this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024
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But don't worry guys! The first amendment guarantees a right to assemble. The police wouldn't ever do anything to infringe on our rights! If they were to do it, I'm sure there'd be a really sick folk song written about it or something
The day Philadelphia bombed its own people: An oral history of a 1985 police bombing that changed the city forever.
Folks familiar with this incident had a remarkably different take on the Waco siege and subsequent fire that resulted when the FBI surrounded David Koresh's church compound. Same with the Ruby Ridge US Marshal slaying of a white nationalist's wife and son, during an investigation into gun sales.
Then there's the assassination of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, the police storming of the Occupy Wall Street camps in New York, the COINTELPRO operations that targeted anti-war movements during the Bush Administration, the incredibly violence by police in Ferguson and Baltimore during the BLM marches, police kidnappings in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and LA during the George Floyd protests.
I got to personally witness the mass arrest of protesters in Houston, after they were surrounded and kettled in Discovery Green Park.
America is a cursed land. Something something maybe don't build your country on an ancient indian burial ground something something.
Guess when they apologized for it. (Spoiler - 35 years later)
And guess what they tried and failed to do with remains of the victims. (Spoiler - destroy them without consent from family members)
Don't worry guys, we're the land of the free /s
We got lucky our curse just turns the microwave on every now and then.
Out of curiosity, what were the remarkably different takes on Waco and Ruby Ridge?
The popular take was that the FBI did nothing wrong and Koresh simply had to be stopped at all costs. The more /r/unpopularopinion take was that Janet Reno had something to prove, that the FBI recklessly flooded the compound with flammable gas, and that these deaths were entirely preventable had Bob Ricks not wanted to rush the surrender.
Ruby Ridge was a similar story. Initially, news media portrayed the Weavers as insurrectionists intent on personally waging war on the entire federal government. The US Marshals were given the initial benefit of the doubt, despite the incident turning hot when a marshal shot the family dog and then the Weaver's 14-year-old boy who was working it.
Oh. I thought that over in the USA the default position was that the feds were in the wrong. Not a day goes by without conservatives talking about how the feds murder dogs.
People love to hate it but the second amendment is also a thing. Now don't get me wong I don't want this to happen ever to anyone...but there was a time when strikers would shoot and be shot at on the reg.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
Union workers got bombed by company men in the skirmishes and the fucking president had to send in troops to stop the fighting.
LOL they really did successfully rewrite the history on that one. The troops fought WITH the companies, not against them. The only reason they backed off is because they were losing. Had they continued, the legitimacy of the regime would have been brought into question. Not only because they were literally going to war with its own citizens, but also that those citizens were absolutely kicking their fucking asses.
We're talking about an empire that could barely hold their own when fighting against a nonviolent people with primitive technology, and then went on to lose a war against fucking farmers in Vietnam. The odds couldn't be further in their favor and yet they keep collecting Ls. If people collectively realized just how much of a complete joke these fascist clowns are, they would run away pissing themselves crying. God only knows what would happen if a nation actually engaged them in war on their soil. They're not even at war and the entire place is already crumbling.