It was a time of great strides and calamitous missteps. A time heroes became villains and villains would exhibit nobility. With that, it was a time of unknown resolution. Within our bubbles, everyone thinks this is “the time”. I do. I wrote about it yesterday, and I believe it. This is a moment when things must change, will change. The war against people of color that has soiled every season of our country’s history must end.
Switch to another station and this is the time that the gloves come off, that sympathy is not an excuse for mercy. Tough love is true love, and some people will have to learn that the hard way, there is clearly no other way. Democracy starts and ends with discipline.
It has created an atmosphere that in one image, in a single moment, the actor at play can be cast at once as villain and saint, with a single gesture.
Take what has become, in my mind, a symbol of hope to those that see what is being revealed is real, systemic, historical. A police officer takes a knee. It is a recognition that this had to happen, that this had to stop, and they had to be on the right side of this and they hadn’t been. Heroes in their admission of guilt. A glimmer. A chance.
That’s my bubble. Enter the other bubble and these pussy cops are traitors.
Same man, same genuflection, different impact.
Who’s bubble is an accurate reflection of the majority view of these events will be the the story of the election for President in 2020. It will be no more complicated than that.
Lines are clearly drawn. Demonstrations that seem to go on forever, but are a brief moment compared to centuries of being under the boot of another. Systemic racism has been exposed undeniably and people are rejecting that. It has to have a voice. (Biden)
Or demonstrations that have gone on too long, damage done too great. Nothing can be done until the animals that are attacking our country are controlled. Whatever force necessary is on the table. Then we can deal with the outliers in law enforcement, the lone wolves who give everyone a bad name. (Trump)
Pretty simple math. Regardless of your bubble giving you hope for your vision of the future, the bald reporting seems to be leaning toward a recognition that this is a humiliation for our country that has to be addressed. It’s not just the diversity and size of the crowds all across the country. The country couldn’t hold all the outrage. It poured out globally. Last thing that set off a demonstration of this magnitude was the Women’s March in response to the inauguration of Donald Trump. He was globally rejected by women of all nations and their allies. That one was the biggest, but it was a single day of rejection for the President. This, too, was global and it just wouldn’t go away. The second week began, and the polls seemed to be saying it was more rejection for the President. Ohio didn’t look certain anymore. Texas and North Carolina were iffy. Five straight national polls put him between 3 and 11 points behind Biden. If the “tough guy” stance wasn’t responsible for the crashing numbers, it wasn’t stopping them.
He knows it. He has increased the fencing and other barriers around the White House. He is in actual fear for his life. He even took refuge in the White House bunker for a time, followed by a hilarious spin on it that suggested he was being asked to “inspect” it in case it became necessary to use it. He doesn’t get this at all, and people are noticing. The Federal force that has been deployed in the city are a mystery. They carry no insignia, no badges or identifying marks of any kind. Who they report to is unknown, only that they purport to be under the Dept. of Justice. That’s all anyone knows, which is not much, and not enough. Who they are and where they come from is probably going to be a let down for those of us that can let their imagination go, but it is just possible that some of the extreme theories could be true. Are they a private force? Mercenaries in the employ of…? Eric Prince involved? Some other entrepreneur? Or was it a Bureau of Prisons riot control squad with no experience of quelling a crowd that has the same rights they do? The latter is the accepted narrative at the time of this writing, and it is probably so, and no less disturbing.
They had cleared a square very quickly. What was clearly reported by journalists on the scene, gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang canisters were employed in force and the protesters were pushed back to a new, acceptable perimeter. All of this was denied today by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. It was an extraordinary back and forth with the journalist Jim Acosta who, while staying professional, was not inclined to back down or let things slide. McEnany said no tear gas was employed and no rubber bullets fired. Flash-bangs and pepper balls were fired. She fleshed out the narrative by saying the officers were under attack with frozen water bottles and bricks. Three well-known journalists were all present at the scene and all of them reported that nothing of the kind occurred. Acosta replied there were many colleagues and other witnesses who could attest to the use of gas. McEnany would not back down. No, no, she would double down instead. She continued with a narrative the Administration had committed to with a video that showed what the White House would characterize as stockpiles of weapons that had been placed around the city streets by Antifa to resupply looters and rioters. When it turned out that the scenes depicted were actually active or previously completed construction projects, most of which predated the remorseless murder of George Floyd, the White House had removed the video from their various media accounts with no fanfare or apology for any misconceptions they may have fostered on the public. They just folded and blew away. But Kayleigh was going to continue with the lie, continue to encourage a gullible base to suck at the teat of injustice.
White supremacy had an ally.
The bubbles interpreted the evidence as they do. But there is a lot of video. It is pretty rough. After the initial rioting that needs investigation, for about a week this has been a protest, a long term commitment to having their voices heard. Most of the violence has been instigated by law enforcement. New York has been very disappointing in multiple Boroughs, and in multiple cities, Buffalo having a cringe-worthy overreaction that left a 75 year old man bleeding from the ears. D.C. was an unpredictable petri dish that seemed to be growing an incendiary culture of official unprovoked mayhem and cover-up in this experiment in fascist tactics on an unsuspecting public. It was the only place in the country that the President could impose his will without an invitation, and he was crashing the party. Local law enforcement in the nation’s capital had been largely restrained, protests remaining peaceful and focused on the purpose. The agitation came from Federal resources deployed to create a narrative.
It has, but not the one that was intended. As the lies and manipulations of the Administration continue to get exposed as the clunky, ham-handed attempts to dominate their subjects that they are and the desperate attempts by the President to appear to be a tough, no-nonsense crime fighter instead reveal a terrified, confused child, the narrative is solidifying. The protests had always been justified. Now they were a national imperative.
When demonstrations that broke out nationwide to object to unjust treatment and violence by law enforcement are confronted by unjust treatment and violence by law enforcement, someone has to pay, and the polls are suggesting that the bill was sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
You know the due date. Time to collect.