#peaceful protest got tear gas

[aashiqvi]

Srk best use his fucking income from jawan to fund farmers and hospitals across the country 🤗

[hedgehog-moss]

Update on the French protests: we've had a well-known expert in contemporary political history call the situation we're in "the worst democracy crisis France has known since [the end of the 4th Republic]" and meanwhile the government is trying its hardest to maintain a façade of normal functioning by a) hiding from protesters, b) hiding protesters from view, and c) banning saucepans and other means of drawing attention to the protests that are being swept under the rug.

I mean casserolades are an old tradition in this country but they wouldn't have been needed if Macron &co hadn't started almost systematically banning protests in entire districts of the towns they visit and setting up police roadblocks to prevent peaceful protesters from going anywhere near them. (Too bad because these are the kinds of images the media get (these 2 are from Le Monde) when protesters get to talk to Macron <3) :

Protesters corralled away where they can be easily ignored started banging pots and pans so the protest could at least be heard in the background of TV footage, and then pans started being confiscated.

French courts have repeatedly struck down the bans as illegal but police prefects keep churning new bans out every time Macron goes somewhere anyway, trying to publish them at the last minute so there's no time for a judicial review. (I saw a sign at a protest last week that went "Stop with all the bans we no longer have time to disobey all of them")

After boldly banning saucepans by calling them "portable sonorous devices" last week, today a police prefecture banned "festive gatherings of a musical nature" in a town Macron will be visiting tomorrow. They're (ab)using counter-terrorist legislation for all this, so these days we get to read unheard-of court rulings that go like "We are suspending this prefectural decree as we do not consider festive gatherings of a musical nature to pose a significant terrorist threat to the President."

If Macron had people showing up in support I don't think we would see so many pissy protest bans because then the media could show backers vs. opponents and things would look normal (and not like 70% of the country is very pissed off with Macron). But there's not much for them to show if they don't show the angry people banging pans and it clearly rankles Macron—we learnt yesterday that he sent a letter to 200,000 political supporters of his essentially ordering them to start making appearances all over the country, to show they are "proud of what you are and of what our country has become [since I got elected]." That seems a bit desperate.

For months Macron &co have been predicting that people would get tired of taking to the streets in large numbers, and now that people are going like—right, let's try a new strategy, small local protests greeting gov members everywhere they go!—we're hearing a clear "no not like that, that's not what we meant :l " reaction from the government.

They've also been trying the strategy of announcing stuff at the last minute, like on Monday the Minister of Education announced at noon that he would visit a higher learning institution in Lyon 2 hours later, and a hundred of protesters still showed up and tried to force their way into the building. They were held off by cops using tear gas and trying to block entrances (there's a pic that made me smile, showing cops trying to barricade university gates with garbage bins—how the tables have turned...!) and the Minister ended up not showing up and moving on to the next step of his schedule (protesters tried to follow him there but police vans were blocking the street.)

The first half of the video is at the uni in Lyon; the second half is in Paris later that day. When he returned to Paris the Minister was greeted by protesters with saucepans at the train station, it's like a national relay race of protesting at times. He had to go back through the train to leave via the other end of the platform under police escort so as not to meet any protesters (god forbid).

Macron commented that this was "uncivic" behaviour and I agree, civic behaviour on the part of gov members would be to at least face the people they choose to fuck over, instead of hiding behind cops and fleeing. Obviously Macron was condemning the 'uncivic' protesters though, and the Minister said he felt "physically threatened" by the "violence of [the protesters'] speech" which is a shit thing to say considering on the same day that he was mildly inconvenienced by having to take a different exit and felt physically endangered by words, yet another protester was mutilated after being shot at by police with a rubber bullet. Not a peep about this incident (or previous ones) from the government. The Minister of Education never even condemned that time high schoolers trying to protest got tear gassed and threatened with riot guns by cops in front of their school earlier this month.

But while people continue protesting despite the actual violence from cops, our ministers are looking pretty scared of citizens banging pots and pans. Here's a list of official visits that got cancelled "for safety reasons" (saucepan terrorism) in the past week:

1. Minister P. NDiaye cancelled a visit in Lyon 2. Minister F. Braun cancelled a visit to Evrard Hospital 3. Minister Delegate O. Klein cancelled a visit in Bobigny 4. Minister Delegate O. Grégoire cancelled a visit in La Baule 5. Minister S. Guerini cancelled a visit in Castelnau 6. Secretary of State B. Couillard cancelled a visit in Rochefort 7. Minister S. Retailleau cancelled a visit to the Paris Saclay University (electricity trade unionists cut the power in the building she was supposed to inaugurate, so) 8. Minister C. Grandjean cancelled a visit in Toulouse (this article says it was probably because the visit was quite near a big highway protest where protesters among other things were building a concrete wall on a national road)

In the same bullshitting vein as "portable sonorous devices", gov spokespeople have been insisting that visits aren't being cancelled, ministers are just "adjusting the course of their trips" which is funny to me. I guess we never beheaded any royalty we just adjusted the course of their necks. I also read a newspaper article that made me laugh, that went like "Minister cancels visit; trade unions disappointed" and I thought it was because the cancelled visit was a meeting with the unions which they wouldn't get to have, but the article said it was actually because they had a good protest planned and wouldn't get to hold it...

Watching protesters mess with the government in small ways on a daily basis has been good for morale—on Twitter the hashtags #IntervillesMacron and #IntervillesduZbeul popped up (zbeul = chaos, mess, and Intervilles was a TV game show that aired for over 50 years, where French cities competed against one another in goofy challenges). I only mentioned cancellations above, but fun things also happen on non-cancelled government visits, like a Minister having to leave a building via the emergency exit because of protesters blocking the building entrance (which some people argued is worth more points than a cancellation as it's more entertaining):

Various websites were created to keep track of all these smaller protests and to officialise the point system that ranks cities on their efforts to fuck with the government:

(the first symbol means a protest, the second means a casserolade, the last one means protesters managed to get inside a building where a visit was taking place)

(Translation: Ruckus (saucepans, heckling...) 1pt Protest: 1pt Creative action (chasing minister in the woods, etc): 2pts Measures of energy conservation (= power cuts by unions) 3pts Action that leads to a political figure fleeing: 4pts Cancellation of a visit: 5pts — then there's a weighting system where the score is multiplied by 3 if it's a Minister, by 5 if it's the Prime Minister, by 6 if it's Macron.) (I also saw an interesting debate on Twitter this week—since our leaders often embarrass themselves, how should the government's own goals fit into the point system?)

