred into one's feed for one's black peers to deal with is extremely harmful and parasitic.

Molly Knox Ostertag: We were at the #LosAngelesProtest, which was completely peaceful before the cops showed up. Leaving now, please be safe if you're still there – we're seeing many more cops headed your way #DefundThePolice. this is the 1st time i've seen myself and the people i was with at a protest get physically attacked by police. we're okay and safe but trust me when I say: protestors did not incite this. We were peaceful, marching and chanting, and police cornered us and attacked us with batons. PLEASE be careful if you're still out there. they had a lot more than just batons and they were looking for reasons to fight.

Michael Rosenberg: I know a lot of people follow me on here because I talk about comics and promote my books and all that fun stuff. It doesn't feel good to me to be doing that right now. Its important for people to guard their mental health. I understand people's need for escapism. But I'm not comfortable filling that need while so many are hurting and scared. Its a fine line between escapism and turning a blind eye to the world outside and the people around you. I will not be posting pictures of people of color being beaten or killed by the state. They are easy enough to find if you still doubt it. I will not be posting pictures of uprisings. Protect the identity of all protesters. But I will sporadically be posting about ways to help.

Roxane Gay: Stop calling the president's blatantly racist tweets dog whistling. He isn't using a dog whistle. He is using a megaphone. Wait. A magaphone.

Larry Young: Well, that's it, then. Last one out of America hit the lights.

Andy Khouri: This is the courage we want to see from the police. Nothing to do with guns, just literally standing up for what's right in their communities.

Rufus Dayglo: So when white neonazis armed with M4 carbines in combat gear 'protest' lockdown and endanger public safety the Cops show immense restraint. When unarmed communities protest unlawful Police killings they get beaten, teargassed and shot at. Got it.

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: This is blood money. Take it anyway, but it's definitely blood money. Money black people EARNED being unpaid targets and content for the fascist channels that bring in YouTube advertising dollars. The audacity of any social media site that left black users to fend for themselves as it utilized bigotry and harassment to increase engagement to pull a few coins out of the couch to toss at us now that it's turned this country into a full-on hellscape.

Donna Barr: Officer Jared Campbell (badge number 8470) maced the little girl in Seattle.

Daniel Kibblesmith: You're not going to find a better mascot for the GOP then a guy yelling "All Lives Matter" while trying to kill people.

Ava DuVernay: Remember the reason. "It remains notoriously difficult to hold officers accountable, because of the political clout of police unions, reluctance of investigators, prosecutors and juries and the wide latitude the law gives officers to use force."

Noel Clarke: Yesterday my 9yrold son, having been aware of the news recently asked me why police kill black men

Andy Khouri: Other whites: it's fine if you think the protestors are a bunch of assholes for burning shit or whatever, but it's not fine to see that on your feeds and not ONE WORD about the cops murdering unarmed Black men. One thing has everything to do with the other.

Dennis L Barger Jr This is how liberal governments keep control of you. Constitution??? Due process? Enjoy your police state

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: Honestly surprised we haven't had a major blackout yet. I mean, that's usually on the dystopian bingo card somewhere.

Brett Lewis: I wonder how many pending Covid deaths were incepted today by all the close-quarters skirmishing & sweaty-touching shenanigans. What's the incubation period again? Feel for some minimum wage sucker already working nights through a pandemic and now just trying to get home with all transit shut down

Christian Holub: For anyone wondering how the situation was resolved: Police were eventually able to de-escalate nonviolently, using their bodies to make room in the crowd. Glad we all had our phones out filming! Bc the scenes of what cops have been doing to people at Barclays have been revolting

Jon Bogdanove: There are people in power who want you to join the #protests so that #COVID19Pandemic will spread through the community. The more of us who die by virus and cop, the fewer there will be to vote them out!

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: The police shot at a blonde white lady on national television! Y'all aren't coming back from that. The only reason you have those guns in the first place is under the false pretense of keeping white ladies safe–from us–and there's footage of you going right upside their heads..

Jay Faerber: One thing I know — #BlackLivesMatter. #GeorgeFloyd was murdered. No two ways about it. And it's not an isolated incident. Far from it. We have SO much work to do. And when I say "we," I mean white folks like me. I think of myself as an ally, but I need to be a better one.

James Goss: Tempted to pretend America isn't on any more. The last few seasons have been really awful, and I'm not sure the new showrunner gets it. #ReleaseTheClintonCut

Ramon Villalobos: Joe Biden lied about getting arrested trying to visit Mandela, marching in the civil rights movement, participating in sit-ins, and receiving an NAACP endorsement every time he's run. There's a non 0 percent chance he says he was at the protests yesterday, right? Saw some posts like "mm guess we see how different democrats and republicans are now, right? " The idea that if hilary were president things would be fundamentally different for black or brown people is f-cking joke.

Stephen Bissette: America 2020: The Whole World is Watching… "I can't breathe" becoming the spark igniting our country, and that these final words are the spark amid a genuine respiratory virus pandemic—what can one say? The whole shithouse is going up, it seems. Beyond this, there are no words.

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: I try to be a good person, but I'm pretty much 100% sure if someone busted the windows of a Cheesecake Factory in front of me I would walk in, walk out with a Dulce de Leche cheesecake, and immediately take my behind home.

Amy Mebberson: I feel sick. Outside, my street is quiet and calm as ever, it's surreal. I know I should probably step away from twitter, but this is history. We all need to witness this and support the helpers. Be safe.

George Takei: We should learn from the Hong Kong protestors. Agents of chaos infiltrated crowds and provoked violence in order to discredit the movement. Film them. Call them out. Remain peaceful. This is how we prevail.

Bryan Hill: I was wondering about this. Hearing the weird stuff about fake protest groups online, strange bad actors showing up at the protests. Be careful about online groups and following people. Verify everyone.

Scott Derrickson: The mass of video documentation today shows that the primary source of violence escalation has not been from protesters, but from police.

Tim Doyle: Black Lives Matter. I'll never know George Floyd, but I had to honor the man. I'm just an artist, this is all I can do in the face of all this helplessness. Rest in peace, sir. Rest in Power. I hope the world is a better place tomorrow.

Joe Glass: So my nearest protest is in Cardiff, outside the castle, tomorrow at 1pm The problem is, I would need to get the train down, which is still under Wales lockdown rules only meant to be used for work Also, would break lockdown rules in Wales as over 5 miles away

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: It's probably stupid for me to feel hopeful, but for the first time in a very long time? I do. Because this feels like the final desperate tantrum of a regime that knows the end is near.

Noel Clarke: 

There will be many more to come. Bleeding Cool encourages you to read the full threads and feeds of those linked here, in America or otherwise.

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