“Let my building burn, Justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail.”
—-Ruhel Islam, owner of the restaurant Gandhi Mahal, in Minneapolis, quoted by his daughter in the Facebook post above.
Is it my imagination, or has the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis generated even more idiotic quotes and responses than these events usually do?
The quote from Ruehl Islam sets some kind of a record: dumbest quote ever to be praised by someone who isn’t a closed-head injury victim, perhaps? The now completely ideologically-deranged New York Magazine, wrote of it,
Published on the restaurant’s Facebook page and since widely shared, Hafsa’s post asks people not to worry, and ends the update with a message of support for their neighbors. Hundreds have responded with messages of support and pride, with one person writing “thank you for living your public life with such integrity and continual love for your community.” Many others have shared similar comments about Ruhel, an immigrant from Bahar Mordan, Bangladesh….Ruhel’s words have been shared across social media by everyone from San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho, a former Minneapolis resident, to television host and chef Andrew Zimmern and activist DeRay Mckesson, as a powerful expression of the value of human life over property.
Well, maybe if your goal is to engage in cynical grandstanding and signal warped virtues to a community gone nuts, such a quote isn’t so dumb. Surely regarding it as “a powerful expression of the value of human life over property” is, however. How, exactly, does shrugging off the illegal destruction of private property in a mass tantrum benefit human life? Let’s see: according to a local listing, these are the businesses damaged by the riots, or as CNN calls them, “mostly peaceful protests”:
– Walgreens Central and Lowry in Northeast: Property damage.
– Wells Fargo Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– J-Klips Lake Street: Property damage.
– Hennepin County Human Service Center: Property damage.
– ICC Wireless Lake Street: Property damage.
– Jackson Hewitt Tax Service: Property damage.
– Little Caesars Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Teppanyaki Grill Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Home Choice Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Dollar General Lake Street: Extensive fire damage.
– Twin Lake Dental: Fire and property damage.
– HD Laundry Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Citi Trends Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Total Wireless Lake Street: Fire and property damage.
– Pineda Tacos Lake Street: Property damage.
– Subway Lake Street: Property damage.
– 7 Mile Fashion Express East Lake Street: Destroyed by fire
– The Fremont Bar Uptown: Property damage, looting.
– O’Reilly Auto Parts West Broadway: Extensive fire damage.
– Broadway Liquor Outlet West Broadway: Property damage, looting.
– Quality Tobacco Lake and 1st: Extensive fire damage.
– Skol Liquor Store 27th Avenue: Property damage, looting.
– Max-It Pawn Shop Cedar Avenue: Extensive fire damage.
– Minnehaha Liquor Lake Street: Property damage, looting, extensive fire damage.
– Hexagon Bar at E 26th and 27th: Extensive fire damage.
– Target Lake Street: Looting, graffiti, property damage, fire damage.
– Wendy’s Lake Street: Fire, destroyed.
– Autozone Lake Street: Fire, destroyed.
– Cub Foods Lake Street: Looting, property damage, fire damage.
– Under construction affordable housing development at 26th and 29th: Fire, destroyed.
– 7-Sigma building, 26th and 29th: Fire, extensive damage.
– Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct: Property damage, graffiti.
– Dollar Tree off Lake Street: Property damage, looting.
– Metro by T-Mobile Lake Street: Fire, extensive damage.
– Hi Lake Liquor: Property damage, looting.
– Speedway East Lake Street: Property damage.
– East Lake Library: Windows smashed, graffiti.
– Precision Tune Auto Care Lake Street: Property damage.
– U.S. Bank Lake Street: Property damage, graffiti.
– Dairy Queen East Lake Street: Property damage.
– Papa Murphy’s Pizza East Lake Street: Property damage.
– Planet Fitness on Lake: Property damage.
– Domino’s Pizza 26th and 28th: Property damage.
– Urban Forage Winery and Cider House, Lake and 29th: Property damage, looting.
– Gandhi Mahal Restaurant, 27th and Lake: Window smashed.
– Car-X Tire & Auto East Lake Street: Property damage, vehicle smashed through windows.
– Frattelone’s Ace Hardware East Lake Street: Property damage.
– MN Transitions Charter School: Property damage.
– Laundro Max East Lake Street: Window smashed.
In one of her most ridiculous comments ever, Ann Althouse, who tracked down the account of Islam’s idiocy (Ann reads the Atlantic and New York Magazine so I don’t have to), wrote:
“This is good PR for his restaurant, so it’s the best he can do in a bad situation.”
