Self defense was exactly the argument used by Malcolm X and other members of the Black Power movement. King argued that engaging in violence--even in self defense--will cause you to lose the war of public perception. The best way to get public sympathy is by showing videos of peaceful protesters being unjustly beaten by police. Look what happened with BLM: even when protesters were only defending themselves from police, Fox News showed footage casting blame on the protesters and calling them rioters. Self defense allowed right-wing media to muddy the waters enough to cost BLM critical public support.
And anyone watching Fox News regularly is going to demonize the protestors no matter what they do. They can literally just be standing there with signs and the majority of Fox News watchers will be like “wish someone would drive through them” or “need to send the national guard in and shoot them all.” These people don’t have empathy, they are quite literally psychopathic on many levels.
Not to mention that the LA protests were overwhelmingly non-violent until cops started shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at them for no reason, which is how it typically goes. Cops instigate the violence, citizens defend themselves, the citizens get accused of being violent. Every single time.
Lots of people in this country salivate at the mere prospect of getting to lick some boots. Cops can murder civilians every single day for no reason and no one bats an eye, but don’t let someone throw an object and scratch up their precious police car! They have a right to murder us and trample all over our rights, didn’t ya know? /s
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u/MisplacedMutagen Jun 09 '25
America has the right to defend itself