[fweespeech]

> And they weren't wrong. The drug war was (and is) a very real thing. I think it goes without saying that most were for the freedom to consume, produce, distribute, and use any drugs they see fit. Law enforcement were encroaching on that freedom. They were the aggressors coming in and disrupting a pretty peaceful process. In many cases, unprovoked. I don't think that's much of a misrepresentation.

The problem this is we, as a society, have decided that isn't legal and there isn't any constitutional protection to consume any substance you want.

This being the case, its the sort of thing you protest as a conscientious objector [even to the point of partaking and getting arrested], it isn't the sort of thing you kill for.

You kill as a means of self-defense and only in response to the application of force that directly endangers you in a way that is beyond the pale. For instance, being blocked from the political process or an intruder in your home.

We, as a society, have accepted that the rule of law is imperfect and violence is only an option if you are being abused to an obscene degree.

[icebraining]

LE was threatening to lock him up for life. How is that not abuse to an obscene degree? It's not like he initiated violence for the political goals; he did so only when he faced a real threat of violence against him.

I don't condone his alleged procurement of murder, but I think people are misstating what happened.

[stickfigure]

This is somewhat too simplistic. The Black Panther Party is not universally regarded negatively today, and some of its statesmen have been lionized in media. You can find plenty of fictional movies in which the hero cathartically kills the bad guy in the end - and "corrupt exploitative cops" is a trope.

For better or worse, we glamorize violence when done for a just cause. There's a wide interpretation of "just" - consider for a moment that some of the latin american drug lords managed to become popular figures in their communities. And there are plenty of people that romanticize the mafia.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it is a thing.