Right now the Hérault department is winning because on top of protests, power cuts and casserolades, protesters greeted Macron with a giant "MACRON FUCK OFF" sign hung from a cliff (!) and took over a highway display so it'd say "Welcome to [region] Butthole Ist"

These past few days I've been discovering unknown French cities (and Ministers) thanks to them showing up in the hashtag after a good protest. I discovered a mediaeval castle I'd never heard of when unions hung banners featuring our most famous revolutionary dates from the castle's battlements. (Two days later, another protest with eloquent banners in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris:)

People are very creative—last week we heard that protesters got prosecuted for giving Macron the finger and insulting him during one of his official visits (< we are a healthy democracy), so protesters in another region tried a more sarcastic approach, and greeted a deputy from Macron's party at a strawberry fair this week with clapping and confetti and "Thank you for making us work 2 more years, thank you for police repression, thank you!" The deputy beat a hasty retreat. Then said he would file a complaint against the harassment and intimidation he had been subjected to. (The tear gas and riot guns and arrests and protest bans are not intimidation of protesters on the other hand. Or the fact that another deputy from his party recently said on TV that they were "ready for war"... They're ready to wage war, but run and hide when people clang saucepans and throw confetti.)

Anyway. I'm enjoying the fact that they can't even attend a small strawberry fair without getting heckled right now. In one of my first posts about the political crisis in March I wrote something like "How will Macron and his gov have any legitimacy to speak about any issues after this?" and it cheers me up to see a lot of people across the country agree that they have no legitimacy to talk about anything, not even the strawberry harvest.

The next nationwide protest is of course for May 1st, but in the meantime it's been really fun following the smaller protest actions all over the place. Members of government & Macron's party keep making whiny statements along the lines of this is terrorist behaviour, we can't go anywhere, why are people not getting tired of fucking with us and the answer is, because it's really entertaining!

This was the last sentence of a recent Le Monde article about Macron's situation and it has such a sinister, end-of-reign tone:

"I'm moving forward," Macron concluded, on April 20th in the Herault department, while behind his back echoed the sound of saucepans.

[nikkeora]

The Whole Being Soulmates Thing

summary; in this world, soulmates exist. he has one. it’s just that he already found someone, and your marks don’t match at all.

or, in which a stupidly stubborn punk in stupidly in love with someone who’s not his stupid ‘real’ soulmate.

pairing; hobie brown x reader, spider-punk x reader (soulmate!au)

warning(s); mentions of police brutality, not-too-detailed descriptions of injuries. r is non-gendered, no mention of r’s race. not proofread & written in the wee hours.

i am not black, i don’t have wicks. i did some research on how to properly care for them and wrote tiny parts in here with the info i had, but it may not be totally accurate. if something is wring, let me know. same for the lcp.

also hobie might sound a bit ooc but it’s a quiet fic and we don’t rly see him ‘quiet’ so eat my ahh(/j)

inspired by this post by @corrodedcoffeen ! not exactly 100% accurate but yea

He lived in a world full of soulmates and soulmarks.

Everyone who had a soulmate had a soulmark, like a little tattoo; whether it be on their arm, leg, back, even on their face. Sometimes, a person would have multiple soulmarks. In other cases, they wouldn’t have any at all. Some people were born with their marks, some appeared later down the line.

In most cases, people would do anything to find their soulmate. To be with them. To unite with their missing half.

Hobie Brown was among those who’d been born with a soulmate. Four little streaks that wrapped halfway around his left arm, like a scar from an animal that had halfheartedly tried to claw the whole thing off at birth.

Hobie loved his soulmark.

Not because he’d met his soulmate. Nor was it because the idea of a predestined partner made him giddy. No, it was because he felt a sense of pride whenever he looked at it. Pride that he’d beaten the system when he got you.

His thoughts wander as he sits on your your and his shared bed, a towel flat under his bum to prevent any grime that may be on his suit from rubbing off on the sheets. His vest and T-shirt had been haphazardly folded and placed on the bathroom sink, desperately needing a thorough cleaning after a particularly hard day, which left his torso bare for you to assess and repair the damage he’d been dealt once you peeled off the top half of his suit.

“Bit eager, yeah?” He’d joked as you hastily helped him out of his clothes, that cheeky smirk still shining through on his tear-streaked face. You’d answered with an exasperated laugh.

He had come home at two in the morning, stumbling through the window with a hand over the right side of his mask. When he’d ripped it off, tossing it on a random bit of the floor somewhere, you were met with red eyes, wet cheeks, a runny nose and a blood-crusted lip. Apparently, he’d been at the frontlines of a protest when one of the tear gas shells hit him right in the face, cracking his right eye lense and leaving him vulnerable to the gas’s full effect. You didn’t need to be told what happened to know what came next. After all, it was always the same routine with the pigs - gas the crowd and beat any individuals that strayed from the mass.

Now, as Hobie’s fingers tap a little rhythm on the mattress, your hands glide a washcloth long his skin, being careful to minimize pressure on his bruises. Which, granted, is hard when they cover most of his back and ribcage, but you made it work somehow. Tear gas residue sticks to anything it can, and although his body was mostly had been mostly covered, it gave the both of you peace of mind to clean anything off just in case. He thanks you by softly gripping your other hand, his fingers lacing together with yours.

“Need more milk?” You ask, going to put the cloth down and grab the already half-empty sprayer on the ground next to the bed, having already been used in the bathroom just minutes prior and put there just in case. He shakes his head, the hand that’s not on yours gently grabbing your wrist and guiding it back to his chest.

As you continue, he thinks back to the first time he’d held your hand like that.

It was when the two of you were barely teenagers, when he didn’t fully understand how the whole ‘soulmates’ thing even worked, or how messed up it really was. The only thing he really knew was that people were supposed to stay together forever if their marks matched, even if that wasn’t always the case.

Having known each other since you were just kids, he remembers wishing so badly that your soulmark matched his. He had wished that little planet on your ankle could be washed away, a temporary tattoo or doodle instead of an actual mark. He remembers drawing little black holes at the corners of his school worksheets, hoping that one of them would eventually swallow your mark whole and replace it with four lines identical to his.

Back then, he had wished his ugly little bands would somehow arrange themselves into a square. At least then he could insist that his mark was a planet. A weird square one, yeah, but a planet just like yours.

But as you looked at him with that warm glow in your eyes, he swore you were the best thing that had ever happened to him, soulmate or not.

If only that kid could see him now - here, with you.

He suppresses a smile that threatens to slip onto his face, as moving his lips makes the cut sting.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” you mutter, wiping at the last bit of his torso. Hobie lets out a low sigh.

“‘M sorry love,” he says back, giving your hand a little squeeze. He really does mean it. He hates seeing the worry and sadness in your eyes every time he came back to you after one of these days. Fuck knows how he’d cope with it if you came home like this just every now and again, let alone what seemed like every other day recently. “I do try to be careful.”

