James Veverka: Numbers show that police have been arresting demonstrators

To The Daily Sun,

Tom Roscoe asked why cops aren't arresting "these people" for inciting a riot? They are.

Polling, including one released by data science firm Civis Analytics, suggests that about 15 million to 26 million people joined the George Floyd protests. Of those millions of mostly peaceful protesters, over 10,000 had been arrested, according to the Associated Press. That is one per 2,000 protesters.

Absurdly, Trumpies call Black Lives Matter a terrorist group. Three recently leaked documents from Homeland Security concluded that white supremacists are the deadliest domestic terror threat facing us. This isn't breaking news, folks! The State Department also reported in July that racially and ethnically motivated terrorism, especially from white supremacists, is “on the rise and spreading geographically.”

Trump has been targeting suburban whites with his racist fearmongering strategy. But the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only "11% of suburban whites said the most important factor driving their vote was a candidate’s perceived interest in being 'tough on crime' and civil unrest".

Like all despots, Hitler championed "law and order." With Hitler in power, the right-wing looked forward to extended police powers. Police were hostile toward the constitutional rights of post-WWI Germany. Like Stalin and Mao, Nazis labeled the press the enemy of the people, shielding the police from public criticism by censorship. They gave police extensive powers in arrests, imprisonment, and treatment of defendants and prisoners, including taking "preventative actions" like arrests and imprisonment without evidence. In Germany and Italy, nationalist militias and fascist vigilantes thought it their duty to perform extra-legal police functions. Sound familiar? Trump himself approves of extra-judicial police killings. (See www.vox.com/2020/9/14/21436216/trump-michael-reinoehl-protests-portland-shooting)

Trump has pardoned war criminals, bringing two of them to a fundraiser. One was serving a 19-year sentence for ordering his troops to shoot unarmed villagers, killing two, in 2012. Trump has no respect for the law.

Most protesters are peaceful and most police are decent. But a "few rotten apples" is a flaccid excuse for police violence because police culture actually enables and protects it. Police unions have become right-wing propaganda tools. The Thin Blue Line and The Blue Wall serve to shield lawless policing from prosecutors and the public. Here is an example of two rotten apples rotting the whole barrel. In Buffalo, N.Y., two officers deliberately knocked over 75-year-old protester Martin Gugino, leaving him unconscious and bleeding on the pavement. Gugino sustained a brain injury and was hospitalized for four weeks. The officers were charged with felony assault. In protest, fifty-seven fellow officers resigned from the Emergency Response Team in support because inflicting random violence on unarmed seniors is okay. As they were being arraigned on felony assault charges, about 250 supporters, including police officers and firefighters, stood outside and cheered them. A rotten barrel. Here is a list with links to over 1,800 compiled videos of rogue policing during the protests including hundreds of incidents victimizing journalists. https://bit.ly/3cjKgCJ

James Veverka

Tilton