I wasn't going to comment on the current American race riots that started in Minneapolis, mostly because this is NOT a current events blog, but also because both sides of the issue disgust me equally. On one hand, cops are pigs, and any arguments against that basic observation get endlessly counterpointed by daily evidence of them acting like violent petty thugs with badges. Working as hired muscle tends to appeal to a certain breed of the human ape, be they mafia enforces, gangbangers, soldiers, cops or prison wardens. On the other hand, the roaming swarms of degenerate vermin torching cars and beating random bystanders unconscious are certainly not "protesting" anything. They're violent petty thugs who would've gladly done the same thing in response to any other event from their local football team losing a match to the Aurora Borealis. Aside from a generalized case of cabin fever grace of COVID-19 amplifying such outbreaks of human nature, they are also convinced (not without evidence, sadly) that they will be able to play the race card if caught, that they will escape prosecution or conviction no matter the evidence against them for the government's fear of further protests.
However, skimming an article about CNN reporters getting arrested while filming a public arrest piqued my interest due to them being eventually released "once they were confirmed to be members of the media". What the hell does that mean? We know about George Floyd's murder in the first place because of a bystander's cellphone video of the event, posted to Facebook. Throughout history, atrocities have been more thoroughly reported by private citizens than by official observers. What exactly is this "The Media" whose blessing absolves one of the grievous crime of observation? Am I a video game journalist? A Science Fiction critic? An unpaid Google representative? Where do I apply for a license to point out the obvious?
Any person who is nonviolently observing a public event like a mass demonstration is a member of the media, whether filming it on a state of the art $20,000 corporate-funded recording rig or on a cellphone or just sketching caricatures in charcoal or hell... just watching. Observing. Keeping informed the old-fashioned way, through first-hand experience. Does no-one see the flaw in public officials apologizing for hauling a peaceful CNN reporter off to jail, as though anyone who isn't an appendage of a multinational disinformation conglomerate should be fair game to be fed to pigs?
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