Dispatch 2

Sunday, June 7. It was not my deliberate intention to go a week between articles, and the delay on my part was certainly not for lack of things happening. If you've been paying attention you'd know we've been too busy running for our damn lives out here! The takeaway at this juncture is that the police and auxiliary militarized forces are taking a no-holds-barred approach. Or, more specifically, protests against police brutality will be met with police brutality, and the police brutality will continue until the protests against police brutality stop.

The over-militarized overreaction on the part of police departments across the country is now the focus of the general narrative. Those who would beg everyone go home for the sake of restoring safety and security will have it pointed out to them that the "normal" situation for too many of us is the opposite of safe and secure, in fact that's exactly what people are protesting!

I don't need to waste our time here recapping the violence in the streets. All but the most insulated information-bubbles have popped under the pressure of cellphone video after cellphone video of police brutality. I wanna jump straight to my two main points.

First, the media tried to turn its back on this story and shouldn't be let off the hook so easily. Was it shocking for the world to see journalists from major networks be attacked and arrested on live tv? Maybe not as shocking as it should've been.

But there was that first night of curfew, when people stayed out to protest the police-enforced curfew on top of the police-murder of George Floyd, and the police responded with almost no-holds-barred brutality, eventually rounding up and arresting protesters and major media journalists alike.

I could dive into the twists and turns of that first night, and I probably will at some point, but the important result of that first night I'm trying to highlight is that "the media", was notoriously absent on the second and third nights.

A few journalists got arrested and the major outlets pulled their people off the streets, content to pull whatever footage and interviews after-the-fact to support a narrative they were happy to fixate on from the comfort of their retreated positions.

They pulled their people off the streets, knowing full well that in standoffs between protesters and police, or any situation where there's an attempt to hold the police accountable for their actions, cameras and video evidence are you're only hope at all (although obviously still far from a guarantee of charges actually being brought against an officer, let alone an indictment - we all know that game, that's why we're out here).

They pulled their people off the streets, and in their absence, the police and national guard had absolute freedom to pull every fucked up trick in the book. This, so far, I understand - what organization isn't compelled to look after it's own in some way?

But what I don't understand is how the next day, even progressive news outlets were basically taking the police accounts of what transpired the night before as a fact, and adopting the designated focus of attention and overall narrative.

Here's the pivot: Instead of keeping the focus on what the protest is fundamentally about (racialized and systemic police brutality), let's talk about looting and vandalism. Let's talk about good protesters versus bad protesters, and how the wrong kind of protesting works against the goals of the protest. Do you see the move there? How by focusing on whether protesters are good or bad, you've completely avoided focusing on the thing they're all protesting?

It's actually worse than that. Buying into that distinction between good and bad protesters tacitly means that the police are justified in brutalizing the bad ones. This, aside from raising a huge red-flag of a question about who gets to define those categories and how, may actually be a bigger threat to this movement than the police - because the direct threat from the police to all of us, no matter who we are, is what unites us; and this "good protesters versus bad protesters" thing is just a cowardly attempt to divide us, and in doing so get us to say that militarized police abuse is actually justified, as long as it's only on those 'bad protesters'.

Don't fall for it, gang.

The reason I'm harping on this is because it was a brief flash in the pan of all the chaos this past week. The mainstream media was, within a couple days, forced to give up this diversion strategy and start focusing on the real issue of militarized police brutality again. Why? Because citizen journalists out there on the streets, using their cellphones and essentially very little else, stepped the fuck up.

If not for the folks out there using Twitter and Facebook to stream live-feeds, and the folks out there at home saving and spreading the videos to keep them from getting buried and/or taken down - if not for these people, this movement may not have survived the week. (I'll also give some credit to the international press that refused to back off of the real story here - and don't get carried away, I said 'some').

So now the videos are everywhere. There's the video of the 75-year-old man being knocked to the ground where he bled from the head while riot cops advanced over his unconscious body, whom the police initially claimed had "tripped and fell" before the video went viral, and whom they still maintain was a "major instigator".

