from dusk till dawn: With all the university related police brutality....
We mustn’t forget that these things happen all the time.
We must question why police violence is suddenly gathering so much attention.
What does our outrage at anti-student violence say about the everyday violence against the incarcerated, houseless, working poor and…
Police tactics most definitely have gradually been increasing in violence over time. Paramilitary gear, mass arrests, tasers, outfits like the INS are now replaced by ICE—whose methods have shifted from Catch and Detain to Detain and Deport, and who are far more aggressive on focus since 9/11….We are paying more attention because the violence of police comes faster and more severely, on average. We are also paying more attention because the proliferation of smartphones and the Internet gives the People greater ability to spread information and visuals of the violence, in real time.
Cosisgn @Nezua. The only thing I’d add is that comparisons of police brutality during street stops and against protesters are apples and oranges. Within social movements there are always people willing/able to be arrested for a cause and people who aren’t, while an everyday PoC getting abused by the cops has no choice in the matter. Often (not always) those who are willing/able to be arrested enjoy social privileges (ie. white, able-bodied, middle or upper class etc.) so the subsequent images of their interactions with the cops resonate with the majority who see themselves reflected back. But that is an intentional tactic. Those images of a white, male, uniformed cop getting arrested and a white able-bodied young woman getting pepper-sprayed in the face did not happen by accident. The media taking note when such people experience brutality at the hands of police means that the tactic is working. It is right and proper to question the systematized racism and classism that underlies that dynamic… but we also have to be aware that leveraging privilege to enact social change is a legitimate tactic that has been/is successfully employed in lots of struggles. “Legal” citizens stand up with undocumented ones and get arrested in their place, Jews use their “right of return” status to physically protect Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints, risking arrest in the process, as did whites under South African Apartheid etc. etc. There is an element of theater at work in such confrontations, where people who would not normally be targeted by police intentionally step into their line of fire and deal with the consequences.
The Occupy Wall Street protesters knew what was coming when they called for a Day of Action—a billy club doesn’t care if you are privileged. Those folks stood up in NYC (my city) and a lot of them got their asses handed to them by the cops. Does it bother me that most of the Occupy folks have been white? Nope. Not a bit. And frankly, I think people who are hung up on it are really missing the point. As an Arab American I’m not willing to be arrested in this climate (although I have put myself in that situation many times before) so I am glad there are people willing and able to do so. After the other day they have my respect.
