09-04-2020, 12:35 PM
(09-04-2020, 12:18 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I agree. So let's say this information is completely accurate (which I have to doubt a little because Portland alone had pretty much 90 days straight of violent protest) and only 7% of the protests turned violent. It's ironic that the protests are about unnecessary use of force by police, which probably happens in less than .0001% of encounters with law enforcement. Not saying it's not a problem when it does happen, because it absolutely is, but law enforcement doesn't seem to get anything close to the same consideration these protests did/do.
I don't disagree with what you are saying here, but I also understand why people aren't as willing to give law enforcement the same consideration. It's fair to say that both police and protesters get a light shined on the worst of them. The real driving force behind the hate against law enforcement is that LEOs are the ground level members of a government that has a long history of discriminatory actions. I've joked around with this phrase, but it is genuinely the way leftists think: "police are the fascist tools of the bourgeoisie." Law enforcement are imbued by the state, which is what the people have their real problems with, with the authority to commit physical violence against its citizenry.
Because of the hyper-polarized situation we are finding ourselves in, now (as well as a rocky history between law enforcement and civil rights protesters), this is all ramped up. While the protesters are really about systemic issue, there are morons out there that bring forth things like "ACAB" or other such nonsense, forgetting that the people behind the badge are actual people that mostly just want to help people. This creates animosity from the law enforcement community, so now we just have this back and forth that is endless. It's a cycle of distrust that all really stems with frustration with the systems that honestly both sides of the conflict could probably agree need some fixing.
Anyway, tl;dr is that as an agent of the state, people are less likely to give LEOs the benefit of the doubt because they don't see the human behind the badge.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