You hum in response, getting up from your spot and holding out your hand for him to do the same. He does so with little to no hesitation, only waiting a moment to brace himself for the soreness that would follow. You lead him to the bathroom.

“Everything off,” you say, then immediately follow it up with, “Don’t.”

“I didn’t even say nothin’!” Hobie protests, feigning offense. As if that glint in his eye didn’t give it away.

“You need to get cleaned off properly.” You stress the lest word, letting go of his hand so that he can strip. “You can’t just go to bed after a quick wipe-down tonight. You need a shower.”

“But it’s gonna be cold.” Hobie groans. Tear gas wasn’t anything new, he’d had to clean the residue off of himself more times than he could count. That didn’t mean he was a fan of the cold showers that did most of the actual cleaning. Despite his complaints, he hastily steps out of his remaining articles of clothing as you start the water.

His muscles tense as he steps into the shower, pulling him out of his somewhat drowsy state. He quickly scrubs every part of his body, wanting to get out as fast as possible.

He washes his hair out last, taking care to not mess them up no matter how much he hates the temperature of the water. He’d made the mistake of trying to shampoo the whole of his head in one go just once before, and he’d be damned if he had to go running to the auntie down the street again to fix any tangles neither you nor him could sort out.

In his defense, he’d almost bled out just a couple hours beforehand that day. Having your first (superhero-related) near-death experience tends to shake you up a little.

“You’re such a man-baby,” you’d teased him as Hobie gripped your hand for dear life, the woman you’d guaranteed could get that nightmare of a knot out sorting through his hair with an arsenal of olive oil and a wide toothed comb.

“Oh piss off—” his reply was cut short as she detangled a particularly nasty bit of the problem, unfortunately having to tug exceptionally hard at his head. “Ow!”

The woman - Aunt Margaret, as you’d introduced her - tsked at him to sit still, poking at the tangle with the handle of her comb to see if it would give way now. Luckily, most of it did. She muttered something along the lines of ‘young people nowadays’, but in a sort of gruffly affectionate sort of way. From what you’d told him, Aunt Margaret was sort of the neighborhood mom, always helping people who needed it no matter how much she gave them grief for it.

The three of you made small talk over tea after his hair was nice and hairball-free, albeit a little slippery. Turned out, Aunt Margaret had plenty of stories of her own to share. Hobie had been delighted to hear about everything that had happened when she was a part of the League of Colored Peoples, almost ready to practically beg the woman to adopt him.

Two weeks later, when he decided to drop by again, the topic of soulmates came up. Aunt Margaret asked if he’d found his soulmate yet, to which he replied he didn’t believe in the soulmate system. She nodded in agreement.

“Just as well,” she had said, a frown making its way onto her face. “I’ve seen too many good people get their hearts broken because of that bloody mark.” She eyed his upper arm, exposed in the sleeveless top he’d worn at the time. “I got mine covered ages ago.”

“Did you meet your soulmate before that?”

Aunt Margaret shook her head. “That’s a story for another time, Bartholomew.”

He still makes time for tea with her every week or so.

The second he steps out of the shower, he’s greeted with a huge, warm towel fresh from the dryer. He wraps it around himself as you usher him back to the bedroom where you’d laid out some comfy clothes for him. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the clothes he’d discarded on the bathroom floor is long gone, along with his vest and tee that were sitting on the sink.

“I put the studs out on the veranda to air out,” you say, noticing him glance at the empty sink. “They’ll need washing, though. My eyes got all weird when I looked at the vest too close, and your belt’s not much different. The rest of everything’s in the machine.”

Pulling on his bottoms, Hobie silently nods at your words before pulling the tank top you’d dug out for him over his head. He then walks over to place a kiss on your head. He wraps his arms around you, pulling you close to leech off your warmth. He lets out a little noise of contentment when he feels you hug him back.

Wordlessly, he walks the two of you to your the shared vanity, plopping himself down on the seat. You grab the hairdryer off the table, checking to make sure it’s okay for you to help before switching it on to dry his wicks. Hobie closes his eyes as you make your way through each piece, eventually stopping once there’s no more water to be purged. Your fingers sorting through his hair so carefully is calming - almost therapeutic, and it takes all his willpower to keep himself sitting straight up for you.

After that, he clumsily grabs you and throws you over his shoulder, ignoring how you yelp in surprise and unplugging the dryer. He then proceeds to carry you around your place, flicking off all the lights before getting back to the bedroom and (softly) throwing you on the mattress.

“Was that really necessary?” You groan as he throws the sheets over the both of you. Hobie then proceeds to drag himself half on top of you, using you as a full body pillow.

“Definitely.” He replies, his voice a bit muffled against your pajamas.

You laugh. “Sure.”

He tilts his head up to give you a goodnight kiss, murmuring ‘dream ‘bout me’ next to your ear to which you respond by playfully pushing him away.

“Rude,” He mutters, smiling into your clothes as he huffs in indignation. Your laugh echoes through your body, a sound more beautiful than any music he had or would ever hear.

He doesn’t fall asleep too easily that night. Rogue thoughts on soulmates and fate flinging about his skull. For some reason, they’d all picked tonight to bug him to pieces.

Unknowingly, his grip around you tightens, feeling your weight in his arms. It grounds him as all the doubts try to throw him off, to destabilize something perfectly happy.

What if they find their soulmate? Then they’ll decide if they want me or them. (Me.)

What if I find my soulmate? What, like I’d break their heart for a stranger? Yeah. Fat chance.

He swatted those questions away like pesky little mosquitoes until he eventually fell asleep, choosing to focus instead on your heartbeat ringing in his ears.

So what if you two weren’t soulmates? He loves you, you love him. That’s all that matters.

The universe can suck an egg.

—

The next morning, Hobie woke up at 11, as usual. You woke up right after him as he stirred, like you always did. The two of you lounged in the comfort of your the sheets for a while before you had to eventually get up for breakfast.

Hobie was trailing behind you on your walk to the kitchen when something catches his eye.

His reflection in the vanity mirror.

Something’s… off.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh shit.

“Y/n?” He calls, looking down at his upper arm just to make sure the mirror isn’t playing tricks on him. Sure enough, there it is.

You turned around at his voice, eyebrows furrowed in a confused way. “Hm?”

“Look.”

He watches as your confusion morphed into surprise and then back to confusion again. Then you auickly check your ankle, confusion turning into realization.

“We match.”

Your soulmarks had somehow changed overnight, turning into small, stylized sun symbols that stand out more than either of your marks before ever did, clear as day.

It’s a few moments of stunned silence before laughter breaks out between the two of you.

“You know what we have to do now,” you manage, an arm around the front of your midsection and the other hand on your face.

