• PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catOP
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    1 month ago

    During the Trump years, it was a real possibility that you might get kettled, maced, arrested, beaten, tazed, charged with felonies, hit by a car by a “counterprotestor”, or straight-up killed by the police during a lot of the protests. I am pretty surprised that stuff hasn’t started back up again, although I heard some shit’s started going down in Portland and NYC and I definitely expect it to get worse.

    I’m not going to make a decision on behalf of anyone else as pertains to their safety, especially if they are as you point out uniquely vulnerable during the Trump years. But my limited experience with this contingent is that it is ready to fight when threatened, that was kind of the whole point.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH8nhqQbd28

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go

    Yeah these people seem super concerned that in this DEI climate it might impact their job security if they get out and protest.

    I will say that the protest contingent I’ve been out with seems a lot whiter than the BLM contingent was. That’s not super surprising to me. And everyone can do what they want. But “they’re prioritizing self-care, they’ve earned it, other people should sit out too” is just a ridiculous and Trump-friendly take on why and what people should be doing.

    • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      During the Trump years, it was a real possibility that you might get kettled, maced, arrested, beaten, tazed, charged with felonies, hit by a car by a “counterprotestor”, or straight-up killed by the police during a lot of the protests

      That never stopped. The student intifada? Tortuguita? Etc.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catOP
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        1 month ago

        I didn’t say it stopped completely. My point was that the level of police response to these Trump protests is radically different than what we’ve seen so far.

        It is hard to estimate sizes, but the BLM protests in 2020 were somewhere around 5 times bigger than the current round of Trump protests (looks like 3-5 million versus 15-26 million). During the BLM protests, three people that I know of lost their eyes, tens of thousands got arrested, and 17 people died. Presumably a lot more than 17 got injured. That’s pretty consistent with the pattern of how protest (peaceful or not) usually gets dealt with in this country.

        As far as I know, a few hundred people have been arrested so far this time. That’s it. I have literally almost never felt unsafe during the Trump protests. Do you know of more than that which has been happening?

        • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          the level of police response to these Trump protests is radically different than what we’ve seen so far.

          If you’re referring to the 50501 or “hands off” protests then yes, there has been no response because those have, generally, been parades not protests. There’s no point in repressing the toothless.

          I have literally almost never felt unsafe during the Trump protests.

          Resisting fascism is an inherently unsafe act. If you’ve never felt unsafe then you are not actually protesting.

          Do you know of more than that which has been happening?

          Are the Tesla protests and arsons close to what you’re asking about? I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “has been happening”?