Oh, wow. Maybe he should advocate cop-killing too: I bet that would be popular. Might get him some catering jobs. He should hang an effigy of a Minneapolis cop in his front window. Good PR, right, Professor?
The duty of citizens is to advocate and model responsible civic conduct. Rationalizing criminal activity, especially completely destructive and pointless criminal activity, is not “the best” anyone can do. Althouse should, in the immortal words of the late Justice Scalia, hide her head under a bag.
The burning of Ruehl Islam’s establishment, like all of the rioting, didn’t advance the interests of human life one atom. It did not assist justice; it did not make anyone, of any color, more safe in Minneapolis or anywhere else. Anyone, whether it is this sniveling businessman or BLM cheerleaders in the news media, who attempst to put any kind of positive spin on the insane response to George Floyd’s death is ethically inert, and a human toxic virus in our society.
Ethics Alarms 
Who knows. All I heard yesterday was how this is a rebellion, this is the language of those who are unheard, destroying the precinct was a good thing, etc. Honestly it sounds like a lot of these business owners have a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome. At this point Trump is ready to send in the military police, saying if the state and local authorities can’t maintain order, he will.
The officer who took a life is under arrest, and is going to be facing significant prison time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Feds hit him with a 30-year or so sentence a la Justin Volpe, who sodomized Abner Louima with a plunger. Apparently that’s not enough for these folks, a lot of them in cities where this didn’t happen, and, apparently, a lot of the ones in Minneapolis not even FROM Minneapolis, but bused in to turn this ugly. I’m sorry, but if you take a bus somewhere with the intention of causing trouble, you deserve to meet the same fate as that idiot from Baltimore who hopped a bus to NYC so he could shoot two officers just sitting in their car doing nothing in particular.
The theory appears to be that these four Minneapolis cops are to be regarded as representative of all police, US cities, and whites. That, of course, is bigotry straight up….and so stupid it makes my earlobes hurt.
No it isn’t. Only white people and cops are capable of bigotry. Try to keep up. /sarcasm off.
Just for the record, the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of Minnesota are cowards. however, it would be a mistake tactically for Trump to send in the military police, as he appears to be posturing to do. To do so would be playing right into the hands of the left, and the minute an American military policeman injures or kills one of these paid rioters he give the left a club to beat him with in this election. A better attitude would be to step back and let these people destroy their cities then refuse to bail them out. Let them live in the ashes they create.
I whole heartedly agree. I do think however we need to identify the agent provocateurs who are driving these multi-city riots. Marching is one thing but burning cars and smashing windows is not a protest. If such acts are to be condoned can I go burn cars and smash private property because I am upset about all these riots? I wonder what these young urban dwellers would say if the tables were turned on their property.
In another post I wrote that the burned out building should be left as a monument to human stupidity. I would add ask one of the protesters what charges they want brought against the other 3 and charge them with that. It is likely they will want some idiotic charge that cannot be proven and let them live with that outcome as well.
As I understand it, Target and CVS have decided not to rebuild. This will reduce the available choices for all residents and probably result in increased prices all around. As for Ghandi Mahal, the list shows he only had a broken window and not fire damage. So is he saying his building burned to help his virtue signaling or is the list incorrect.
I for one am damn tired of funding urban renewal projects in cities that have proven to be tinder boxes.
Based on the news footage I have seen the one distinguishing characteristic of the people involved is that they are under 30. This is not a function of poverty it is a function of hate, ignorance, and opportunism.
At around 1:50 she mentions the restaurant, though the video does not seem to show it.
It is gone. Took a photo today that I am trying to send to Jack. So, the message may have been made after the fact.
-Jut
I heard that Target was planning to re-build by the end of the year.
-Jut
I am not making excuses for Ruehl Islam. His statement is definitely worthy of your award. However, maybe he had that restaurant insured to the hilt. His sensibilities could be blinded by visions in his head of the new and improved Gandhi Mahal that will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. It is obtuse, but it is the only reason I could see for making such a statement and being so benevolent toward criminals.
It is always ethical to give our fellow humans the benefit of the doubt.
Alternatively, he could be wailing and gnashing his teeth at his loss, while his daughter writes her “truth” of how he feels on Facebook.
There’s a lot of obtuse virtue signaling out there. What part does duress play in fearing for your future business if you do not virtue signal in this thinnest of margins nice place?
Oh, he had some insurance (large sign indicating this business is MINORITY OWNED). Don’t know how effective it was. Reports vary.
The one across from me had a big sign saying black owned (an Ethiopian restaurant).
Gone.
