[IAmEveryone]

There have been quite a few protests lately. Some of them involved vandalism, especially on the first day. In Portland over the last few days, there was some fireworks and a few trash cans were burning.

But the vast majority of protests were entirely peaceful. And and even greater number of individual protesters have done nothing wrong.

The police doesn’t get to shoot you in the head because you look like the people they saw on the news doing something wrong half-way across the country.

And even actual criminals aren’t fair game to police violence. This isn’t some gang war between equals. The police is expected to be better than that sort of revengeful sadism.

[maxlybbert]

Here’s a great example ( https://apnews.com/edd4ebdd7a245e568da69db38aea04db , third paragraph):

“[The mayor] put on a pair of goggles someone handed him and drank water but did not leave his spot at the front of the protest and continued to take tear gas as the demonstration raged — with protesters lighting a large fire between protective fencing and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse amid the pop-pop-pop sounds of the federal agents deploying tear gas and stun grenades into the crowd.”

The federal officers are officially assigned to protect that courthouse. They built a fence but people still managed to build a large fire on the wrong side of the fence. It looks like the officers have a good reason to want the crowd to disperse, although I’m not sure that it’s a great idea to use tear gas so close to a fire. Unfortunately, as I understand it, if the crowd refuses to leave and tear gas has been ruled out, the remaining options are all very violent.

[dungdongdang]

"But the vast majority of police were entirely peaceful. And and even greater number of individual officers have done nothing wrong."

by the way, peaceful to you is not peaceful to me. when I'm driving home from work and literally every road is filled with people on the road, and I am unable to get home till midnight - you are not peaceful, and you are breaking the law. when you refuse to clear the road and let me come home so I can sleep before the next day at work starts, I'm glad to pay for the tear gas and the rubber bullet that hits you in the head. you clearly don't care about my well-being, so I not only don't care about yours - I want physical harm to come to you.

this is why assemblies outside get a permit, and a designated route to follow. so the majority of people, who are not a part of your rage party, can get routed around and live their lives. you choose not to follow the social contract with the rest of society - I see zero issue with police not following the social contract with you. you have escalated the situation, so expect an escalation from the people you're "peacefully" harming - the majority of people.