“I think I do.” Hobie says, practically wheezing

By the end of the day, the two of you have covered up your new soulmarks with mismatching tattoos.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

This is a pretty obvious reference to the Tamir Rice case.

Kid took a pellet gun that looks identical to the real thing, went toa park, and randomly pointed it at people. Someone called the cops, Rice picked up the gun and tried to walk away, and he got shot.

The caller said it might - might - be a "toy gun", for no apparent reason, so BLM very consistently referred to it as such, and assumed the cops should've known, even though that information wasn't relayed to the cops who showed up.

Even if it had been a toy, the orange tip would've been down Rice's pants. And a report said it had been removed.

I think this writer either turned it to a 'squirt gun' to make the kid seem more innocent, misremembered BLM's (incorrect) claim, or - long shot - wanted to show how Jas on was distorting things.

Also, the cop who shot Rice got fired. Jury acquitted him, but the PD still canned him.

So the comic's writing is several degrees away from reality. At best.

Again, I think this is a reference to how some guy during Occupy was hit by an exploding tear gas can. Except, um, turned out someone picked up the tear gas and tried to throw it back at the cops.

In fact, it might've been him.

Tear gas grenades are not exactly marksmen weapons.

This might've been about people getting hit by rubber bullets in 2020, which are a) also not precise weapons, and b) usually aimed at the ground. So they bounce up and hit people's legs.*

Let's roll back a little.

Okay, so the peaceful, innocent protesters are already setting cars on fire, and looting the city. You can literally see a dude with a Molotov in the foreground. Seems like precisely the sort of situation that would justify tear gas.

And not-so-little Red Hooded Wolf is just ignoring them.

Again, not sure if Jason is supposed to be deliberately wrong.

*There was one story about a kid who was supposedly hit in the face, but people went "why was a kid at a dangerous protest?" And some BLMers insisted it was necessary to endanger kids, so they could be politically aware, and it was all the cops fault anyway.

As if violence never happens at protests even when cops aren't there. As we saw with Kyle Rittenhouse.

[you-need-namjesus]

Hey, guys. Sorry if I don't explain things well. I usually just read fanfictions on tumblr. Never thought I'll ever have to post here. But I have come here today for my country and fellow Bangladeshi students.

I am currently hospitilized. I got sprayed with tear gas thrown by the cops. My skin feels like falling off and my nostrils burn like hell. Every breath I take comes with agony. However, that issue is miniscule because my country might fall into a civil war and I urge you to spread the word. I was hoping you could help us reach an international audience cuz our media is monopolised by the corrupt state.

Our corrupt government has unleashed their goons and policemen to brutalise our peaceful student protesters. Numerous are injured and many have lost their lives.

Context: public jobs and admission in public universities are highly coveted and respected in Bangladesh. Therefore, students study for year to get a place in these public sectors. Bangladesh was liberated in 1971 and the freedom fighters were granted reserved seats in all important sectors and educational institution. Which made sense at that time, because the fighters took a hard hit during the war and they needed help from the government to get back on their feet. However, 50 years later, their descendants still have access to these seats and it's taking away chances from hardworking talented individuals. 56% of the seats are reserved. Most workers in ministries and parliament are freedom fighters. If not, they are sons and daughters of a freedom fighter. What I'm trying to say is that, they no longer need these reserved seats. The amount of wealth and stability they have is something an average Bangladeshi could only ever dream of. Unless your grandad went to war 50 years ago, you could not even dream to touch it. This is unfair to the unemployed talented youth of Bangladesh.

We started a peaceful protest. However, we are being brutalised for speaking out against this unfair system. All the universities and other educational institution in Bangladesh have pretty much declared war against the government. However, our local medias are useless because they are heavily monitored by the government. Please help us and spread our news.

Student dorms are being bombed and raided. They are being shot at with bullets, granades and tear gas. 6 young men already lost their lives. Thousands are injured.

You can understand our situation better from this yt video

https://youtu.be/rGSHWIoTNL4?si=3EE6WcOhsE4UfwmR

[textmel8r]

Hi, I’m the Bangladeshi anon again. I just reread the whole thing I wrote and I realised I explained it in a very messy way (I wrote it from my phone and was very overwhelmed back then since we’d just gotten our internet back).

Basically, what happened was that our govt had installed a 30% quota on govt jobs for the predecessors of the freedom fighters (law enforcement who fought in the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan). Now this looks good on paper, but to think that the grandchildren of these fighters would get this advantage as opposed to students who actually work hard seems very unfair. The quota was removed in 2018, but it was reinstalled earlier last month. 

So, on the 15th of July, the students of Dhaka University (the oldest and the most prestigious university in our country) started a peaceful protest against this system. As a result, the govt student league started beating them up with metal rods and other weapons. This enraged the students even more and they refused to back down and started protesting more. On the 16th, this continued but the police was also involved and they used rubber bullets on students. Six students died that day. The 17th was a religious holiday, so everyone decided to take a day off protesting, but at around 5pm, the govt student league attacked the university halls and dorms. 

So, on the 18th, students of other universities (public and private) went for protests. The police and the govt student league used grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets on them. There is a footage of the police releasing tear gas inside the campus of a private university. I think around 30 students (or more) lost their lives (this includes school students ranging from grades 7 to 12). 

On the same day, at around 9pm, the internet shut down and there was a nationwide blackout. People living abroad couldn’t contact their families who live here. They also announced a curfew and the army also got involved. This went on for 6 days, until yesterday, when we got the internet back. We still can’t use social media without VPN, but I’m finally catching up on the real news on what has been happening and over 160 lives were lost and around 20,000 people have been injured.

Sorry, this was very long, but I don’t really post on Tumblr and I want people to know about this, so I wanted the info to be detailed.

no no don’t apologize at all, thank you for sharing because i promise you there is no knowledge of this in the US (unless i’m just ignorant on the news). but yeah, this is very important to share and i know a lot of people on here have the attention span of a baby (me too) and will prob just scroll past this without taking the time to read this, so i found a tiktok that i think explains the situation well if you’d rather listen to an explanation rather than read it.

[copperbadge]

Hi! Saw this video and thought of you https://youtu.be/wp84sRpM1Js (I don't know if YouTube links work if it doesn't it's "best croissant in Paris" from youtuber Luis)

Just in case, if you're in France during a protest (next one is on the 13th) it's better to stay away, the cops are unhinged and have hurt peaceful protesters and bystanders, and they throw tear gas indiscriminately, even into the windows of apartments nearby... They can be violent AND stupid, so be careful if you come across them.

Hope you'll have fun and enjoy your trip anyway!

Yeah, I'm much more concerned about a) the cops and b) the trains not running than the protestors themselves, but I'm sure I'll be fine as long as I keep my head on a swivel.

