In recent weeks, police forces have brutally assaulted U.S. Black Lives Matter protestors in record numbers. Here are numerous graphic examples if you’ve somehow been unaware of this epidemic of unnecessary violence. Here’s a massive Twitter thread with more examples. Police have violently attacked peaceful protestors, bystanders, medics, and journalists in thousands of reported cases, many of which have gone viral on social media. The evidence is right there in front of us, for everyone to see. I’ve been trying to understand how we got here and what we can do about it.
If you’ve been paying any attention at all, you know we’ve been here a long time. Police brutality and the abuse of police power has been around longer than our republic.
In the recent BLM protests, cops are triggered by being called out about their historically abusive and racist behavior. In many cases, police have reacted with even more intensively abusive behavior, not only against peaceful Black protestors but against anyone who dares to criticize police behavior. Sure, cops are people too, just as stressed as the rest of us from the global pandemic, stressful working conditions, and whatever personal problems they might have. But what we’re seeing is highly reactionary and racist. When heavily armed White protestors protested pandemic restrictions on government property, cops reacted calmly. But peaceful BLM protestors demanding that police no longer casually murder Black citizens in the “line of duty” have been met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and medieval military tactics.
Not all the protests have been peaceful, and some individuals have reacted to police murdering citizens by destroying property and looting. But the vast majority of reckless, abhorrent behavior has been on the part of police themselves, who have systemically and brutally attacked peaceful protestors, and willfully turned peaceful protests into chaotic melees.
