I am not watching the inauguration today. I will not use his title, either. He is either Trump, or, if I am feeling snarky, Our National Disaster. That is my right as a citizen. And, I don’t believe the office or position of a person grants them any more respect than I’d give to anyone else. Frequently, the behavior of those in offices of power garners them less respect from me than I would give to the grocery store cashier. The police response at the inauguration is a really good example of this.
A small group of about 10 people started breaking windows. Instead of peacefully removing the very few rioters, the police began attacking everyone. This is what police have been directed to do since the 60s to break up protests. A lot of times, that small group is affiliated with the police and are there solely to give police an excuse to attack. I can’t say that’s the case here. But it certainly was the case at the Kent State shootings, according to FBI files. And it’s been true for pretty much every Islamic “terror” sting in the last 15 years. Even if these people weren’t paid by police, it still does not justify the police’s actions. First of all, there is nothing that anyone could do that would justify the police using chemical warfare against their own people (really, what do you think pepper spray is?).
And all of their actions violate the most basic tenet of our system: innocent until proven guilty. Unless the police actually SEE someone throw a brick, any arrest or blocking is a violation of that person’s civil rights. Many, many courts agreed with this after the Occupy protests, to the tune of millions of dollars. Also, pretty much every charge against protesters was dropped. And the DoJ is now breathing down the necks of every police department involved because their investigations found patterns of police abuse. They plan to continue doing this.
But I expect this. I expect the police to act like this in a police state. What I am constantly heartbroken by is the number of people who have been so brainwashed by this culture of cruelty that they somehow think this is okay. I’m not really blaming those people. We are trained from birth to believe that any bad thing you do completely suspends your civil rights and justifies any action. Heck, we are taught that anything we do that someone else thinks is bad or tempting or whatever justifies any crime.
I’ll unpack this more later, but look at how rape victims are treated if you want to understand what it looks like in action. Now, many people I know see why it’s awful to say that what she was wearing justified rape. What they don’t see is this: When you say a protester who broke a window deserves to be maimed and broken by their own police force, you are saying the exact same thing as saying a naked woman deserves to be raped. You are saying that because someone has determined that what they doing is against the law/wrong/immoral (and yes, being naked in public is also against the law in many states), they deserve any reaction, no matter how disproportionate. You are saying they are less than human, that a person who disagrees with their actions has the right to force their body on the victim’s.
I am not saying this to minimize the impact of rape and sexual assault. I’m saying this to point out that both of those violations come from the same cruel premise. And point out that being grabbed, attacked, and forced to the ground in any circumstance is traumatic.* And defending one is to defend all the others.
To put in a more accessible context, let me paint this picture:
You are sitting at a table on a patio at a restaurant. You are enjoying the nice day, the food, your company. There are about a dozen more tables with patrons doing the same thing. Then, a person at a table across the way stands up, and shouts something about how they don’t like the restaurant. They then grab a glass and smash it on the ground, and turn over a table. Security comes over, grabs the person, slams them to the ground, and breaks their arm, all while yelling terrible curse words and insults. Even worse, more security guards come over to your table and do the same to you. When you try to protest that you were simply exercising your right as a citizen to enjoy food wherever you want, you are physically assaulted, threatened, strip searched and humiliated. Other people are allowed to sit at their table, but are closed in by an intimidating circle of security. They stop eating or talking or moving because they don’t know what actions will trigger violence against them. They just sit, terrified for their safety.
Now, hopefully reading that fills you with horror and anger. I hope so. That kind of behavior by police is unconscionable. And it is that behavior you defend when you say “the protesters deserved it.”
The bottom line is that of course it’s not right or legal to break the law while trying to make a point. But no act of protest justifies that kind of reaction from police. Not ever. Not even if the police were in danger for their lives. Their job is to protect and serve, to lay down their lives to protect civil rights. But, once again, they protect themselves and serve their own interests rather than the country and the citizens.
*I’m not going to argue about which is more traumatic, because that takes away from the discussion here. I do think that rape and sexual assault are in a category by themselves on that point, and will talk about why I think that. But not in the body of this post.