I am DYING at the video, holy lulz:

"Usually in Europe where there's a train station and a McDonalds, there's no good people." SLAIN. (In Nice, I'm leaving so early in the morning that the only thing I could find open on the way to the train station is a McDonalds, but I'm not going to lie, I'm intrigued by what the food is like in a McDonalds in France.)

The dates I'll be in Paris are the evening of the 24th through the afternoon of the 27th, so I'll keep an eye peeled for news about protests during that time. I'm not actually planning, as a foreigner who doesn't speak French, to participate in protests, but I'm also not going to complain about lack of services/access because of them. I'm a little concerned about my train to Nice on the 27th, but I don't have anything time-sensitive in Nice and I've got two days to get to Rome before the Roma-Milan football match, which is the last time-sensitive thing on my agenda, so I have to keep reminding myself that missing a train is not, in itself, the end of the world.

At this point I'm 90% packed, and swinging wildly between terror and excitement, but that's normal for me when traveling to a new place. I just have to remind myself that as long as I have my phone, my wallet, and my passport, I can handle the rest.

[documenting-apartheid]

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 - Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak on the murder of 26-year-old Turkish-American peace activist and teacher Ayşenur Eygi, who was shot in the head by the Israeli Occupation Forces during a peaceful demonstration against illegal settlement activity:

"What happened today is no accident…It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill."

Full video transcript:

“What happened today is no accident. It is the continuation of the killing of 17 of Beita’s residents during demonstration since 2021. It is an intentional killing that is now receiving the light of day because she is an American citizen. It was an intentional killing that cannot be justified.  My name is Jonathan Pollak. I was there when she was shot. We got to Beita for the weekly demonstration against the settlement there. The army was already present where people pray in protest of the settlement. As soon as the prayer ended, clashes ensued, and the army shot tear gas and live ammunition immediately.  We were forced to retreat down towards the village and ended up standing at the outskirts of the built-up area of the village about 150-200 meters away from where the soldiers were. We stayed there for about half an hour. Soldiers at some point took over a rooftop that has a view over the entire area. including where we were.  It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill. There were two shots fired from the rooftop.  I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I know the difference in sound between tear gas, rubber coated bullets, live ammunition. These were two separate shots of live ammunition, one after the other. The first one hit the middle object and then a young man from a village in his thigh. And then I heard another shot, and then I heard people calling my name in English saying “we need help, we need help, come help us.” I ran over there, about 10 or 15 meters away behind me into the olive groves I found her lying on the ground beside the tree, bleeding from her head. I put my hand under her head to try to stop the bleeding. I took her pulse, she had a very weak pulse. We called the ambulance. From there we evacuated her to the village’s medical center, where the doctor came into the ambulance and continued into the hospital where they tried to resuscitate her but failed."

[femmmie]

Love your whumptober so far! Could you do another Courtney whump that’s more Shourtney focused?

Okay I'll do a bonus one today bc this is actually part of my 25k fic "THE ISLAND" and it takes place as president Ian (lol) and his campaign team Shayne and Courtney fly over the ocean in Air Force 1.

Read the entire fic here

Ian, Shayne and Courtney entered Air Force One. They were headed to a foreign country to broker peace talks and try to get some sort of ceasefire deal.

“I love the country,” Courtney said. They were absolutely rocking a hot pink blazer and shorts. “But I don’t see how we’re going to stop this conflict… it’s gone on for so long.” They looked out of the window as the plane ascended.

“Yeah, and the people are so friendly! Why is it that good people elect terrible leaders so often? No offense, Ian.” Shayne shot Ian a playful smirk.

“None taken, man. Just wait until I decree statues of myself all over the world, with a huge dong of course.”

“Actually, that would be pretty awesome.”

Ian and Shayne often bantered like this, and Ian found some solace in it. But even so, he would love someone who would shock HIM with something outrageous. And Shayne had tried but never succeeded, at least not yet.

“It would be, right?”

“Guys!” Courtney said fake-exasperated.

After a few hours had passed, Ian looked out of the window. He saw blue skylines in every direction. And he got an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was this it?

He tried to act cool. “Shouldn’t we be there yet?”

Shayne was totally relaxed. “Maybe some high-altitude winds or something?”

“Only high-altitude wind here is Courtney’s passing gas all the time.”

“Hey!” Courtney protested with a burp.

Shayne kissed them on the cheek.

“Yall are disgusting,” Ian joked. But he couldn’t help but feel like something was off.

“We haven’t heard from the pilot once yet, right? I find it a bit odd. Could you check with them on why we’re taking a detour?”

“Sure!” Shayne walked up to the cockpit.

~

They were falling, fast.

“What’s happening?!”

Courtney stumbled towards the cockpit where Shayne had disappeared just moments ago. Where was he? But then they heard shots, and a couple of loud thuds.

“Shayne!” Courtney shrieked. “Shayne!!”

No answer. The door of the cockpit was locked.

The oxygen was quickly running out and their vision became blurry. They banged their fists on the closed door, then tried to claw it open.

“Shayne, honey… please hold on… I’m… I’m on my way…”

~

What was left of the plane, was quickly filling with water and beginning to sink.

A black boat appeared out of the thick mist that lay over the water. And a guy dressed in all black dove in. He was under for a long time.

Tommy nearly fainted as he held his breath, standing on deck. He really didn’t like the sea. He did respect it, he wanted the best for it, but he didn’t want to be in, on or even near it. And he certainly didn’t want Spencer to risk his life diving around a sinking plane.

Tommy and Spencer had been stealthily following a speedboat. But their plans had dramatically changed as they saw Air Force 1 fall out of the sky.

Spencer immediately went into GI Joe mode. It was like a switch had flicked inside of him. From goofy and lovable back to being a dangerous spy.

He resurfaced with not one but two people. They were both unconscious.

Panting, he handed the bodies to Tommy. “Do you know CPR?”

“Uhm, uhh..” Tommy was stuttering. “Y- Yes, I am OSHA-certified…”

“Quickly, save their lives, I’m going back in.”

“But Spe-” and he was gone. Damn.

Tommy tried his hardest. The first person, a beefy blonde guy, barfed up some sea water and came to his senses. At first, he just blinked and tried to reorient himself. But then he saw the other person. He jumped up.

“Courtney!” Shayne cried, horrified.

“I’m going to try to get her back,” Tommy tried to reassure him.

Shayne kneeled at Courtney’s side and squeezed their hand. He was bleeding but he only had eyes for his beloved Courtney. Tears ran down his face, or maybe it was water still running down from his hair. “Please, save them…”

Tommy kept pumping, blowing air into their lungs… Shayne screamed, it was horrible to see someone so distraught up-close.

Finally, a whole heap of water catapulted out of Courtney.

