Montgomery Alabama Riverfront Brawl

[chiver78]

Aug 8, 2023 16:38:02 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

I saw this in a comment

For the white people afraid of helping and getting hit and wondering how you help…

As a white man speaking, you become a witness. You explain how those fucking (bleep) started it. You explain how these amazing Americans stood up to bigotry and defended another American. You tell them as a white person the other white people started it.

Sometimes your skin color means your word is taken more so lean into it. Help your fellow black Americans.


I’m not 100% it’s okay to copy it here, so I understand if it gets deleted or I’m told to delete it. I edited out a slur with with the (bleep), that was referring to white people.

you're entirely okay here. <chiver puts the mod hat down> 

I hadn't seen anything about this until I saw this thread this morning. and apparently it's going to be discussed on the NBC Nightly News that's currently airing here in the Eastern time zone. I watched the video someone linked, and just shook my head. those people from the pontoon boat deserve everything that's coming to them. 

ETA: I meant to also say - now I understand your FB post the other night about the "Black Man's hat toss is..."     game on! 

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 8, 2023 17:37:32 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Aug 8, 2023 16:38:02 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

I saw this in a comment

For the white people afraid of helping and getting hit and wondering how you help…

As a white man speaking, you become a witness. You explain how those fucking (bleep) started it. You explain how these amazing Americans stood up to bigotry and defended another American. You tell them as a white person the other white people started it.

Sometimes your skin color means your word is taken more so lean into it. Help your fellow black Americans.


I’m not 100% it’s okay to copy it here, so I understand if it gets deleted or I’m told to delete it. I edited out a slur with with the (bleep), that was referring to white people.

you're entirely okay here. <chiver puts the mod hat down> 

I hadn't seen anything about this until I saw this thread this morning. and apparently it's going to be discussed on the NBC Nightly News that's currently airing here in the Eastern time zone. I watched the video someone linked, and just shook my head. those people from the pontoon boat deserve everything that's coming to them. 

Oh, it all got so much worse than the video linked in this thread. There are several of videos, from different angles, that show the whole story. I’ve watched videos today, and seen things I didn’t see in the videos I watched yesterday.

So you didn’t see AquaMane swim over fully clothed, to help his coworker, or the Karen in the white dress, that was safely away from the mess, but decided to walk down and add her 2 cents and ended up tossed in the water, or the reason for all the chair memes. Or that the band on the riverboat started playing and singing a song telling the folks to move their pontoon while they were all waiting for the riverboat to be able to dock so they could get off and the people waiting, could get on.

It was really a big, crazy mess.

[billisonboard]

Lauren Spivey, a witness aboard the riverboat, told CNN they had been waiting about 30 to 45 minutes for the small boat’s owners to come and move it, “but nobody came forward.” link

untied and a gentle push should have taken place after 5 minutes tops.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 8, 2023 17:37:32 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Aug 8, 2023 16:38:02 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

I saw this in a comment

For the white people afraid of helping and getting hit and wondering how you help…

As a white man speaking, you become a witness. You explain how those fucking (bleep) started it. You explain how these amazing Americans stood up to bigotry and defended another American. You tell them as a white person the other white people started it.

Sometimes your skin color means your word is taken more so lean into it. Help your fellow black Americans.


I’m not 100% it’s okay to copy it here, so I understand if it gets deleted or I’m told to delete it. I edited out a slur with with the (bleep), that was referring to white people.

you're entirely okay here. <chiver puts the mod hat down> 

I hadn't seen anything about this until I saw this thread this morning. and apparently it's going to be discussed on the NBC Nightly News that's currently airing here in the Eastern time zone. I watched the video someone linked, and just shook my head. those people from the pontoon boat deserve everything that's coming to them. 

ETA: I meant to also say - now I understand your FB post the other night about the "Black Man's hat toss is..."     game on! 

at your ETA. I try not to be too controversial on FB, but sometimes I can’t resist. When I first saw the video Sunday, I was like, why he throw his hat in the air like that, and Mister said that was him saying “f it” and throwing his job away, because he was gon fight that bastard. LOL! Then the Internet started saying it was him sending up the bat signal, and help came immediately, which was funny to me too.

[Opti]

I saw it as a "f it" too. Its unfair he was put in that situation and the idiot that did the running punch thing a couple times needs some jail time to cool his heels. 

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 8, 2023 18:11:33 GMT -5 Opti said:

I saw it as a "f it" too. It’s unfair he was put in that situation and the idiot that did the running punch thing a couple times needs some jail time to cool his heels. 

