Tag: violence

The United States Is In a State of Crisis

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In the midst of a global combined economic and public health crisis, American stock markets have been doing rather well. The country has pumped trillions into its large corporations which has avoided a large-scale market crash such as that seen in 2008. But while Wall Street remains relatively intact, the rest of the country is spiraling into chaos due to several inter-connected crises.

Just a month ago it was incomprehensible that any news could top the historic global pandemic as 2020’s biggest story. But a wave of protests across the United States has highlighted that the country is suffering from more than just COVID-19.

Crisis in health

After months of economically painful lockdowns, curfews, and restrictions the US is reopening the economy even as its cases continue to climb. Wednesday, June 10, saw the two millionth COVID-19 case recorded. US President Donald Trump has pushed for reopenings even while many public health experts warn the nation might still be in the first wave of infections.

Those who died from COVID-19-related complications have disproportionately comprised minorities, and continue a sad historic trend of hitting the country’s Black communities the worst.

The unique nature of the US healthcare system means many will now face thousands of dollars in medical bills just as a “tsunami” of bankruptcies is due to hit in the aftermath of lockdowns that saw millions lose their jobs.

Crisis in inequality

The brutal death of George Floyd served as another painful reminder that the United States still has not created even a semblance of parity between Black and white people in the country. The death of another Black man in police custody triggered protests around the country, and a heavy backlash from the country’s elites.

Media and many officials instantly painted the protests as violent riots, and labeled protesters “looters.” State officials and media channels rushed to discredit the genuine demands of the mostly peaceful protests. The anti-racism demonstrations have since been used by agent provocateurs from groups advocating for a second civil war to stir up more violence and resentment between racial and economic sections of the population.

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chris Hedges has called the government response to protests “treason by the ruling class” and says a “mafia state” has replaced the country’s capitalist democracy. “We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich,” Hedges wrote in Common Dreams, saying the country’s wealthy constitute “omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government.”

According to Hedges, who has seen several countries spiral into chaos and war, the US has only two possible paths left: Revolution or tyranny.

Crisis in the economy

The country’s shocking poverty has only worsened in a time of record highs in the country’s stock markets. The disconnect between main street and wall street is now painfully exposed as news of record highs in the NASDAQ feature on the same front pages as record numbers of deaths, unemployment, an approaching “avalanche” of evictions, and severe public discontent.

The crisis has similarly exposed the country’s nearly defunct labor laws to daylight as millions were immediately laid off from their jobs when lockdowns became a reality. Constantly clicking refresh on overwhelmed and continuously crashing state unemployment websites, citizens have started to realize that a welfare state is not a comfortable “handout” to those too lazy to work, as politicians have told them for years.

Instead people have been left to their own devices with little help from the government outside a one-time stimulus check that did not cover rent and expenses in most US cities. For decades Americans have swallowed tax cuts for big business, but the crisis has again proven that businesses actually have a responsibility to create as few jobs as possible to ensure maximum profits for shareholders.

Crisis in leadership

Amid the disintegration of the American social contract, US Donald Trump is rapidly undoing the post-WW2 era unspoken agreement that has sustained American hegemony. For decades, the US paid the most to global institutions such as the WHO and NATO. In exchange the US did not have to decolonize, was able to invade nations at will, and made its currency the favored exchange in the international market.

But President Donald Trump apparently considers that the country’s superior military strength alone should be enough to force the global community into compliance. By withdrawing funding from the WHO, pressuring NATO allies into paying higher dues, and sanctioning the world’s highest court, Trump is changing the image of the US from a benevolent global empire into a rogue state.

Vetoes at the Security Council are casually and repeatedly suppressing the will of the global community, while calls for mercy on states suffering under crippling US sanctions remain ignored. Trump has willfully broken the unspoken agreement between the US and the world, silently approved by Democrats who have signed off on every increase of the military budget, corporate hand-out, and even his wall on the Mexican border.

With America’s reputation badly damaged abroad and civil discord in the streets at home, the US is facing a historic crisis that could precipitate the final tumultuous decline of “global America” as we know it today.

US Burns With Anti-Racism Rage One Week After George Floyd’s Murder

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George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer jammed a knee into his throat for seven painful minutes during an arrest for a non-violent crime on May 25. The video documenting the incident, when Floyd repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe,” triggered a wave of outrage that has transformed into protests across the United States and in major cities around the world. 

Protestors chanting “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd, say his name” filled the streets of Minneapolis, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and 135 other cities around the US. Protests in cities like Phoenix and Albuquerque remained peaceful, while others turned violent, resulting in vandalism, burnt-out buildings, looting, and a heavy-handed police response.

Amid the anger and violence, the message from protesters has been clear: Black lives matter, and systemic racism and injustice must end. The protestors’ messages have spilled onto social media, which has been filled with calls for white people not to be silent, to recognize their privilege, respect black culture and experiences, and move from being passively non-racist to vocally anti-racist. 

Mahira Louis, a 15-year-old protestor from Boston, summed up protestors’ sentiments.  

“They keep killing our people. I’m so sick and tired of it,” Louis told the Associated Press News (AP News).  

“I hate to see my city like this but at the end we need justice,” said Jahvon Craven, an 18-year-old protestor from Minneapolis. 

Trump retreats 

On Sunday evening, as a protest in Washington, D.C. encroached on the White House, Secret Service agents rushed President Donald Trump into a secure bunker. Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker as protesters in adjacent Lafayette Park chanted “George Floyd” and peppered the presidential mansion with rocks as police and the National Guard held them back.  