They slowly opened their eyes. “Hmm, still better than My Favorite Coffee.”

Shayne took them into his arms and hugged them so tightly, Courtney winced.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry, honey, are you okay?”

“As okay as you could be after a plane crash, I guess.” They said it so matter-of-factly that both Shayne and Tommy laugh-cried.

“Thank you so much, mister, for helping us. What an incredible coincidence that you just happened to be here!”

“Yeah, about that…” Tommy began, but Spencer resurfaced again.

“We have to go,” he said urgently.

“Where is the president?!” Shayne and Courtney protested.

“The president?!” Tommy gasped.

“NOW!” Spencer commanded and shuttled all of them into the cabin of the boat. He went out on deck once more and released a couple of lifeboats.

“That’s the best I can do for now, president Hecox, I’m sorry. But I’ve met my match.”

Spencer couldn’t believe it. All his years of experience couldn’t have prepared him for this.

There were several adversaries on board the sinking plane. How that could even happen was beyond him. But he fought most of them off easily, his martial arts training paying off handsomely.

Only one of them remained. Spencer had a hard time cornering him.

It wasn’t even a guard or a terrorist. He looked like some tech-bro or something. a sickly pale skin color, bags under his eyes… but a terrifying fire lay within them. Spencer had never known fear until he saw that face. His entire body told him this man was dangerous.

They brawled for a while but neither of them could get the upper hand. Until the guy took a can of gasoline that was randomly aboard the plane and got a golden anime-boob lighter out of his wet jorts.

“But the president is still out there!” Spencer had shouted, catching the guy off-guard.

“He’s still out there?! Okay, that’s even better!”

Dave licked his lips maniacally, and spat, “I am going to blow this shit up, so you better run, boy!”

Spencer was ashamed to say that he did run.

But there was still no explosion. Should he turn back? Had he failed? Spencer’s world was spinning.

A warm hand touched his shoulder, bringing him back to earth.

“Spencer?”

“Oh. Hey.”

Tommy hugged him.

“Thank you for keeping me safe.”

“Thank you for saving those people’s lives.”

“We saved them together…” Tommy walked his fingers around Spencer’s neckline.

“I was pretty awesome, I’ll admit. It kinda felt like a Solid Snake mission.”

“Oh my god!” Tommy couldn’t help but laugh. Why was this FBI-agent also a gamer?

“Hey. Want an ice cream?” Spencer caught him off-guard.

“We have those on board?”

“Of course.”

Tommy blushed. “Spencer… you know exactly what I need.”

“Do I, now?”

Tommy got all four of them ice cream.

[politics-project]

Hi guys!

I will be discussing the further mistreatment of black people that lead to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Jim Crow Laws

Were local laws meant to segregate black and white people. It marginalised black people by withholding the right to vote, the ability to hold a jobs, to receive an education and other chances.

Brief Background Info:

Jim Crow Laws had it’s beginnings in black codes that started almost immediately following the 13th Amendment. These were strict local and state laws that created a legal way to force black citizens into indentured servitude and to control their lives. They found some freedom in the city’s from these laws in the early 1880’s, which upset white people who then demanded more laws to limit their opportunities. So, Jim Crow laws soon spread across the country ���with more force than before, depriving black people of what I mentioned earlier.

Pre-Civil Right’s Movement:

The legal system was stacked against Black citizens, with former Confederate soldiers working as police and judges. On top of KKK members being part of the lowest and highest parts of government. This made it hard to fight back against the Black codes which lead to unfair sentences to cruel labour camps. It was not much safer for those who fled the Jim Crow South with police officers being brutal and punitive in Northern cities.

The policing we know today started in 1909. August Vollmer refashioned the American police info the American military. His peers and Vollmer used military tactics, weapons and considered “[…] union organisers, immigrants and black people.”to be their enemies. Go reports in 1911 say that 11% of people arrested were black people but under James Robinson this grew to 14.6% in 1917. By the 1920’s, a quarter of those arrested were black people despite only making up 7.4% of the population.

The National Commission on Law, Observance and Enforcement in their investigation findings from 1931 - 1932, brought to light the realities of police brutality although it did not address racial disparities in it.In the Progressive Era, under Vollmer - style policing criminalised blackness by over policing their neighbourhoods, arresting and convicting them with longer sentences than their white counterparts. Policing grew harsher too. The introduction of State Police Forces and growing number of police during this time did not help the situation.

During the Civil Right’s Movement:

“We can never be satisfied as long as the N#gro is of the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” - Martin Luther King (1963)

The aggressive tactics of using police dogs, fire hoses during peaceful protests such as the sit ins were horrific but it was the everyday violence and brutality of how they policed their communities that grew the rightful distrust of the police. The Freedom Riders also faced violence from the police as well as from civilians. It was only under presidential pressure that they gave them an escort but the police in Mississippi arrested them unfairly in May of 1961.

“The idea of police brutality was very much on people’s minds in 1963, following on the years, decades really, of police abuse of power and then centuries of oppression of African Americans” - William Pretzer (Senior History Curator)

Such as the ‘Bloody Sunday’ that occurred in Alabama in March 1965 where 600 peaceful protesters, protesting the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson by white police officer, were blocked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by police sent by the governor of Alabama. They were viciously beaten and tear-gas was used by the police, dozens of protesters were hospitalised. Later that year, President Lyndon B Johnson started his ‘War on Crime’, he got congress to pass the Law Enforcement Assistant Act under which he supplied police with military grade which is a further militarisation of the police. It disproportionately targeted back neighbourhoods bringing things to how it was under Vollmer.

The deadliest riot was caused by a police officer harshly beating John Smith, a black taxi driver in Newark in 1967. The riot killed 26 and many others were injured. This is just another instance of the police abusing their power being the reason for retaliation. The commission concluded that “police actions were ‘final’ incidents before the outbreak of violence 12 of the 24 surveyed disorders” In 1968, Johnson got congress to pass the Omnibus Crime, Control, Safe Streets Act which diverted money from social programs and into the police. This of course didn’t do that since social programs are what help prevent crime and increasing the police forces money only served to cause continued discrimination.

Link to Theorist(s):

This links into the theorist Karl Marx because of his view that law enforcement only works in favour of those in power and that crime control & punishment only serve to oppress the oppressed.

[jupitermelichios]

They've got BBC news on in the hospital waiting room, and they're covering the UCLA protests.

It's as weasel worded and disengenuous as you'd expect, but the thing that really stood out was the claim that the protestors are wearing face and eye protection to protect them from tear gas thrown by "both sides"

Ah yes, peaceful civilian protests, well known for their use of tear gas. The fact that not even the cops are claiming that's happening means nothing, they probably just didn't think it was worth mentioning because it happens so often!