-Jut
So, explicitly stating that they think violence is racially-motivated? Van Jones said “So even the most liberal, well-intentioned white person, has a virus in his or her brain that can be activated at an instant.” On national television he stated that all white people have a virus in their brain that can make them racist in an instant and black people won’t take it any more. These riots look more like an intentional race-war than ‘protests’ about a police incident. The Minneapolis NAACP, of course, is blaming the looting and rioting on ‘white supremacists’.
Where has there been riots and looting?
Well, I looked up
Minneapolis
Cincinnati
Detroit
Atlanta
Washington, DC
Eugene, OR
LA
Seattle
Portland
Chicago
then I stopped looking, so I have to assume this is is every Democratic area. Why is racism always the most oppressive in the Democratic areas?
However, maybe he had that restaurant insured to the hilt. His sensibilities could be blinded by visions in his head of the new and improved Gandhi Mahal that will rise from the ashes like a phoenix
If what you suggest is true, and if he is well-insured and knows he can rise again, what would he have to say to those who did not have insurance, or savings, and who will not be able to recover?
To really carry through on his ethics, he might consider giving his insurance money to others — really making the sacrifice — and perhaps going to work as a volunteer in the ghettos.
What is an ethical person to do when the authorities charged with keeping order in the streets have abdicated their responsibility?
Today Minneapolis. In November, we may all face this question.
My former Navy SF son is now prepared to extract my daughter and son-in-law from Minneapolis.
Once got the opportunity to watch him in an exercise fighting alone against 15 less well trained opponents. He eliminated 14 of them before finally being flanked having lost track of one.
What is an ethical person to do when the authorities charged with keeping order in the streets have abdicated their responsibility?
As you might imagine, I have an interest in exploring this question from various angles, and also in attempting to *interpret* it not from a surface perspective alone, but from a depth perspective. The meta-social and the meta-political.
By pushing in these directions, by challenging the *surface* view, I constantly arouse ire. I accept this, and don’t push back against it too much because I know (or think that I know) why. People get angry at me for *stating the truth*. Because in the present — sick — social conditions a whole range of things have been made illegal, immoral and unethical to think, and more so to say.
So when someone deliberately chooses to tell the truth there is a psychological reaction against that person, and an individual, but more often the *mob*, strikes out against the one disturbing the peace, as it were. Now, the Dissident Right has taken that position when it speaks to the so-called Conservative American right. Can’t stress this enough because it is the core of what interests me, the focus of my study, and one of the cores of my discourse.
The issue is not only the failure of *the authorities* to keep order on the streets. And though there is an ethics questions there, there is a far larger ethics question — a series of questions — that are far larger and far more consequential. Who empowered the Black resistance and liberation movement in the US back in the 1960s? And who continues to fuel it, contributing to these uprisings that America does not have the will to control? That is one of the larger ethical questions.
The Future
Seemed a propos:
https://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-dis-covery-and-re-discovery-of.html?m=1
Maybe just a fanciful stream of consciousness association though.
A certain shamelessly long stretch of a wonderful novel I’m reading also springs to mind, not the subject per se, but somehow the same underlying sense.
The site linked to and the writing there is of a sort that I have difficulty with as a non-native speaker of English. I had heard of Voegelin (I think) and spent a few minutes reviewing the title the blog author linked to. Pretty complex, subjective material from what could tell. It would require a major investment to become familiar with his ideas.
I think I get some part of what you are getting at with his reference to *dis-covery* and *re-discovery* but if you filled it out some more I might understand better.
I don’t think there’s any understanding Bob Godwin, I think he just muses without a general thrust. I think the element I’d latched onto was his description of “ideological pseudo-realities and gnostic dreamworlds built upon ontological lies, i.e., not lying ‘about’ reality but living in a lie about reality.”
He touches on that artificial interpretive structure which is less a drawing of meaning out of reality than it is an imposition onto it. The subject isn’t necessarily lying consciously but rather trapped in the structure like a sort of mental cage (I may be appealing to a previous article here; I’m not good at keeping ideas separated). He describes psychological and spiritual maturity as breaking free of these. In some past musings he likened this to Original Sin, convincing me to check back in from time to time.
I’ve been reading him off and on for a few years, so I’ve acclimated to his loose idiosyncratic style – somewhere between New Age crackpot and Catholic mystic. Language may only be half the battle. After all that, it’s surprising how standard his politics can be, though I think I’ve seen him go off the beaten path from time to time.
Ah, that makes more sense.
I am wondering if — in the larger scope of things — if a return (if this will really be possible) to a platform of genuine conservatism, which must be as I understand things a return to different, more demanding, metaphysical views — if this will involve a substantial reordering of the way we see all things.