There's the video of the police in Boston unloading piles of bricks from the back of a pick-up truck, the same piles which were pointed to as evidence that Antifa is out there instigating riots. There are countless more, and it turns out they've been the only way to hold the police, the governors and mayors, and even the media accountable. So keep it up.

The second point I wanted to make tonight is the more obvious one - you know, the big fat fascist elephant the room. I've so far kept my focus on the police brutality issue that's at the center of this movement, and haven't even mentioned Donald Trump once yet (see, NPR, it's not that hard!).

But, let's recap some of the more salient incidents from DC this week - where there is no governor to request or limit the "help" from the various federal forces that have shown up to respond. Donald Trump demonstrated his willingness to use them for his own selfish publicity stunts; the military command structure and the Pentagon have demonstrated their willingness to bend to at least some of Trumps demands for the use of military force against US civilians; and William Barr has demonstrated his willingness to sidestep that whole command structure if they don't bend to Trump's demands, and use unidentified justice department personnel (at least some of whom are from the riot control division of the bureau of prisons) to execute those orders directly. To summarize, we've ticked the Gestapo/Secret-Police box on our "Fascist Takeover" checklist.

There are two important stories out of New York to add to that. One is the judge who ruled that protesters can be detained indefinitely, effectively suspending habeas corpus and the right to an arraignment hearing where you are charged with a crime if the police are going to detain you for longer than 24 hours. Second, is the statement from the district attorney that they will refuse to prosecute arrested protesters. On its own, not prosecuting protesters would be a positive thing, but if they can detain you indefinitely AND refuse to charge you with anything, then what happens? Now, I've never been great at math, but I know this doesn't add up to anything good.

Legal experts have said that the judge's ruling is bound to be overturned by an appellate court, and that may be so - but the reality now is that over a hundred protesters have been detained in New York for over 72 hours now without being charged for anything. Oh, and don't forget there's a pandemic, and the US is quickly re-approaching the 1000-deaths/day mark.

Returning to the projected narrative of good protesters versus bad protesters, let's consider the spin Donald Trump in particular has put on it. He calls himself the ally of every peaceful protestor, and the bad protestors are paid by China or Soros, or organized by Antifa. It sounds ridiculous coming from him, but the Oakland Deputy Police Chief during a press conference this week projected essentially the same narrative.

According to the Oakland Police, there were positive and peaceful protests and marches during the daytime, and then suddenly right before curfew they all went home and were replaced by bad protesters, who threw bottles and rocks at the cops until they were forced to fire tear gas and flash-bang grenades in self-defense. As he explains it, there are three elements: the peaceful day-time protests, the organized night-time protests, and the unorganized looters, arsonists, and thieves.

Now, according to the deputy police chief, and the president, and plenty of others in between, it is the second of these groups that is the most dangerous. It is the second of these groups that is being directly targeted by local police. It is the investigation into this second group that the Oakland police have officially turned over to the FBI. Having interviewed several Oakland residents and protest organizers, I can tell you that it is the third group that is actually a threat to people and property, although there is also agreement that even looters, arsonists and thieves do not deserve the injustice of the justice system.

So, my point is that the priority of the FBI and local law enforcement is not to keep people safe, or even to restore law and order in the normal sense. Rather, their mandate is specifically to go after the organized elements that they see as a far bigger threat - a threat not to their bodies or lives, but to the police as an institution. So, this brings me to the bottom line: that the justice system is now politicized, by which I mean that the law enforcement apparatuses of this country (federal, state and local), which - as we have pointed out, now includes a Secret Police force that takes direction directly from William Barr - are now being used to target organizations and individuals based on their political beliefs.

In conclusion, we're all so fucked if we don't stick together. In the meantime, there's a party in the streets - go make some friends!

Your Begrudging Servant,

Spider S Thompson