[hedgehog-moss]

The text updates I was sending a friend while at the protest in Paris yesterday are kind of tragically funny, it goes from "the cops are staying away and as a result everything's going well, they clearly received better orders today, I'm glad" to "wait, no, forget that"

1. "Everything's going well, there are a couple of small fires but no one cares, the crowd calmly avoids them, some people stop to warm their hands over them, it's very civilised. I don't think the people who set stuff on fire are the problem, when the cops stay away everything goes smoothly"

2. "There are groups of CRS with batons and shields in the side streets but they stay very discreet compared with the other protests and weirdly enough this one is calmer!"

3. My friend : "Maybe they received different orders today"

Me "Yeah it's a miracle, someone made a sensible decision"

4. "We just passed another side street full of cops and I heard someone said "last time they started charging us, we had no idea why" so yeah they clearly received different instructions today"

Less than 10min later: "never mind we're being tear gassed"

Then: "Never mind they just charged us several times we have no idea why"

"I arrived at the end point of the march, looked back and there was a fresh new cloud of tear gas over the (very calm, many elderly people) groups in the middle of the march. More police cars + a water cannon are arriving"

Can't overstate how calm the protest was, just people (100K to 300K according to estimates) walking from point A to point B while holding signs. There were a few trash fires but if they'd sent firefighters to extinguish them people would have let them through... I had friends who walked in the middle of the march to avoid any trouble or gas and they still got tear gassed without knowing why. Even supposing there were people ahead of me I couldn't see who were being more antagonistic towards the CRS, surely the hundreds of cops present could have somehow dealt with that without charging and bludgeoning peaceful protesters and tear gassing thousands of people? Right now it's not possible for French citizens to peacefully assemble without getting systematically gassed by police.

Here's a video of when they first charged the front of the march, the people they're hitting can't move back any faster (I was somewhere in the compact crowd behind wondering (cause I'm not tall I couldn't see anything 😭) why we were suddenly being pushed back when things had been calm and fun until then. People who had been there before were coaching others like 'don't try to run, you'll make the people behind panic, just walk fast'). I counted five or six tear gas grenades going off

From what I've heard from people who were at the protest, the ones who didn't get gassed are the ones who were at the back of the march and left early without completing the march (some left because they saw the cloud of gas ahead). I've also seen people at other protests in various cities yesterday describing a similar situation : peaceful crowd getting separated in two by a charge, gassed and soaked with water cannons, most people having no idea why. If I had to describe this in terms of police strategy it would be, gas as many people as possible to dissuade your average peaceful protester from completing the march and showing up next time, and be aggressive towards the front of the march to rile them up and get nice images of youth burning things or throwing stuff at cops to show on the evening news and turn public opinion against protesters.

(Note that the society of journalists working for France Télévision (public TV, like the French BBC) have published a statement decrying the poor framing of the protests on the national news, saying too much emphasis was placed on the small amount of people destroying stuff and almost nothing on police brutality and the record numbers of (peaceful) protesters in the streets.) (Read this if you're French and have been wondering why some people around you still don't think the situation is worrying...)

Anyway, I'm glad I went. It was good to see so many people just as angry as I am about what's happening to this country and guillotine-chan was in attendance, and many people had very fun signs and I liked this angry flag:

[tobiasdrake]

Cop: Give it back. I know it was you. Cassie: Are you sure? I mean, it was kinda hard to see through all that tear gas you fired into a park full of peaceful protesters.

Get his ass, Cassie.

She's the one character in this movie I actually like. When I saw this in theaters, Cassie was what got me through the film.

I mentioned in A&W that Cassie has a rose-tinted view of her father which serves as motivation both for Cassie and Scott both. Now she's older, and she's stepping into the shoes of that rosy view. She's inspired by the impression of Scott that she's carried all her life.

It's not actually Scott that she's trying to be, which is what creates friction between her and the actual Scott. Her goal isn't "Be Scott". She's trying to be Cassie. But all these years of dreaming about her hero father and playing pretend heists have shaped her idea of who Cassie should be.

She's at the age now where she's no longer forming basic ideas about who she should become, but is instead actively becoming that person. A person who is ironically more genuinely selfless and heroic than Scott is, because she's based on a narrative he was spinning for his child and not on the real man himself.

But isn't that always the case? Isn't that what we want for our children? To be better than we ever were?

This is the central point of conflict between these two characters and the one part of the film that's genuinely good.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 2, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 3, 2023

Three years ago today, on June 2, 2020, days after then–Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Martha Raddatz of ABC snapped the famous and chilling photograph of law enforcement officers in camouflage, their names and units hidden, standing in rows on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. Floyd’s murder sparked protests across the country, and Trump used those protests as a pretext to crack down on his opponents. Just the day before, after a call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump told state governors on a phone call: “You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.... You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.” Then he used a massive police presence wielding tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bang explosives to clear peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Square across from the White House. Tonight, President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office to emphasize that democracy depends on bipartisanship.” [W]hen I ran for President,” he began, “I was told the days of bipartisanship were over and that Democrats and Republicans could no longer work together. But I refused to believe that, because America can never give in to that way of thinking…. [T]he only way American democracy can function is through compromise and consensus, and that’s what I worked to do as your President…to forge a bipartisan agreement where it’s possible and where it’s needed.” While he noted that he has signed more than 350 bipartisan laws in his time in office, his major focus today was on the bipartisan budget agreement passed by the House and Senate after months of wrangling to get House Republicans to agree to lift the debt ceiling. Biden will sign it tomorrow, averting the nation’s first-ever default. Biden characterized those threatening to force the U.S. into default as “extreme voices,” who were willing to cause a catastrophe. The economy, which continues to add jobs at a cracking pace—another 339,000 in May, according to the numbers released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor—would have been thrown into recession. As many as 8 million Americans would have lost their jobs, retirement savings would have been decimated, borrowing for everything from mortgages to government funding would have become much more expensive, and “America’s standing as the most trusted, reliable financial partner in the world would have been shattered.” “It would have taken years to climb out of that hole,” he said. But the extremists were sidelined, and the House Republicans and the White House reached an agreement. Biden went out of his way to praise House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his team, saying that the two negotiating teams “were able to get along and get things done. We were straightforward with one another, completely honest with one another, and respectful with one another. Both sides operated in good faith. Both sides kept their word.” This was not entirely true—McCarthy constantly attacked Biden in the media—but Biden was hammering on the image of bipartisanship. Yesterday, Jonathan Lemire, Adam Cancryn, and Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico reported that Biden and his team plan to make the case for reelection on their ability to negotiate deals that get things done for the American people, acting as the “adults in the room” in contrast to Republican extremists. The budget deal that led to the suspension of the debt ceiling is a major illustration of that position. Biden also praised House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), claiming that “[t]hey acted responsibly and put the good of the country ahead of politics.” The solution to the debt ceiling crisis is a major victory for Biden’s team not only because it happened, but also because it leaves Biden’s key priorities intact, not least because they are popular and Republicans did not want to go into 2024 having demanded unpopular cuts. Biden noted that the measure will cut spending as Republicans wanted (although not necessarily through the measures they insisted on adding), but reiterated that it is the Republican Party that has been on a spending spree. “We’re all on a much more fiscally responsible course than the one I inherited when I took office,” Biden said. “When I came to office, the deficit had increased every year the previous four years. And nearly $8 trillion was added to the national debt in the last administration,” while the deficit fell by $1.7 trillion in his first two years in office. Biden laid out that the deal protects his reworking of the U.S. economy to support ordinary Americans. It protects Social Security and Medicare, as well as healthcare and veterans’ services. It protects the investments in the economy that have enabled the country to add more than 13 million new jobs, including 800,000 jobs in manufacturing. It protects investments in addressing climate change. Finally, Biden vowed to make the wealthy—those who earn more than $400,000 a year—pay their fair share in taxes. “I know bipartisanship is hard and unity is hard,” he concluded, “but we can never stop trying, because in moments like this one—the ones we just faced, where the American economy and the world economy is at risk of collapsing—there is no other way. “No matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Treat each other with dignity and respect. To join forces as Americans to stop shouting, lower the temperature, and work together to pursue progress, secure prosperity, and keep the promise of America for everybody.” What a difference three years can make.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[transarsonist]

