In the last few weeks, protests in most cities across the country had largely calmed down. They'd been peaceful, mostly owing to the fact that cops had started to leave protesters alone and stopped constantly spraying them down with pepper spray and tear gas all day. But that has all changed now that Trump has sent federal agents into Portland and is threatening to do the same across the country. Activists across the country headed out this weekend to protest in solidarity with Portland. Police headed out as well. It has not been great.

Turns out that things will tend to get out of hand if you tell protesters you're going to send federal agents in to stop them from exercising their First Amendment rights, and tell cops that you're going to send federal agents in if they don't really start beating on protesters in a way Trump and his supporters find emotionally satisfying, and also tell Trump supporters that they are under "attack" from Antifa and no one but Trump and his secret police will protect them.

Forty-five protesters have been arrested in Seattle, where police have declared a riot. One Black Lives Matter protester, Garrett Foster, was shot and killed in Austin, Texas by someone driving a car into the protest. In Los Angeles, cops are just attacking random women in cars who are not even protesting.

Let's see how it's all working out, shall we?

This shit does not have to be happening. It wouldn’t if people were just allowed to protest without being assaulted by cops, if Trump wasn't talking about invading cities with federal agents and scaring the bejesus out of everyone. But it won't stop happening. In fact, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was on Fox News today discussing whether or not they can just arrest the elected leaders of cities where protests are happening for the crime of allowing them to happen. He assured host Maria Baritromo that this was something they were really looking into.

So really, things should only get better from here.

[New York Times]

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