Six on Police Brutality Protests: Expert: Leaders claiming outsiders turn protests into riots will justify more use of force by police; Take Note: Where "enemy of the people" lands you; 'Riots', 'mobs', 'chaos': the establishment always frames chang
philip panaritis
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It's this mentality that Michael German with the Brennan Center for Justice & NYC School of Law says will perpetuate the cycle of anger against police and people demanding justice.
"To a certain degree law enforcement wants to present the protesters as outside agitators because they can justify more aggressive use of force against them," said German.
German is a former FBI agent with decades of experience there, and his experience with the Brennan Center, which is a non-partisan organization.
"It's not that there aren't outside agitators coming in, clearly there's evidence that there are," said German. "But I don't think that makes up a bulk of the demonstrations by any means."
German says he believes the majority of people at these protests are people expressing their outrage over George Floyd's death."
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Much of the resulting press coverage settled on the more neutral descriptor “chaos”, a theme amplified by Trump’s allies. A Fox News op-ed on Monday proclaimed: “The rioting, looting and wave of arson hitting cities around the nation following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police is much like the disturbances that convulsed American cities in the 1960s.”
The word “riot”, as well as the terms “mob”, “chaos” and “insurrection”, is alarming language that creates a deliberate mode of understanding in the listener. These words are often used to delegitimize and dismiss Black movements – to make them appear too far removed from civil society to be taken seriously. Yet these terms are often in conflict with reality. They also obscure the perspective of those most qualified to judge: the participants themselves.
Many of the uprisings that white Americans and Europeans have termed 'riots' were concentrated efforts to overturn systems of oppression
While many politicians and pundits have attempted to dismiss the current uprisings as “riots” – intimating that they are mere free-for-alls that lack purpose – that could not be further from the truth. Many of the uprisings that white Americans and Europeans have historically termed “riots” were, in fact, concentrated efforts to overturn systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe.
This was certainly true for the leaders and participants of the Haitian revolution, which erupted in 1791 and brought an end to slavery in Haiti. The Black men and women who gained their freedom from the French were regarded as troublemakers and agitators. Not surprisingly, the events that unfolded during the Haitian revolution were regarded by white observers as chaotic – Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter in March 1791 that the rebels were “a terrible engine, absolutely ungovernable”. But this organized force, aligned for a simple cause, led to the founding of the first republic governed by former slaves who had emancipated themselves. “We are ready to die for liberty,” the Haitian rebels cried at the battle of Crête-à-Pierrot.
Like the leaders of the Haitian revolution, the organizers of the 1831-32 revolt in Jamaica, led by Sam Sharpe, set out to bring an end to slavery. The Black men and women who revolted against white enslavers were clear about their intentions: they only wanted wages for the backbreaking work in the sugar cane fields. But the island’s white militia suppressed the rebellion after five weeks of military reprisals, kangaroo courts and on-the-spot executions."
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