www.kut.org/education/2024-05-17/waller-creek-tree-removal-protest-ut-campus-1969
Decades ago, UT Austin students camped out to save dozens of trees. Then police were called in.
Texas HistoryView all comments
There has never been a single moment in US history when law enforcement was on the right side of history.
Not a single moment? Not even one instance where one cop’s actions were good on balance? Over the whole course of US history?
That’s as ridiculous as the people who refuse to acknowledge any fault in any cop’s actions, ever.
To be clear im not talking about individual cops im talking about the police as an institution.
Sp let's run through some US history.
The origin of modern policing is slave catchers. Pretty sure you wouldn't argue folks who rounded up escaped slaves, tortured them, or killed them are on the right side of history.
Did law enforcement use deadly violence to enforce Jim Crow or did they say no this is wrong and we won't do it?
Did they turn a blind eye to vigilantes and Klansmen terrorizing and lynching black folk or did they on the whole bring them to justice?
During the women's suffrage movement did they stand with women fighting fighting for the right to vote or did they lock them in jail and force feed those on hunger strike?
During the labor rights movement did they join poor coal miners amd factory workers in solidarity or did they murder union organizers, beat picketers and look away when the Pinkertons were doing that?
During the Civil rights movement did they fight for equal rights with Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Fred Hampton, Kwame Ture, and Angela Davis or did they maul civil rights protestors with dogs and blast them with fire hoses, and murder civil rights organizers?
During the veitnam war protests did law enforcement protect the constitutional right of protest and free speech or did they beat and even murder protesters?
During the gay rights movement did they recognize the fundamental humanity humanity of our lgbt brothers and sisters or did they harrass, sexually assault, beat, and imprison them? For the record the stonewall riots were a direct response to police harassment?
During black lives matter protests did the police recognize at minimum the perception of police brutality or did they point guns at the heads of children, maim journalists, beat the elderly, and destroy medical supplies, and use chemical weapons on protesters?
Now here we are with the protests for Palestinian rights protests in which Jews are vastly over represented. Motivated by Tikkun Olam to fight what they see as an injustice.
Are the police protecting free speech and the right to protest or are they brutalizing them and detaining hundreds without charge?
There are millions of examples of good, neutral and bad behavior from armed forces over the course of history. Discussing their role and composition is a much more constructive way addressing the problem than just vilifying the police. It’s also a tenable position because it doesn’t assume absolute good or evil on either side of the discussion.
So to be clear you don't dispute that in the last 200+ years law enforcement as an institution has been on the wrong side of every mass movement you just don't like that I pointed that out and instead should focus on what individual cops do?