I thought maybe the hat toss was an “ooooh wee” let me do something so I don’t his this fool with ALL the energy I have right now. He’d already been messing with his hat, taking it off and putting it back on and turning it around, when he started getting agitated. So him throwing it in the air definitely meant something lol.

From my understanding the pontoon folks had been told they couldn’t leave it there from the beginning, and they did it anyway. So they already felt entitled and privileged, before the employee showed up and tried to get their boat out of the way.

There were several of them, and only one of the employee. But the employee was not alone for long, and it ain’t no fun when the rabbit gets the gun, or when the hunter becomes the prey.

The sad thing is, I doubt the pontoon folks learned any good lessons from the whole mess they ignited. I bet they feel just as entitled and privileged as they did that day, and take no responsibility for starting what turned into a big mess.

[happyhoix]

Three white guys got arrested.

Act stupid, pay the stupid tax.

[andi9899]

Everyone has been saying 8/5 is the new Juneteenth. It's also my mom's birthday. I can't wait to tell her.

[happyhoix]

If you think about it, 100 years ago, if a gang of white guys started beating up a black guy on a public dock in front of witnesses in Montgomery Alabama, would a bunch of black guys run to help him? Would the cops have run up and arrested three of the white guys? Would the newspapers be outraged at the thuggish whites?

I’m glad these idiots are getting publicity humiliated and also arrested. I have no belief they will stop being racist jerks, but maybe the consequences will be serious enough they will at least refrain from behaving that way in public. Wear your hoods in your basement rec rooms, boys, while you drink your Pabst and talk your shitty talk in private.

[Tennesseer]

Not lessening the seriousness of the incident on the dock but I saw this picture on Facebook. It was such a melee, all sorts of characters got involved.

[andi9899]

They also went to the hospital for their injuries but left because a lot of the staff was black. One of the nurses went on a podcast.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 8, 2023 20:13:48 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Not lessening the seriousness of the incident on the dock but I saw this picture on Facebook. It was such a melee, all sorts of characters got involved.

I saw this earlier today. That’s the thing though, it was so much going on, and so much chaos, that it wasn’t until today, after watching even more videos from different angles, that I could finally make sense of all the shit that happened, and when and where it happened.

So yeah, sticking all this random stuff in this picture makes sense, even though it’s nonsense lol.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 8, 2023 19:46:13 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

If you think about it, 100 years ago, if a gang of white guys started beating up a black guy on a public dock in front of witnesses in Montgomery Alabama, would a bunch of black guys run to help him? Would the cops have run up and arrested three of the white guys? Would the newspapers be outraged at the thuggish whites?

I’m glad these idiots are getting publicity humiliated and also arrested. I have no belief they will stop being racist jerks, but maybe the consequences will be serious enough they will at least refrain from behaving that way in public. Wear your hoods in your basement rec rooms, boys, while you drink your Pabst and talk your shitty talk in private.

That is one of the reasons why the videos went viral. A lot of Black people were and are very happy that Black people that were there and witnessed what happened, showed up to defend the employee and confront the pontoon folks, and were willing to and did throw hands because what happened and started all of it was wrong.

I don’t like violence, but I must admit that I too, am glad that my sisters and brothers gave tit for tat and showed up in a way that outnumbered the folks that started it, when they outnumbered the man that was just trying to do his job. 

If not for videos that clearly showed who the aggressors were, I have no doubt that the pontoon folks would have got away without repercussions due to them being the ones that started the whole mess. If they said all those black folks acted out and fought them for no reason, without admitting how their actions provoked the whole thing, I absolutely believe they would’ve been believed to be the victims, by the public, and in court. 

Some of the articles on the Internet now, are written in ways that don’t make it clear that the white folks started it. That’s bullshit, because the videos clearly show who was the problem, and who could’ve taken action that would’ve prevented everything that happened after, by following the rules in the first place, when they were told they couldn’t leave their boat there, and by complying when the employee told them they needed to move it.

[Tennesseer]

Almost every other picture now I see on Facebook involves a folding chair.  My favorite Olympics picture and now my favorite folding chair picture.

[Pink Cashmere]

I see that one of the white women has been arrested now. I think she was the one in the turquoise dress. 3 white men have been arrested, I’d have to look at the videos for the 100th time, but IIRC, there were more than 3 men involved in the initial attack. 

The employee was not a “dock worker”, he was the co-captain of the riverboat that was trying to dock, Mr. Pickett. He and a young white crew member went over from the riverboat on a smaller vessel to the dock, to move the pontoon after the pontoon folks refused. The same young white crew member (a minor) tried to intervene when the co-captain was initially attacked, but one of the men attacked the young man and he ran away. I don’t blame him, he clearly wasn’t a fighter. But at least he tried to help his coworker. The young man’s Mom also worked on the riverboat, and her son ran to her after he was attacked, she pressed charges against the man who hit her son.

