What Trump does is pretty irrelevant. Biden is even worse than Hilary and Trump will eat him for breakfast.

I thought you didn’t read the Daily Mail in any of its forms. What has his history got to do with anything, was he armed, did they know he was possibly guilty of nothing more that trying to pass a forge $20. I was under the impression that if correct he served his time and like everywhere else including the U.K. he is a free man.
It will appeal to his base but that is not big enough to win the election and Trump is not exactly endearing himself to the rest of the American population. He needs white suburban women to vote for him apparently but that is not going too well.

I don't. His criminal record is out there. There are screenshots of his criminal convictions all over the place if you care to look for them.

Floyd may have 'only' been trying to pass off a forged $20 note on this occasion, but he was a lifelong thug and criminal who - in the way of these things - will have got away with a damn sight more than he was ever convicted of. Do I think the manner of his death was unacceptable? Yes. Absolutely. Do I feel empathy with his family? Yes. Absolutely. But a better father wouldn't have been out committing crime.

Do I care that a violent career criminal is dead? Not in the slightest. Same as Mark Duggan. Good riddance to scum.

I'm sure to you he's a noble martyr akin to Martin Luther King. I'm sure to you the protesters and rioters (note the differentiation) are gallant heroes although a week or two ago they would have been considered plague rats. Just as I'm sure you're happy at the US police and others killed and injured by rioters and looters in the last few days.

As for Trump, beware the silent majority who will be vehemently opposed to these riots and will want them crushed. Many tens of millions will be thrilled by the sight of the 82nd in DC and will hope they get the chance to crack a few skulls. The liberal media often do not reflect majority public opinion, as we know.

Agree with both of Crous' posts. What I don't understand why "blacklives matter" any more than white, asian, chinese.... or the thousands killed in the Middle East, where are those 'protests'?

Can I nominate the extra bank holiday being touted for October as [i"St Flashman Day?"[/i

The point is that black lives should matter as much as any other, not more. With issues around 200+ years of slavery, legal systems of apartheid in living memory, white supremacist militias, redlining and significant ongoing inequality and racism that hasn’t been and still isn’t the case.

There are other bad things in the world, I admit, but those also often provoke dissent, protests and resistance.

No problem with dissent protest etc. but using anything as an excuse for wanton violence and looting is shameful.

If the numbers of "white" people being arrested or murdered was as high as is within the "black' community, it wouldn't and couldn't be a mantra for the protesters to use.
There is a huge issue with race in the USA, especially in the "deep south", where "blacks" are still regarded as second class citizens - in the 21st century, can that be right, I dont think so.

I agree ,but, I also don't think the bible belt gets much of its opinion from informed, intelligent educated individuals either. America is a very strange country in many ways.

What doesn't help here is the hypocrisy of many of our elected individuals - you have the likes of Naz Shah tweeting black lives matter but was very happy for the lives of the white girls in Rotherham not to matter!!

Everybody bears personal responsibility for their actions as individuals, absolutely.

The worry for me is that the, often justified, disillusionment across broad swathes of society isn’t leading toward reforms and a more equitable, efficient and just system. We’re just turning on each other like radicalised rats in a sack, with the system being set aflame (literally, and metaphorically with the elections of people like Trump, Bolsanaro et al.). Maybe something better will emerge from the ashes. Hard to be optimistic at the moment though.