General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen Police and other Government Officials Declare War on a People
When police repeatedly brutalize any group of people they are supposed to protect, and the justice system repeatedly fails to hold them accountable for their actions and fulfill the requirements of justice, then that means, in effect, that WAR is being declared upon the people. When that happens, and when repeated reasonable efforts fail to ameliorate the situation, people have two choices: They can continue with efforts to ameliorate the situation peacefully, in which case they can expect an intolerable situation to continue. Or they can fight back.
I acknowledge that this is an over-simplification of what are usually very complex situations. How is it determined when all reasonable efforts have failed and will likely continue to fail to ameliorate the situation? Who has the right to make that determination? Are the consequences of fighting back likely to be worse than the consequences of continuing to seek peaceful solutions? These and many other pertinent questions are extremely difficult to answer so difficult that there are unlikely to be answers that a good majority of people can agree on. Nevertheless, people are faced with a decision of monumental importance, and choices must be made, one way or the other.
But the powers that be dont see it like that. As recently noted by Mychal Denzel Smith in an article he wrote for The Nation:
Whenever there is an uprising in an American city, as weve seen in Baltimore over the past few days in response to the police-involved death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, there always emerges a chorus of elected officials, pundits, and other public figures that forcefully condemn violent protests. They offer their unconditional support for legitimate or peaceful protests, but describe those who break windows and set fires as thugs, criminals, or animals .
But those public figures ought to re-think their simple minded analysis of such situations. They ought to recognize that when government officials declare war on a people, those people are likely to feel enraged and desperate and to (rightfully) contemplate desperate actions. That is human nature, and it always has been. Therefore, public figures who condemn people who choose to fight back in desperate situations would be well advised instead to think about the conditions that caused people to feel so enraged and desperate, and what can be done to ameliorate those conditions.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)So I always spread the Scott's in a diagonal pattern.
Time for change
(13,718 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)support for legitimate or peaceful protests," they are lying. OWS were peaceful and those people were brutalized by the police and the Dept of Justice help them. The powers that run this country will not tolerate protests. And the sad thing is that even here in DU we have those that sided with the police brutality over OWS. It's the sickness of authoritarianism. The total unquestioning capitulation to authority.
The police do not serve the public. They serve the powers that run this country. The federal government helps militarize them and looks the other way when they brutalize and kill innocent citizens.
Time for change
(13,718 posts)I don't think of myself as "supporting" violence, and I certainly have no fondness for it. I would just say that I'm not a pacifist, which is to say that I do believe that violence is justified under some circumstances (which I vaguely touched on in my OP)
It is also worth noting that -- though I can't prove it -- I'll bet that most of those who most vehemently condemn violence in response to protests against police brutality have no problem in supporting the violence perpetrated by the U.S. military -- which is to say that it's not really the violence that they are against, but rather at whom the violence is directed.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)The Powers That Be would love it if the people became violent. That gives them the justification to remove more and more freedoms and liberties. At some point there will be no choice but violence. I want to see things worked out before that.
Time for change
(13,718 posts)Like I said in the OP, these are very complex issues, and I certainly don't presume to have the solution to it.
Of course I would like to see things worked out peaceably too, but I do get the impression that the PTB isn't very interested in changing the status quo.