I finally realized who Tennesseer mentioned earlier, the first black man that ran down there after the initial attack, and worked to separate everybody, without throwing a punch. He has been tracked down and given kudos for how he handled himself. 

The crew member with the short blonde hair that tangled with the woman in the white dress just before the white dress woman ended up in the water, was immediately fired. The crew member was enraged about Mr. Pickett getting jumped on, because she grew up with Mr. Pickett, and knew him from way back when, before working on the riverboat with him.

Montgomery police are asking that the man with the chair come talk to them. Last I read, he still has not.

During the mess, 2 women that are apparently related to Mr. Pickett ran to the dock and were involved, which I’m sure didn’t help Mr. Pickett calm down. And with everything that was going on, Mr. Pickett was still trying to do his job and get both ends of the riverboat securely tied to the dock.

The captain of the boat, who is white, said he believes the initial attack against Mr. Pickett was racially motivated, but that what happened after people came to defend Mr. Pickett was not racially motivated.

I probably forgot some stuff, but those are the things I’ve learned over the last couple of days.

[billisonboard]

Fifth person charged in Montgomery boat dock brawl is man who wielded chair, attorney says

“Mr. Ray was involuntarily roped into the disorderly conduct initiated by a violent white mob,” Merritt said in a statement to CNN after Ray turned himself in on Friday.

If this is the guy who hit the lady with the chair I would need to hear a lot more about this "involuntarily roped into" before I can accept it. I thought he was looking for someone to hit. It seemed the lady was already down and out of the action. Perhaps there is a verbal component I didn't hear. It feels like, "What they did was wrong so I should be able to do whaever I feel like doing back at them."

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 12, 2023 18:13:25 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Fifth person charged in Montgomery boat dock brawl is man who wielded chair, attorney says

“Mr. Ray was involuntarily roped into the disorderly conduct initiated by a violent white mob,” Merritt said in a statement to CNN after Ray turned himself in on Friday.

If this is the guy who hit the lady with the chair I would need to hear a lot more about this "involuntarily roped into" before I can accept it. I thought he was looking for someone to hit. It seemed the lady was already down and out of the action. Perhaps there is a verbal component I didn't hear. It feels like, "What they did was wrong so I should be able to do whaever I feel like doing back at them."

Yeah, I said in an earlier post that I felt like that was too much.

I forgot to say in my last post that the lady with the commentary as she was recording, has been found and has been interviewed several times. She said she got so caught up that she forgot she was live on FB, so her play by play as it unfolded was just her being her normal (tipsy) self.

[andi9899]

I'll be interested to see what he gets charged with. The white people were all charged with misdemeanors and no hate crimes, which is BS. Who wants to bet the black man gets charged with a felony.

[billisonboard]

Aug 13, 2023 7:44:10 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

I'll be interested to see what he gets charged with. The white people were all charged with misdemeanors and no hate crimes, which is BS. Who wants to bet the black man gets charged with a felony.

From the link above:

Ray, who is Black, was charged with one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in the August 5 incident, court records show.

Charges do change at times based on investigations. Seems like hate crime charges are frequently added later. Something to keep an eye on.

[zibazinski]

Aug 8, 2023 17:37:32 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Aug 8, 2023 16:38:02 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

I saw this in a comment

For the white people afraid of helping and getting hit and wondering how you help…

As a white man speaking, you become a witness. You explain how those fucking (bleep) started it. You explain how these amazing Americans stood up to bigotry and defended another American. You tell them as a white person the other white people started it.

Sometimes your skin color means your word is taken more so lean into it. Help your fellow black Americans.


I’m not 100% it’s okay to copy it here, so I understand if it gets deleted or I’m told to delete it. I edited out a slur with with the (bleep), that was referring to white people.

you're entirely okay here. <chiver puts the mod hat down> 

I hadn't seen anything about this until I saw this thread this morning. and apparently it's going to be discussed on the NBC Nightly News that's currently airing here in the Eastern time zone. I watched the video someone linked, and just shook my head. those people from the pontoon boat deserve everything that's coming to them. 

ETA: I meant to also say - now I understand your FB post the other night about the "Black Man's hat toss is..."     game on! 

Yes, even my son who is very introverted and easygoing said” shits about to get real” when the hat came off!!

[Tennesseer]

Pink Cashmere - watching ABC's Good Morning America this a.m. had a quick preview of an interview to be shown Monday on their show with some of the 'good guys' involved in the Montgomery Alabama riverfront brawl. 

Tape it if you will be at work Monday morning.