The response from US law enforcement and government has been mixed, with some lawmakers praised for their efforts to calm tensions and others including President Donald Trump accused of inflaming them further. Trump’s advisers counseled him against giving an Oval Office address to try and quell the country’s anger, according to reports from White House insiders, but he has continued to tweet about the unfolding situation. 

Police response criticized

Dozens of cities have rolled out night-time curfews, including Minneapolis, where the National Guard and military police are enforcing restrictions. Utopian scenes played out on Sunday evening as military hummers rolled through the suburban streets of Minneapolis and military police viciously ordered citizens to get inside their houses ahead of the 8 p.m. curfew.  

A number of violent police responses to the protests sparked by the police brutality that killed George Floyd have also drawn criticism. In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired two officers and placed others on desk duty for using excessive force after video emerged of officers circling a car on Saturday and stun-gunning the occupants.  

The mayor and “mother to four black children” launched a passionate plea for calm in Atlanta on Friday and has since called on Trump to “just stop talking.”  

“He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet and I wish that he would just be quiet. Or if he can’t be silent, if there is somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray he reads it and at least says the right things, because he is making it worse,” she told CNN on Sunday night.   

Pepper spray from police hit black lawmakers Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, 70, and Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin at the end of a rally in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. “Too much force is not the answer to this,” Beatty said in a Twitter video posted after the incident.  

The police response comes as no surprise to people like the Director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Christ White. “What’s happening, it’s the way American society has always been,” White said.

Police have arrested over 4,100 people to date in connection with the George Floyd protests. Police have repeatedly used pepper spray, batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and driven their vehicles at demonstrators to disperse and control crowds.  

Read also: US Meets Protests Over Police Brutality With Increasing State Violence 

 

US Meets Protests Over Police Brutality With Increasing State Violence

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Protests across the US continued on the night of Friday, May 29. Outrage over the death of George Floyd, yet another black person that died while in police custody, has sparked large protests around the country. While most media express agreement with the main complaints of the protesters, the events are nonetheless painted as violent, destructive, and chaotic.

Systemic racism and widening inequality in the United States appears to have reached a tipping point as civil disobedience and protest are the only tools left for a black community seemingly under siege. But the protests are not being treated as a legitimate form of expression and productive outrage. Instead, the media paint the events as violent disruptions of American society.

State violence

The main complaint of the protestors is the excessive violence exercised by American law enforcement on people of color. The continued disregard for and distrust of America’s black communities by those that are tasked with protecting them has created a state in which a certain section of society has to fear those that police them.

With decades of political inaction, the only recourse left for the embattled community is to take to the streets and perform that most American of all values by freely protesting the government.

State officials are not channeling the understandable outrage into productive events. Instead of granting permits to protests and creating venues for free expression, protesters have met police in riot gear, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

Over half a century since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dared to dream that one day his children might live in a nation where they would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” that dream still appears elusive.

Press attacked

Even the press covering the events have faced police repression. A camera crew in Louisville, Kentucky was pelted with pepper-infused non-lethal ammunition. As is common in US policing, the individual officer shooting at the camera crew was not corrected by his colleagues, forcing the local television staff to retreat.

In Minneapolis, state troopers arrested Omar Jimenez, a black reporter for CNN during his live broadcast after repeatedly expressing his team’s willingness to cooperate with police instructions. The governor of Minnesota has since apologized to CNN, but the event remains an example of the distrust and intimidation commonly applied by local law enforcement.

Media framing

US media have covered the protests primarily by first briefly recognizing the grievances of the crowd, before spending the rest of coverage with sensationalist footage of looting and violence.

The Washington Post spoke of “absolute chaos” in its headline, the New York Times similarly called the events a “night of chaos,” while MSNBC emphasized “clashes with police.” Governors, mayors, and state officials around the country have told protesters to “go home” as the media has effectively turned the narrative away from George Floyd’s tragic murder and onto a projecting of chaotic and unruly largely black protesters.

Fox News has been the worst offender as it has disproportionately broadcast footage of looting and violence in an apparent attempt to discredit the protests and reinforce stereotypes of the black community being disruptive and violent.

Black and white contrast

The police and media responses stand in stark contrast to the protests against COVID-19 measures over the past weeks. Heavily armed, mostly white protesters faced no police barricades, tear gas, or rubber bullets, but instead enjoyed a pleasant afternoon as they exercised their unimpeded constitutional right to free speech.

Even when protesters “stormed” the capitol building in Michigan they faced little to no resistance or police response. These protestors were able to enter the government building carrying rifles and pistols and organize rallies with not a single armed police officer in sight.

Systemic racism

The contrast between the protests could not be more clear. Unarmed black protesters with genuine grievances face tear gas and rubber bullets while heavily-armed white protesters disregarding public health advice are treated with “kid gloves.”

The COVID-19 crisis has added even more evidence of the systemic and structural racism that people of color in the United States face on a daily basis. Black Americans are arrested disproportionately, face longer prison sentences, are on average ten times poorer than white Americans, and even die in much greater numbers from COVID-19 infections.

And much more injustice is ahead. As a moratorium on evictions is set to soon expire, a “tsunami of evictions” is coming, which will, again, affect the black community to a much greater extent.

With no political recourse left, a long-unanswered question remains. Americans are left to ponder what black communities are supposed to do to achieve justice and equality in the eyes of law enforcement if merely exercising their constitutional rights to protest their government is met with state violence, media sensationalism, and continuing systemic oppression.

US authorities would be wise to heed the words of Michel Foucault, who said “justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.”

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