By Lea Barrios
WASHINGTON DC – Peaceful protests across America have been met with violence, false arrests, rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grades and teargas—prompting four congresswomen to address police brutality and put measures in place to prevent it.
The recent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have sparked worldwide interest and peaceful protests in every state. Their deaths were a breaking point for the black community, and many demanded justice for Floyd’s killers.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s charge increased from 3rd degree murder to 2nd degree murder, and a second autopsy concluded that Floyd’s cause of death was asphyxiation from sustained pressure from Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck and back for nearly nine minutes.
The other three officers who were involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest—Tou Thou, Thomas Kiernen Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng—have also been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting.
The officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her sleep during a no-knock raid are still free and on duty. A petition for her killers to be charged has 2,787,861 signatures.
Although some protests have turned violent, a majority of the protests across the country have been peaceful, yet police officers have been recorded unprovoked pushing of people, knocking an elderly man down, breaking a baton on a protester, and hitting protesters with a police car.
In a statement from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, she stated that she, and Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Karen Bass, and Barbara Lee have made a resolution to “condemn police brutality, racial profiling, and the 
excessive use of force.”
“For too long, Black and Brown bodies have been profiled, surveyed, policed, lynched, choked, brutalized, and murdered at the hands of police officers,” said Congresswoman Omar.
She also addressed that “police use of force is among the leading causes of death for young men of color.”
Their official statement of resolution addresses that violence toward Black people stems from slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, disproportionate incarceration of Black people and the war on drugs.
“We have seen far too many young men and women of color murdered by police, for as little as driving their car, riding public transportation, having a cell phone, or just being in their own homes,” said Congresswoman Lee, adding, “in the wake of Floyd’s death, we are reminded of the hundreds of innocent black people who have died because of police brutality and excessive force.”
President Donald Trump had been criticized again for tweeting, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” and calling protesters “thugs” that people have argued is a new, coded n-word.
He also threatened to use militarization to tame protests after the White House turned dark due to protesters around the perimeter. It is rumored that he went to an underground bunker for his safety.
The resolution stated that “data shows there is a direct correlation between the increased militarization of a police department and corresponding levels of police brutality.”
According to the congresswomen’s resolution, Trump’s threats of militarization would not calm protests, rather it would lead to more injuries and possibly deaths.
Their resolution begins by stating that police violence begins with policing “low level offenses” and that is where excessive force leads to shootings, chokings, brutal beatings, and deaths.
“Being Black in America should not be a death sentence,” said Congresswoman Lee.
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Isn’t there some conflation here between ‘peaceful protests’ and ‘riots, vandalism and looting’ ? I am not denying some inappropriate police response to peaceful protests – but it seems some of this statement is missing the part that some of these protests were peaceful and morphed into riots, or a crowd not involved with the peaceful protestors took over, or night fell and there was a ‘shift change’ from protestors to rioters/looters. Isn’t that when the majority of the “violence, false arrests, rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grades and teargas” occurred? Of course you can site exceptions – that’s not my point. My point is, aren’t they talking about police response – you can argue about whether it was excessive or not – to rioting/looting, and saying it was in response to ‘peaceful protest’. I see this, as stated, as disingenuous.
I like that analogy.
Many if not most of the protests I watched weren’t peaceful at all. It was the protesters that incited the violence, the cops just reacted to it.
KO, I think you are seeing what TV Peoples wants you to see – “if it bleeds, it leads” as they say.
I’ve spoken to many people who have attended rallies all over, and they seen nothing but peaceful protesting. I don’t think it’s the same crowd, in most instances. There are so many grey areas though. One friend said the rallies she’s been to are peaceful, but said the looting is OK because corporations are the problem. We don’t remotely see eye to eye on this 🙁 . While I am no fan of corporatism (and am a big fan of small business capitalism), I find lawlessness a much bigger concern, even if against the ‘evil box stores’ (which are hardly the most evil of corporations, they just happen to the corporations that have big boxes full of loot).
So Obama incited police brutality when Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and Eric Gardner were killed by the police? Do I have that right? I must as this is the only logical conclusion for the headline and actions of these four congresswomen that I am sure have no political agenda and are only pursuing this for the good of the nation.
I’m no Trump supporter (far from it), but if he (somehow) wins again, it’s going to be truly deflating for those areas of the country which strongly oppose him (and were already shocked by his previous win).
To the point of being almost interesting to see the reaction. A lot of depressed people, I suspect.
To this day, it seems that many cannot fathom any legitimate reason that someone would support Trump. And yet, many do support him (e.g., in other areas of the country).
I suspect days of rioting. This ain’t 2016.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that occurs.
Ultimately, it might come down to how well the economy performs. The stock market has largely recovered, and the jobs report came back much stronger than expected.
So far, at least.
And if the economy recovers more, perhaps the chance of protests/riots decreases.
If more people are working (due to an improving economy and addressing the coronavirus threat), perhaps the chance of mass protests/riots decreases, as well.
Otherwise, they’ll have to protest on their “days off” (from work).
The economy can’t help but recover more from where we are now. Job numbers should be good going forward. The FED is pumping in dollars everywhere. You know the saying, ‘Never fight the FED’.
I’ve said this before, the COVID crisis hit at the wrong time to hurt Trump. The economy crashed right away but will be a prolonged upswing all the way to the election.
I don’t think these riots will hurt Trump either as he will be perceived as the law and order candidate.
A second wave (which is really just a delayed first wave) could reverse your “can’t help but” statement. We are opening up many things all-at-once while the numbers are still going up (due to testing or infection rate – who knows?), some people are already acting like there is no virus, and demonstrating in mass human petri dishes is deemed more important than social-distancing.
Really no telling how the invisible enemy is going to spread in our mix of insane, contradictory, political, b-llsh@t reactions to it, but we should know more on about mid-July.
They’ll certainly try to drum up more false impeachment charges at the very least. That’s if Democrats can hold on to the House.
If it happens it will be a repeat of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G87UXIH8Lzo
I don’t think they’ll have time for another impeachment.
Looks like the video you sent is a “precursor” to the last election, rather than a “post-mortum”.
Damn – spelling (above).
In any case, I recall that Michael Moore (of all people) accurately predicted Trump’s previous win.
I wonder how MM will do on climate change? Stay tuned . . .
I’ve heard (but don’t tell anyone) that he “might” lose California (and a few other states which tend to follow suit).
But, only if there’s an “extra-effort” turnout within the state – on behalf of the other guy.
That ought to get the job done. 😉
Some people are still assuming that it’s primarily a “boomer-remover” – and the parents of those boomers, if still around.
Have to admit that I found the moniker amusing. And, it still seems to be (largely) true.
Protesters are (often) younger people. “Invincible”.
Rioters are pretty much ALWAYS younger people. Usually male, if you want to get specific.