Black Lives Matter plans to disrupt Twin Cities Marathon

Mn runner 2 wrote:

Important to note that black lives St Paul is doing the protest.

Black lives matter Minneapolis is registered with the national black lives matter. They have held several peaceful meetings and vigils and town hall meetings

Black lives matter St Paul which has so far shut down the state fair (chanting "pigs in a blanket fry em up") and the train leading to the Vikings game last week is not recognized by the national black lives matter for being too radical.

Thanks for clarifying. Hopefully St. Paul PD will keep the protesters away from the course.

Im gonna make a shirt that says "Twin cities times matter."I would be pissed if I was enroute to a PR and some mother no matter the race tried to block me. I would run through them like a knife through butter.

OldPolarrBear wrote:

Honestly, poor political strategy on their part. As a left of center democrat, my sympathy with the BLM movement begins to wane when I hear about protests like this. I get the whole race relations, police brutality, profiling thing. I really do. But blocking a marathon is just shooting yourself in the foot.

A thoughtful post!

We should call in the Patriot Guard, i.e. those guys who drive the motorcycles to block the Westboro Baptist Church protesters at soldiers' funerals.

Liberalism = a mental disorder wrote:

We should call in the Patriot Guard, i.e. those guys who drive the motorcycles to block the Westboro Baptist Church protesters at soldiers' funerals.

The comparison to WBC is pretty valid actually. As an above poster pointed out, "BLM-St Paul" Isn't even affiliated with the national BLM movement - they disowned them because of how radical they are. They aren't really interested in their message succeeding, they just want to make a scene. Trying to link the two is like trying to link WBC and Focus on the Family. One is pragmatic and realistic about achieving their goals (whether or not you agree with them); the other is just using ideology as an excuse for stirring up trouble.

There are elements like this in every political issue. Abortion clinic firebombers, anti-globalization anarchists, occupy rioters, the WBC, and apparently now BLM-St Paul.

Maybe BLM - Minneapolis can organize a counter-protest where they protect the course, seeing as five of the last ten champions on the men's side are not white (and one of the other five is from Ukraine...).

Any idiot can cite statistics. They don't mean a thing without context, and they will be inherently skewed.

Look at the raw numbers. Whites commit more overall crime in almost every single category, and overwhelmingly so (double in categories like violent crime, rape, and theft). They just commit it against their own race.

Regardless, of that 12 percent of blacks, it's 1-2 percent committing the crimes. It's illogical to despise black people based on the actions of a few.

I would help fund an effort to block BLM from getting on the course. It matters that much to me.

To the people posting racist comments - You suck just as bad as BLM. They suck AND you suck.

Witgrunner wrote:

Huh? What does the Democratic Party have to do with this? There is no logic here. Just as there is no logic by BLM disrupting the Marathon, there is no logic having some GOP extremist trying to blame a fringe group's actions on an entire political party. That's the equivalent of me saying that you speak for the entire GOP. You certainly don't speak for me.

It's still sad to think that a more effective message can't be delivered by BLM instead blocking people attaining their life's dream.

Are you kidding? This is exactly what the dems do every election: find one republican to say something nasty about a topic i.e. abortion (even though abortion laws will never be touched) and then claim that that one person is representative of the entire party. This happens every election. It would be great if the same tactic was used on the Dems.

Honey Rider wrote:

Could be interesting... protest will be starting right around when the leaders will be finishing, and right near the finish.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_28879733/black-lives-matter-plans-disrupt-twin-cities-marathon

How does disrupting a marathon help their cause? It will only serve to reinforce anti-black stereotypes.

The government could deal a fatal blow to the Black Lives Matter movement by requiring limiting the amount of time that people can be on food stamps and welfare. If the black and anarchist protestors actually had to work for a living, they wouldn't be able to protest they way they do.

Exactly which of the statistics that were posted are "inherently skewed"? Blacks do commit far more crime on a per-capita basis than do whites or any other race, and only a very naive person could possibly disagree with a statement like that.

Whites may commit more overall crimes in most categories, as you suggest, but that is because whites greatly outnumber blacks in the U.S. However, there is no denying that blacks commit more murders and other violent crimes than whites even though that are more whites than blacks in this country.

From the article:

Rashad Turner said in a statement: “for anyone who believes that a person’s journey to completing a marathon is more important than our journey to being liberated as a people, you are under the mind control of white supremacy, and it’s time to free yourself.”

http://bringmethenews.com/

Would have better luck if the post was "Member of Black Lives Matter plans to WIN Twin Cities Marathon."

The BLM movement is misguided, and by design. If they really want to effect change they should mobilize on every street corner in the inner city, where gang violence and drub dealing kills far more black lines than a few over zealous (in some cases) cops. But its really not about "black lives" is it?

beware TCM Runners wrote:

From the article:

Rashad Turner said in a statement: “for anyone who believes that a person’s journey to completing a marathon is more important than our journey to being liberated as a people, you are under the mind control of white supremacy, and it’s time to free yourself.”

http://bringmethenews.com/

What stupid logic. "X is more important than Y" does not mean that X should always and in every situation preempt Y. There is pretty much always going to be something more important than whatever you're doing right now, but we can generally all peacefully coexist. Sloan Kettering can't take over my kitchen just because treating cancer is more important than my morning coffee.

TrackCoach wrote:

To Insignificant track coach wrote:

Insignificant? So many runners find meaning in their life as a result of running. All that hard work and training they put in should not be jeopardized by some stupid disruption. You must not be running the marathon and never have or you would understand. I can't believe you are impacting our youth as a track coach! Makes me sick.

Don't coach anymore, but I have run several marathons, 27 to be exact. I have no idea what I said that gives you the impression that I don't understand the significance of disrupting a race. I actually spent over hour attempting to reach out to the St Paul BLM leader specifically to impress upon them not to disrupt the runners.

TrackCoach has always been a voice of reason on this message board. You never need to defend your actions, that poster is probably a troll.

Its unfortunate that so many take time to vent racial anger and hostilities on this message board. Certain topics and actions just exacerbate these negative feelings.

The BLM demonstration if not done respectfully will certainly increase racial animosity and make the situation much worse. I hope that doesn't happen.

I just started a Facebook page called Let Them Finish, anyone who is opposed to the threatened disruption, feel free to give it a like. My goal is to show the runners that we support them and also to invite anyone who wants to stand in solidarity with me to come out on race day to the area near the threatened blocking of the course. I put forth no opinion about the motivations behind the protest, I simply oppose any action to disrupt this great event or any action taken against the running community worldwide. Thousands of people have put their heart and soul into training for this event, don't let anyone take that from them #letthemfinish

Here is the facebook page for the group and the event black marathon. I think positive comments form the LetsRun community to encourage a positive event and not a negative could possibly make an impact. show them what a real community that does positive is like!

https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatter-Saint-Paul-1448057435496658/timeline/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1470268309947581/

From what I have read, BLM St.Paul, is an extreme group that is not associated with the national BLM movement. If this group does interfere with any finishers of this marathon, this likely will be the end of significant public sympathy toward the BLM movement.

Watching these exhausted racers blocked and bullied at the end of their race by BLM protesters will only generate total disdain toward the movement. The press and public reaction would be amazingly negative toward this activity.

Now the problem will be that the national BLM movement will be severely tarnished by the acts of this extreme group. The national BLM movement should be proactive and condemn any demonstration that is not respectful toward the runners. If they don't, they future acceptance of their movement will be greatly damaged by the acts of this extreme group.