What I Saw in LA Wasn’t an Insurrection. It Was a Police Riot. | The Nation

Just read the whole article!

But I cannot resist quoting some bits that stood out to me:

While some organizations reported from inside the protest itself, most did not: They set up camp behind the police line, or reported using drone footage, or simply asked the cops what to say. “Dozens of people were arrested Sunday and accused of attempted murder, arson and other crimes during a day of violence and protests in Los Angeles,” NBC Los Angeles declared in an article based exclusively on LAPD sources. It’s an understandable decision on their part. Just look at Lauren Tomasi, a reporter for the Australian Channel Nine news service who got “caught in the crossfire” and struck with a rubber bullet while reporting—by which I mean an LA police officer aimed directly at the reporter from close range and shot her. (...) As of Tuesday morning, the LA Press Club documented over 30 injuries to members of the press. Easier and safer to parrot police talking points than face down their guns.

(...)

The idea that cops were just reacting to protester provocation is absurd. Cops occupied intersections in an attempt to split the protest, then occasionally charged the protest lines that surrounded them to force the crowds to temporarily retreat. These assaults seemed unrelated to protester action or lack thereof. At one point, while the cops were unloading round after round of blue-tipped rubber bullets into a crowd hunkered down behind a barricade, a different group of protesters approached from the side and threw a firework into the center of the police line. The cops turned their fire against the group, which ran off, but did not pursue them. Thirty seconds later, the cops were back to shooting at the barricade.

(...)

When I arrived on the scene, the cops were seriously outnumbered—thousands of protesters, a couple hundred cops. If there had truly been a riot, those cops would have found themselves overrun, disarmed, brutalized. But it was a protest. So they were fine.

And yet, the anti-protester framing is relentless, even from otherwise balanced sources.

I like that the writer doesn't try to gloss over the occasional violent act from the protesters' side, but instead always points out cause and effect, how understandable a reaction it is when you're being shot at for - well, protesting.

Trump can call these protests invasions all he wants: I know what I saw. As the sun began to set, riot cops from the LA county sheriff’s department showed up on trucks, fully kitted out with shields and gas masks. The rapidly shrinking protest saw the writing on the wall and, rather than confront these militarized enforcers, turned and walked away, into the night and into the city. For hours they marched, blasting mariachi music and old-school West Coast rap and chanting their simple, reasonable demand:
“No ICE in LA!”

That was a wild read. USA is so fucked up rn

9/10 times, the cops escalate the situation.