The JFK quote here is perfect. A single line that evaluates exactly what is happening. And if violent protests are to occur, everyone will shake their heads and go “this isn’t America!”

Worth noting that the Malcom X and Nelson Mandela thought processes were what eventually led to the formation of the Black Panthers during the civil rights era, and subsequently led to gun control laws being started by republicans. During the civil rights protests, people quickly realized that peaceful protests were violently broken. But heavily armed peaceful protests had police nervously watching from across the street.

Because police had no qualms about firing into an unarmed crowd to get people to disperse. But when the entire crowd is armed to the teeth and can immediately return fire, the police are suddenly okay with watching from afar. This was the start of the Black Panthers; a group who organized heavily armed protests.

When conservative lawmakers saw a bunch of heavily armed black people (and allies) on their front steps, and saw the police unwilling to break the protests, those conservative lawmakers got really fucking sweaty. So instead, they gave the police tools to arrest individual protestors. The Mulford Act was drafted and quickly passed. At the time, it was the most restrictive gun control law the country had ever seen. It was written by Ronald Reagan (yes, the same Ronald Reagan that the right uplifts as a paragon of conservative values,) and was supported by the NRA, (yes, the same NRA that lobbies for looser gun control laws in the wakes of school shootings.)

This gave the police the power to arrest individual protestors after the fact. Instead of firing into the crowd to disperse the protest, they would wait for the protest to end, follow the protestors home, then kick in their front doors while they were having dinner with their families. (Remember all of the “don’t bring your cell phone to protests because police will arrest you a week or two later if your phone was pinged nearby” messaging during the pandemic protests? Yeah…)

This led to the Black Panthers diving underground. They realized what was happening after protests, so they took efforts to guard their members’ identities. They pulled tactics straight out of anti-espionage textbooks. Randomized meeting places, so police couldn’t set up stings ahead of time. Code names, so arrested members couldn’t rat even if they wanted to. Fragmented info, so no one person (even the leaders) could take down the entire operation if busted. Coded messages. Dead drops. Et cetera, et cetera…

We’re on a rocket trajectory straight down that same pipeline now.

The best thing about America is that the music always stays relevant.

System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B.

Wonder if we're going to get any World War 3 bangers soon.

Or was it just not reported?

No no, free speech is when you can say slurs on social media.

Students in America are protesting the genocide in Israel and American military aid for Israel. The response of their schools and local authorities has been to arrest them.

Students are protesting the Palestinian genocide. Texas sent state police to the campuses, to attempt to break the protests.

It sure as hell isn't an elementary school in Texas

The police crackdowns on pro Palestine demonstrations are pretty big right now I wouldn't say this is "out of proportion". Colombia shut down their entire school

This is the riot police showing up at the University of Texas today

And going into the school to cancel the protest