In response to the resistance, governments high and low depict and treat protesters as terrorists
newsdepo.com
Anybody with a personal history of protesting or a good resistance library knows that the police often are not friends of Americans’ right of dissent and assembly. And this is especially so when the dissenters are people of color and their allies. AlthoughIn response to the resistance, governments high and low depict and treat protesters as terrorists
Anybody with a personal history of protesting or a good resistance library knows that the police often are not friends of Americans’ right of dissent and assembly. And this is especially so when the dissenters are people of color and their allies. Although individual officers may be particularly brutal, this is not a matter of rogue cops exceeding their orders. Police departments aren’t independent operators. They do the bidding of the powers that be. Whether taking action against labor strikes, the civil rights movement, the antiwar and anti-apartheid movements, immigration activists, or other protests of the existing order, police agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have a markedly unsavory record. This is about much more than direct clashes in the street. Law enforcement attacks have included harassment, threats and intimidation, illegal surveillance, infiltration, acting as agents provocateurs, and outright violence. The FBI used the infamous CoIntelPro, among other things, to turn African American and American Indian activists against one another in ways that led to some murders in the 1960s and early ‘70s. The FBI facilitated the murder of others. (See Fred Hampton). Often, these attacks on dissent have been aided by private parties ranging from corporate goons hired to go after workers on the picket line in the 1930s to the likes of highly militarized operations like the global security firm TigerSwan at the anti-pipeline protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota in the past couple of years. Techniques of suppressing protest are always being tweaked and polished. Will Parrish and Sam Levin at The Guardian report on recently released documents showing that police plan to move aggressively against ongoing protesters fighting the Keystone XL pipeline, that conduit indigenous people along its northern route label the “black snake” designed to carry highly polluting tar sands petroleum from Alberta to Texas. If Keystone XL gets final approval, massive demonstrations like those against the Dakota Access Pipeline can be expected: Documents obtained by the ACLU of Montana and reviewed by The Guardian have renewed concerns from civil rights advocates about the government’s treatment of indigenous activists known as water protectors. Notably, one record revealed that authorities hosted a recent “anti-terrorism” training session in Montana. [...] “Treating protest as terrorism is highly problematic,” said [Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice], noting that the US government has long labeled activism as “terrorism”, once claiming that filing public records requests was an “extremist” tactic. “It’s an effective way of suppressing protest activity and creating an enormous burden for people who want to go out and express their concerns.” Read more