WHEN PRESIDENT DONALD Trump announced on Saturday night that he would send the National Guard to Los Angeles to crush protests, a narrative emerged on social media that demonstrators had somehow given a gift to the authoritarian president by escalating confrontations with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

“Los Angeles — violence is never the answer. Assaulting law enforcement is never ok,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posted on Sunday. “Indeed, doing so plays directly into the hands of those who seek to antagonize and weaponize the situation for their own gain. Don’t let them succeed.”

In reality, the protesters throwing rocks at heavily armed security forces or attempting to damage the vehicles used to kidnap their immigrant neighbors did not introduce violence. They are instead acting in militant community defense.

After all, would the situation somehow be less violent were ICE left to snatch and disappear people without impediment? Does Schiff imagine either his pronouncements or the empty condemnations of his Democratic Party colleagues will slow down the deportation of our neighbors?

  • @skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1045 days ago

    Hearing the LEO parrots quack on about, “oh, the protesters are interfering with lawful action,” is so tiring.

    Show one valid warrant signed by a judge, I dare them. Trolling Home Depot parking lots and restaurants is called stalking. Abduction and kidnapping is called abduction and kidnapping. All are unlawful crimes in a country that allegedly is “lawful.”

      • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        94 days ago

        Also all those right wing influencers that have spoken about tyranny and how the democrats and leftists are evil and then are incredibly excited at seeing the exact thing they claimed was happening to them (which was bullshit) that was actually happening to the people they didn’t like.

        At this point I wouldn’t give a fuck if there was a real purge and these people were outright shot and left to rot in the streets.

  • @GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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    885 days ago

    So if protests can’t be violent, and the authoritarian regime mows down the non-violent, how EXACTLY are we supposed to actually win this?

    • @Signtist@bookwormstory.social
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      595 days ago

      We’re not? One of our parties may be significantly less sadistic, but they both exist to lock the American people into a life of servitude for the rich. Our votes won’t get us out of fascism, they’ll only let us choose 4 years of “good cop” or “bad cop.” We’ll have to actually be okay with making our overlords mad at us in order to escape, and that includes the media; if the news is on your side, you can be sure the rich people who own it aren’t sufficiently concerned.

      • I’m going to steal your “good cop bad cop” analogy because it’s perfect and I’m tired of making references to the situation being like a scripted WWE match.

    • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      355 days ago

      I think a really good lesson comes from the documentary “Winter on Fire” about the 2014 Maidan protests. The tl;Dr is that the protestors organized a peaceful march, and the police set up a sniper corridor and started mowing people down indiscriminately. They shot people who ran out with stretchers to carry the people who’d been shot. That night, the protestors regrouped and announced their plans to march again tomorrow, and to do so armed, all 90,000 of them. Like a Christmas fucking miracle, the cops found somewhere else to be the next day, and nobody got shot.

      https://youtu.be/yzNxLzFfR5w

      • @tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        275 days ago

        While definitely not the same level of violence of that, during the protests in 2020, I never saw the police riot and assault the group when there were armed civilian guards. Even five or so out 100+ people was enough to give the cops pause.

      • @GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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        115 days ago

        Just out of curiosity, what retribution was enacted on the cops for their indiscriminate violence? Because at this point I’d no longer be in a “shake hands and make up, live and let live” state of mind.

      • @DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        A very important disctinction about the Maidan protests and riots, was there was effectively Two different law enforcement groups on the scene in Kyiv. The black uniforms, and the blue uniforms.

        The Internal Troops, who were basically local police who were mobilized for riot duty. acting on the orders of the local regional government, They wore Black.

        and the Berkut. who were a militarized police force that was acting as lawgivers on the orders of the President, The Ukrainian President Yanukovitch was a puppet of Putin, and he had his own group of militarized thugs that were used as a personal regime security service, they wore Blue. Berkut was the ones that were largely responsible for dissapearing and murdering people.

        Russia still has various forms of this internal security today, their whole job is basically protect the regime from the inside. meaning they exist to terrorize people who are affiliated with the army and regular police, incase they get any funny ideas about revolting.

        Anyway, after the Rada (Ukrainian elected officials) Impeached and removed Yankukovitch for Treason, an important note to all those Russian shills who allege it was a coup, Yanukovitch’es own cabinet impeached him… anyway, after he was gone, the interim government disbanded and fired the Berkut unit for their brutality against the people of Ukraine.

        This story doesnt have a happy ending though, Russia offered them asylum. and the vast majority of Berkut members left the country and swore allegiance to Russia. So they fled first to Crimea, and then filtered out into Russia after it was formally annexed.

