In the immediate aftermath of the ICE killing of Renée Good in Minneapolis last week, the Trump administration smeared her as a “domestic terrorist,” claiming that she had weaponized her vehicle. They labeled Good a “violent rioter” and insisted every new video angle proved their version of the truth: Good was a menace and the ICE agent a potential victim. That’s despite video evidence to the contrary, showing Good, by all appearances, trying to leave the scene of the altercation, while ICE agents acted aggressively. Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, spent Sunday doubling down, insisting that Good had supposedly been “breaking the law by impeding and obstructing a law enforcement operation.”
So, on Sunday, I joined the throng in Manhattan for one of many dozens of protests held around the country this past weekend. In the middle of Fifth Avenue, surrounded by raucous, defiant New Yorkers, I asked protesters the simple question: What did you see?
“I mean, it seems like the bottomless, self-radicalizing thing that the government is going through,” said Anne Perryman, 85, a former journalist. “Is there any point when they’re actually at the bottom, and they’re not going to get any worse? I don’t think so.”
“I think there’s a small minority of Americans who are buying that,” said Kobe Amos, a 29-year-old lawyer, describing reactions to the government’s gaslighting. “It’s obviously enough to do a lot of damage. But if you look around, people are angry.”
“I saw an agent that overreacted,” he added, “and did something that was what—I think it’s murder.”
Dude, they just shot a woman in the face 4 times for driving NEAR them with literally no consequences. You think they won’t just open fire on a group if one of them gets hit with pepper spray?
I genuinely don’t know what they’d do, which is why someone should try it defensively if they’re being attacked. It’s easy to say that sitting in a chair hundreds of miles away from it, but I think protestors need to try other tactics, because just whistles ain’t doin shit.
Someone else should try [violence] defensively if they’re being attacked because YOU don’t know what they’d do in return? When the whole thing is about trying to manufacture justification for martial law? What the fuck is wrong with you?
If YOU want to go get violent with ICE, no one is stopping you. Stop trying to get others to do it for you.
Then why are the House Republicans crying about it?
lol read my comment again
I said it’s easy to say when you’re not the one doing it. We, as people against this regime, ought to be trying all kinds of different strategies and observe their reactions to probe for weaknesses. I don’t think outright violence on its own will be productive.
Who do you think isn’t doing what? You personally are free to try all the strategies you want. Stop trying to get others to do them for you “for science” as you put elsewhere, like this is all just a big fucking joke to you. “lol”
I’d like to remind you that it was NON-VIOLENCE in protests that got the National Guard out of Portland in November. From the first paragraph of the final ruling:
https://www.opb.org/pdf/FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW_1762564569662.pdf
And that’s Portland. Today, Minnesota and Illinois filed suit as well, and if the protests remain peaceful, both have every reason to win. Here’s today’s suit from Minnesota against ICE:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268.1.0.pdf
Here’s the Illinois suit:
https://aboutblaw.com/bkDs
You should read them. They’re not difficult. And they are how non-violence will win: it’s far easier to fight fascists via the still-operational courts now than to try to evict them once martial law is in place.
Non-violent protests work in all kinds of ways, not just toward the regime but in community and network building, resource sharing, immunizing those present against propaganda that says they’re alone and media distortions of the protests they personally attend, with all the felt solidarity of walking out with people determined to prove that they all feel the same way.
Violent protests – or to use the government term for them, riots – do the opposite. They repulse peace lovers, invite media exaggeration and misrepresentation, are used even years later in propaganda, and above all they are the pretext the government is looking for to institute martial law, by law, across ALL 50 states.
It’s not a joke to me. Stop trying to suggest “various strategies” for your personal entertainment that include violence because they provably do not work.
EDITED to add link to Illinois suit
Regime changes have been more successful with mainly non-violent protests than violent protests in history. The goal should be to remove the current people in power through legal means. I fully understand that.
However, would you call pushing an agent “violence”? Because there has been a ton of that. I’m saying a few pepper sprays here or there when they’re genuinely defending a violent aggressor who is illegally attacking them would make those on the ground think twice.
I’m not saying attack anyone. Don’t shoot anyone, etc. Also all over social media there are massive astroturfing campaigns from Russian, Chinese, Iranian, hell maybe even American bots/provocateurs to get protesters to start more violence, to cause the US to implode quicker. I understand all of that. You seem to be overly angry at random social media users.
I’m angry at all the commenters here to suggest that Americans should fight in the streets, for whatever reason. You did that repeatedly and almost as a joke.
I can’t speak to allegations of “pushing” one way or another because for all the videos I have seen myself, I have seen exactly zero ICE agents being pushed, and frankly your claim that it’s happening seems blatantly unbelievable without some kind of video. If you have it, link it.
But while I’m bringing the receipts, here’s the TRO (temporary restraining order) that got the National Guard kicked out of Chicago: after this was filed and the orange pedo lost on appeal, he abandoned his effort to keep the National Guard there:
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/46a35c5459e8b073/66434a34-full.pdf
Again, proof that non-violence is working and the courts are holding. As long as they do, lay off suggestions of non-peaceful resistance.
I’ve seen large groups of people pushing a few agents off from abducting some latinos, and it works. I’ve seen probably 5 different videos in the last few months of that. It actually works to save people from being disappeared when we have the numbers.
Where is your red line for getting “serious”? When he cancels midterms or otherwise rigs it against any Democrats? What they just ignore the courts (as they’ve done a bunch of times in other areas).
I have no idea what you mean by “serious,” only that you clearly mean something different by that word than I do, to the point that you offer it in quotes as though it is your euphemism for something else. Go ahead and define it if you want to discuss it.
And I have no idea what you mean by “red line” either. A line suggests a point at which I will change from one position to another, but I’ve repeatedly and explicitly stated my positions without generalities all along. Why do you have such difficulty stating what you plainly mean? Just go ahead and say it. What are you referring to by “red line”?
EDITED TO ADD: You know what, never mind. I’ve reread your comments and you are clearly just advocating for violence. Get lost. Blocking you now.
Dude read the fucking room