Yeah, I don't think there is an endgame in mind. I think this is just purely REaction, all emotion and instinct, no real rational thought at all.
And what rational thought there is on the part of the cops, is likely suffering from a severe difficulty in seeing things from the protesters' point of view. I'll bet a lot of the cops having been thinking things like "If some dude was pointing a gun at me, I'd back down and go home. These people aren't, therefore they must be crazy or stupid or something." When in fact, they're just incredibly angry over having lived all their lives under this kind of repression, and when that boils over, it gets to the point where people are willing to stand up to dudes with guns.
There's probably also an aspect of "when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". They've got all this high-powered equipment, it should be able to solve their problem, right?
I'm pissed at the Seattle Times right now, because they were talking shit about Norm Stamper, who learned the hard way that this doesn't work, and has been preaching de-escalation from the start. The Times is saying that was tried, and didn't work, but is ignoring the fact that things escalated again after the cops once again broke out the body armour and fucking TANKS. OF course people are protesting again! You're rolling fucking Tanks down their streets!
OK, that got a little out of hand. The stupidity and closed-mindedness going on here gets me kind of worked up.
no subject
And what rational thought there is on the part of the cops, is likely suffering from a severe difficulty in seeing things from the protesters' point of view. I'll bet a lot of the cops having been thinking things like "If some dude was pointing a gun at me, I'd back down and go home. These people aren't, therefore they must be crazy or stupid or something." When in fact, they're just incredibly angry over having lived all their lives under this kind of repression, and when that boils over, it gets to the point where people are willing to stand up to dudes with guns.
There's probably also an aspect of "when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". They've got all this high-powered equipment, it should be able to solve their problem, right?
I'm pissed at the Seattle Times right now, because they were talking shit about Norm Stamper, who learned the hard way that this doesn't work, and has been preaching de-escalation from the start. The Times is saying that was tried, and didn't work, but is ignoring the fact that things escalated again after the cops once again broke out the body armour and fucking TANKS. OF course people are protesting again! You're rolling fucking Tanks down their streets!
OK, that got a little out of hand. The stupidity and closed-mindedness going on here gets me kind of worked up.