        Whats happening in America, Started in Ukraine, this is a decade long battle against an organized crime syndicate thats taken control of multiple national governments. Its all connected.

    • @FireTower@lemmy.world
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      95 days ago

      Non-violent protests capable of dissuading hostile official intervention through MAD. Peaceable ≠ peaceful.

  • @Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    274 days ago

    The only violent group at a protest is the Police. So forward all complaints to the people heavy armed in riot gear who are going around shooting at journalists.

  • Don’t do anything and therefore agree with authoritarianism. Protest and therefore justify authoritarianism.

    They are just beging for someone to hurt them. According to their own logic.

    • Bahnd Rollard
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      54 days ago

      Because it justifies their escalation, this aint LA’s first rodeo, they can handle this. I would not suprise me if there are more feds than protesters in some areas. Hopefully this simmers down and we get some good drone photos that show the crowd ratios and make the feds look like fools.

  • @WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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    485 days ago

    It should be completely legal to shoot cops with rubber bullets whenever you feel like it. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

      • @SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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        5 days ago

        Apparently, rawlplugs make for better caltrops than simple nails. The hollow tube permits air, which keeps the caltrop from getting plugged into the tire.

        Now, the question is how to get the plugs to stick together. Maybe wrap them with Play-doh? It isn’t like they have to last for more than one tire, long as they get the job done.

        • @FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Maybe dental floss or fishing line to make a bundle? And/or wrap in black masking tape to blend with asphalt but easily allow punctures.

          • @SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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            65 days ago

            If stealth is key, black play-doh and dunking the screws into black paint might do the trick. Biggest problem with that, is that civvies might walk onto them. As with landmines, caltrops don’t care who stumbles across them - be they cop or child, they are the same.

            It is going to be a major issue with resistance and a civil war, that our efforts could potentially harm people who aren’t jerks. 😥

        • Fingolfinz
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          55 days ago

          Epoxy clay for modeling is good for bonding metal kind of expensive for the task though I guess

  • @pleasegoaway@lemm.ee
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    465 days ago

    There is a reason that a country is not supposed to use its own army against its own citizens.

    The national guard is not needed or wanted in CA. The governor of CA did not ask for you, and CA does NOT want you to be here.

  • @Harlehatschi@lemmy.ml
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    355 days ago

    I know this is quite easy to say from the comfort of my couch in Europe, but guys you need to shoot this fucker in the face already.

  • @YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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    225 days ago

    It doesn’t matter what they say. As long as they’re congregating and throwing rocks, Trump can say “see I told you” and all his fans will believe him and agree. Whatever they choose to do is fuelling his ascension to dictatorship.

  • @Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 days ago

    Why we should scruple to call such a set of people a mob, I can’t conceive, unless the name is too respectable for them. The sun is not about to stand still or go out, nor the rivers to dry up because there was a mob in Boston on the 5th of March that attacked a party of soldiers.

    • John Adams, Founding Father, Patriot, later President of the United States, describing the violence of the crowd on the day that lead to the Boston Massacre.

    He used this argument to defend the British soldiers in court, because justice demands due process for everyone. Even the enemy.

    The Boston Massacre was:

    The day that laid the foundation of Independence.

    • Also John Adams.
  • @DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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    44 days ago

    The Regime, and yes, its the Regime from now on, is only following the blueprint from its Russian Mafia Masters.

    Over there, Protesting is just disorderly, its viewed as immature and irresponsible. You dont go out in the street and yell at the government for your problems,

    you are supposed to calmly write a letter or other appeal to the Tsar President and ask them to personally intervene, and go after the middle managers at the factory , or the foreign traders ripping you off or whoever is really responsible for your trouble

  • I hope these protests continue indefinitely.

    I hope more and more and more people join these protests. Enough so, where the economy is drastically affected each and every day.

    More people protesting = less people working = less money for the states = less money for the federal government.

    We can stand our ground, defend ourselves physically, as well as hurt the economy financially.

    In other words, I’m wanting a little bit of anarchy. Just the tip.

  • teppa
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    15 days ago

    For clarification is the idea that these people aren’t here illegally, or that we accept them being here illegally?

    • @kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      235 days ago

      The idea is that there is due process and basic human dignity involved in the process of deporting someone. And masked unidentified people snatching people off the streets without signed warrants and disappearing people isn’t how that works.

      • @SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 days ago

        “deporting”

        I wonder: are people actually being “deported” to where they were born/have citizenship?

    • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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      145 days ago

      That doesn’t matter when ICE isn’t giving people their right to due process which they have regardless of their immigration status.