What if the *larger imposition* of vision and ideology that we are subject to has the function of creating internal conditions in which we *see* a very distorted picture of reality?
That is what this could point to: “ideological pseudo-realities and gnostic dreamworlds built upon ontological lies”.
Well you are not allowed to defend yourself. As a warning to anyone who tries to defend them selves against the racist mob, Minneapolis apparently immediately arrested a business owner for murder after he killed a looter that broke into his store during the riots.
To provided some background on the owner of Gandhi Mahal. This is from a few years back.
In Charlotttesville all protesters were deemed neo nazis despite the fact that most were there to protest the removal of confederate statues. Had the police not funneled the dueling demonstrations into each others path the liklihood of the young woman’s death would have been reduced or eliminated. Here rioters are all deemed righteous protesters. Something is wrong and I am beginning to believe that progressive leaders are themselves culpable for what is transpiring. I further believe they use these events to ingratiate themselves with the people who are causing the mayhem. The fact is they have been setting police policy for generations. They need to own their bad policies and not blame something as amorphous as systemic racism when they run the system
This morning on the TV news they — the mayor and governor — are speaking in efforts to wiggle their way out of “understanding” the protests while knowing that mere speech will not end this. They want to keep their woke credentials intact as they try to find the way to stop this, knowing full well that the ultimate step they take is to pull the velvet glove of the the iron fist. All the better if they can goad PDJT into this via military police.
Next year’s riots will be over the lack of commercial activity in the town. No Walgreen’s, no Target, no Auto Zone. No jobs at those places because there will not be those places.
The people and groups that came to Charlottesville were varied and they reflected, in general, a nativist and populist movement not solely against taking down some statues, but a movement of people — average people most of who are from the white ‘dispossessed classes’ — who begin to form a coherent position from which to challenge the hyper-liberal madness that has taken over the country. This is a complex issue and question. To understand it, you’d have to take the time to read their writing. To listen to what they say. To grasp why their views are so threatening to the existing system and direction. But also why their ideas represent a liberation from the constraints of hyper-liberal coerced thought which, to be honest, has many who write on this blog (and in America) firmly in its grip. And as much as you may want to shut me down because I say things you-plural don’t like, I make the suggestion to pay more close attention to gaining a more inclusive understanding.
Because you are totally confused and completely *mystified* people (excuse the generality but I am a polemicist and there is accuracy in what I say) you cannot get your understanding in order! You constantly editorialize what you see. You mis-see as a deliberate choice. You cannot state the truth yet for very very good reasons: if you did it publicly you would be destroyed! Vast coercive forces surround all of us, and we struggle to explain and defend *that*, or we fight in one way or another to get out from under it.
Had the police not funneled the dueling demonstrations into each other’s path the likelihood of the young woman’s death would have been reduced or eliminated. Here rioters are all deemed righteous protesters. Something is wrong and I am beginning to believe that progressive leaders are themselves culpable for what is transpiring.
The purpose of provocation is to create circumstances through which the adversary can be vilified. This was carried out with a great deal of skill at Charlottesville. And many who write on this blog, in varying degrees, participated in that vilification. It is part of the way you see. You have absorbed these ways of seeing and interpreting. They are reflexive.
This is part of a war, of course, against those common people who begin to understand what is being done to them and what has been done to them. The entire Hyper-Liberal *agenda* has to be examined. Every part of it. It is in a substantial degree agitprop.
I wonder how much of this is attributable to the situation for most people of being essentially unemployed and locked down at home for two months? I think some of this is just venting their frustration. I don’t condone it, whatever the reason. These are not demonstrators or protestors. (What, exactly is the mission of those and what do they expect to accomplish?) These are the acts of vandals, thugs, and thieves. What statement is made by stealing a TV from Target?
I certainly think it weighs in.
I find an incredible level of hypocrisy on the left. Protesting the lockdowns:. “you bunch of anti-science, ignorant right wing rubes just value money over life. I hope the cops lock you up.” Protesting the police: silence.
My guess: a lot.
The restaurant owner is an immigrant from Bangladesh. Having spent a fair amount of time in the region and a lot of time working virtually with people there, I would say this is a cultural, not a intelligence issue. I think you can find about 1.5 billion people stretching from Pakistan to Myanmar who all have the same mindset.
Our minds are similar enough that it is somewhat easy to express ideas and be understood. I still struggle myself often at understanding the mindset. One part I would say is that they are the body count by the protesters is still zero and the body count by the police is one. The difference between the value of property and the value of life is on a completely different plane for them. They see any dollar value is insignificant compared to killing.