This shit was happening in Ferguson and the number of times i had to say "no i was there, these people were mourning and they were attacked"

It was happening at the Stockley Riots (it was the police that rioted) we were peaceful and strong and the police took the first excuse they could to mace and tear gas and en masse arrest us

It has been happening since MLK marched, they (the police, the mainstream media, the federal and local government) have done everything in their power to prevent any kind of radical protesting in any meaningful way

We were told outright "if your protests become so much as INCONVENIENT, were gonna arrest all of y'all" so our response was to break the mayor's window about it, THEY HELD US IN SIEGE IN A TEMPLE FOR HOURS

They Kettled us and imprisoned innocent people for days, some people for weeks, some people are STILL in prison from the protests in 2016 and 2017

And you know what they did to the people who got "too visible" Radically Protesting?

They fucking killed them.

The cops murdered the man who got famous for throwing back a tear gas container, called it 'gang violence' and then didn't investigate

That's literally HOW AND WHY black block was invented and popularized

That's WHY we insist y'all don't share videos of protestors

People have been extrajudicially murdered by cops and then stuffed in the trunks of their cars and never looked into

And it's all quiet

No one talks about that shit

Well I'm gonna fuckin talk about it.

This is why

All fair points:

[chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted]

You watching cities on fire and 6 people being killed at a “mostly peaceful protest” doesn’t tell the whole story and...

You watching cities on fire and 6 people being killed at a “mostly peaceful protest” doesn’t tell the whole story and “the truth is more complicated”.

Direct Quotes:

Many social media posts and news broadcasts have focused on the violence, looting and property damage at Black Lives Matter protests. But those scenes of destruction don’t tell the whole story.

If you only get your news from Facebook, you might think all Black Lives Matter demonstrations devolve into riots and looting.

Those social media posts, as well as news broadcasts that run early footage of looting alongside live shots of peaceful protests, paint a picture of America in flames. The truth is more complicated.

The New York Times reports that, as of June 8, at least six people have been killed in violence connected to the protests around the country. As of June 4, a tally from the Associated Press counted more than 10,000 arrests.

After searching through hundreds of local news reports, the vast majority of these events have been reported as peaceful, and violence seems to be the exception and not the rule," said Mitchell Thorson, a USA Today interactive graphics editor who has helped map hundreds of protests around the country.

Violent protests in the city where Floyd was killed appear to have peaked between May 27 and 31. Since then, there has been more than a week of largely peaceful demonstrations. Floyd’s home city reacted to his death with some of the most violent protests in the country.

The demonstrations started peacefully, but they got confrontational after protesters spray-painted the precinct and threw rocks at the building’s windows. In response, police fired tear gas and flash grenades.

On May 27, the Minneapolis Police Department released the names of the officers involved in Floyd’s death, all of whom were fired.

On May 28, demonstrators burned down the 3rd Police Precinct and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey declared a state of emergency.

Demonstrators set fires and looted businesses. One man shot and killed someone he thought was looting a store.

As of June 9, at least 570 businesses in Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul had been vandalized, looted or otherwise damaged, according to the Star Tribune.

The next day, thousands more marched through the city to call for defunding the MPD — a plea that most city council members have backed.

on May 28, when scuffles between protesters and police at Union Square led to dozens of arrests. Protests in Brooklyn the next day also turned violent as people started throwing bricks and bottles at police and setting cop cars on fire.

On June 1, "Black Lives Matter" was spray painted on a statue of George Washington outside the building where he was inaugurated as the first U.S. president.

Violent protests appear to have peaked between May 29 and June 1. Since then, there has been a week of largely peaceful demonstrations.

On May 29 — the day that Chauvin was arrested — the White House was locked down as demonstrators marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. Protesters threw bottles at Secret Service agents and tried to break through metal barriers outside the residence. Some officers were injured and used pepper spray on the crowd.

The next day, popular monuments around Washington were vandalized with graffiti. The tension boiled over as the night wore on.

Defying a citywide curfew, demonstrators faced off with the law enforcement, broke into offices and set multiple fires around the Washington Monument.

Stores spanning from Michael Kors in Georgetown to CVS Pharmacy near CityCenter were looted.

On June 1, officers fired pepper balls, a product that contains a chemical irritant, at demonstrators to clear the way for Trump’s three-minute photo op at St. John’s Church.

"This past weekend we saw a few bad actors set fires to vehicles and buildings, including a historic church, destroy locally owned and other businesses, and attempt to cause bodily harm by throwing objects at officers," said the Metropolitan Police Department in a June 5 email

Protests that started peacefully devolved into clashes with police across the city, damaged property in Beverly Hills, torched cop cars in downtown L.A. and looted buildings in Santa Monica.

Early on May 31, hundreds of National Guard troops patrolled the streets after another night of violence. Thousands of people had marched overnight in cities across L.A. County, with looting concentrated in Santa Monica and Long Beach. Hundreds of people were arrested and five LAPD officers were injured.

Demonstrators defaced the news network’s sign and threw water bottles, eggs and other items at police.

From there, looters entered the CNN building, and demonstrators threw rocks through hotel windows and set fire to cars near Centennial Olympic Park.