RVD
Meteorology Student
I read a lot on this forum but don’t really post much (especially not on this thread where I know my views are too far left for most here, and I’d rather not get called a socialist, since I’m not, but that’s beside the point). But I’ve been a bit peeved by seeing only clips from looters/violent protestors (who, make no mistake, I am disgusted by and not defending). It’s important to show this other side of the coin, because there have been police responding overly forcefully to peaceful protestors. This supercut shows plenty of examples, and there’s more in the replies:
There’s a BIG caveat to both every clip in this tweet and every clip/screenshot other posters have shared. We see seconds of conflict, but the context leading up to these viral moments has been mostly removed (quite purposefully in most cases). I hope people see the feedback loop between cops and protestors though: violent responses to control protests cause violent protests in response, and vice versa. This is exacerbated by an obsession/engrossment with these heated moments, leading to social and mainstream media covering the smaller number of violent protestors/conflicts far more than the larger number of peaceful protestors.
From these short twitter clips it’s impossible to know the full story, and and the question “who’s fault is it?” seems pointless to me- it’s about as useful as “which came first: the chicken or the egg?” I think it’s more important, when we’re looking back on this moment, to understand the bigger picture in how things were able to escalate so badly at all. I don’t care who acted worse or who started it, violent protests/unrest mean there are problems that need addressing.