Don’t take it as me agreeing with the guy in any way. I just recognize the thought patterns.
He’s an American, and should be absorbing American values.
It takes time. Maybe his kids or grandkids will. Doesn’t look too promising on his daughter’s front, though. But maybe she has absorbed American values. She sounds as if she lives in Brooklyn and blogs about all things lefty.
I think it’s more accurate to simply say he’s a foreigner and probably will be for most of his life.
“One part I would say is that they are the body count by the protesters is still zero and the body count by the police is one.”
For now; after Ferguson, several cops were shot and killed, and there’s a news story out of Oakland about a federal cop being killed, though supposedly they’re “not sure if it’s related to the riots” (not sure I buy that, coming from there; “Oakland mayor warns of ICE raid”).
The other issue I take with “body count by the police is one” – apparently the autopsy stated there were no signs of death by asphyxiation. If accurate (and I would think so, but possible it’s not), then there was an underlying health condition. I don’t know police training, and while kneeling on the neck of a cuffed suspect seems harsh, how many suspects say the same thing in an attempt to get away?
How many other suspects die in the same circumstances?
Is Floyd’s death the “moral luck” Jack often speaks of? (feels awfully ironic using the word “luck” there).
Finally, at what point does Floyd bring it on himself? Was he passing counterfeit bills? Huh, a black man in a major city running afoul of the law, how odd. Perhaps casting aspersions, his attitude was probably not great when confronted.
Now, there are a horrendous number of underlying issues for that to be such a common occurrence, very legitimate issues. But the vast majority, though perhaps not the hardest issues to tackle, but the vast majority have to do with looking in the mirror and taking responsibility with one’s own actions and behavior. I’m going through a divorce, and while I could blame the entire thing on my soon to be ex, the reality is there are a large number of things I could have done for two decades that had a large potential to change the landscape, possibly preventing where I’m at now.
In my youth I was pulled over and searched several times because I fit the profile of drug dealers (I was not, and am proud to say never tried any, not even pot). “Yes sir. No sir” Never a problem. Pulled over for doing 120mph in my old Z-car; as the exchange went, do you know how many things I could take you to jail for? Aside from my response of, I can think of a couple, and I’ll bet you could tell me a whole bunch more, it was “Yes sir, no sir”. Only ticket was no proof of insurance (dismissed two days later by showing the judge insurance).
When I was driving to California as my bio-dad was dying a few years ago (derelict father at best), I was distracted, didn’t see or hear the cop behind me for several miles (at 85-90mph), and was put in handcuffs and sat on the side of the road for a while. Every answer was “Yes sir, no sir”, like the others, with the utmost respect for the cop. He wrote the ticket in such a way that when I went to court (where if I were to admit guilt and petition the judge for a traffic school opportunity) the ticket would be dismissed.
In the last two cases, I was guilty and would’ve deserved what I got. Being white I’m sure helped. Being super respectful and honest about my guilt helped a hell of a lot more. In the first case, being white did not help as it was young white guys in sports cars that were dealers, apparently….
No matter how the evidence of Floyd passing counterfeit turns out, the pitiful excuse of every black man with an attitude that “The Man” is out to get me is bunch of bullshit, whether elements of truth are in it or not. Look in the mirror if there’s a long standing problem.
So Floyd is the complete and total victim, not responsible for anything at all. Yeah not quite.
93 people were murdered in Chicago between first of the year and March 31, and you can bet most all of them were from the south side, i.e. black. No riots, no protests, nobody gives a damn about those people. 93 families destroyed, “well, that’s just how things are down there”.
Maybe if they burned down all the drug dealers and gang bangers houses, things would change a little, right?
Blaming the whole damn thing on whitey means there’s no need to look in the mirror, guaranteeing nothing will change.
It’s awful that Mr. Floyd died, it truly is – and the cop involved has a bad record, making it that much easier to blame The Man. But there are generations in big cities around this nation that really need to start taking some responsibility for how things are in their neighborhoods and for what happens to them when they run in to the police. And truly, they do need help. Horrible places with little hope.
But don’t ask for help changing “how things are” in this country if you’re not willing to change “how things are.”
The Democrats now are absurdly pretending that the riots are being caused by white supremacists and Russian agitators:
I feel sorry for the daughter, trying to pull things together after the unjust violent mob, and discovering her father is deluded enough to cheer on the damage to the family and their future, (I don’t think PR is worth the fear and emotional cost to the family)