One of my first experiences having my advocacy fought by government propaganda was when I spoke out for the unhoused community against their oppressors - the so-called Quality of Life taskforce - an interdepartmental scapegoat consisting of "nuisance inspectors" and cops that have the prime directive of ensuring encampments can't exist, and picking up couches left on the side of the road. I watched the city administration try to paint itself as the good guys, rather than do anything differently. The manager had a whole presentation made for the City Council, because I started filing public record requests.
I was attacked at city hall by a local restaurant owner for calling out racism in local politics, in which he is entrenched. The mayor proceeded with the meeting he was chairing over my screams, as though he didn't hear them. The city manager - who was right there for the assault - called it a fight, and lied about the circumstances surrounding the police absence in his press release the next day. Many people knew police were supposed to be there, and people saw what happened when the footage was released weeks later.
People were talking about it because I had been a loud advocate for good - inspirational to some and appreciated by many - while also earning the hatred of many people inconvenienced by my disruption to the status quo they benefit from. So some people were glad I was hurt - and thought I deserved it - because they felt that I should expect violence after calling people out. It became a kind of litmus test on whether free speech justified violence for people.
On May 8th (508 Day, Worcester's area code) I watched local cops cooperate with ICE in direct contradiction to what the manager and mayor said they would do in that situation. A person who hadn't committed a crime was ripped away from her family, local cops assaulted my friend who was running for school committee at the time, a city councilor and a child. It was witnessed by many, live streamed by a few. Mine and many other people posted about what we saw. This was the first thing like this in a while, in our city.
Notably, five years ago during the Black Lives Matter movement the Worcester Police Department kettled (surrounding a crowd from all sides and then telling them to move) a bunch of Clark students, gassed them, hurt a bunch of people, did and said a bunch of horrible things... the lawsuit is ongoing.
The cops dropped the charges against the child whose face they had shoved to the ground on 508 Day, but are still prosecuting the politicians they assaulted. The body camera footage was released slowly, over the course of the next few months. The city manager again lied about what had happened that afternoon - five or six hours after people watched it. At this point, many many people became aware of his lack of integrity.
Earlier this month we watched Renee Good murdered and witnessed the subsequent discourse online about how a white woman in her 30s was evil, as some people tried to justify the senseless killing. It was clear in the videos that she was leaving. We heard in her last words and their tone her complete lack of ill intent. We heard her murderer call her a bitch. We haven't heard of any charges, or investigation (the governor is apparently being investigated instead?!?). Her name is literally Good, and she was all good. And she's dead, and we're being lied to about the circumstances.
And now Alex Pretti, a nurse who supported veterans (and probably cops!), a lawful and responsible firearm owner - who was doing the absolutely lawful thing of documenting government armed forces terrorizing citizens - was gunned down in the streets. Thanks to the bravery and preparedness of the people of Minneapolis many different angles are coming out, and it's beyond clear he didn't do anything wrong. His coworkers and students are coming forward saying how great he was. Even his ex wife is standing up for him, saying that he wasn't a violent guy. But the government is trying again to gaslight the public into believing what they say, not what we've seen. There are plenty of assholes on Facebook doing the same.
In true hypocritical nature, they're demonizing him for things they do: carrying a gun. So they take it a step further. The reason they're claiming he deserved to die is being at a protest?!? I don't know if they don't actually understand rights, or if they simply feel more entitled to rights than others, but that's not how these things work.
Might does not equal right. There are rights - like the right to record law enforcement in public spaces - and then there's right - like right versus wrong. They think that because enough people will say what they're saying, that makes whatever they say right. That's not the case, but it is how their brain works. They are comfortable with violence against people they disagree with. That's just where their values are. They think that dominating others is part of getting their needs met, and are too self centered to consider a bigger picture that doesn't require others to have less than them, for them to feel good about themselves. Ideologically, they just want to hit someone until the other person says they're right - whatever they say, it's right - or they get hit. That's the world we're in. And many people aren't just complacent with that - they think it's how things are supposed to be.
You can call them whatever you want: republicans, conservatives, oppressors, sadists, assholes - it's evil. It's being comfortable with the pain of others to have more convenience and power for yourself. Everyone's a little evil under capitalism. People are a lot evil under fasicsm.
I'm sorry it took so many deaths - not just of the most recent white people in MN, but of our BIPOC neighbors, whose names and dates are not as familiar to most of us - to get to this point, I hope America is realizing that collectively these days that bigots are afraid of the truth and that's what Pretti and his phone represented. That's what people speaking their minds represent.
They're trying to make a world where people are afraid to share their stories for fear of violence, so it's more important than ever that you continue sharing your stories and believing witnesses and victims.
Just because they have the power doesn't mean they control the truth. They believe what they need to because they're afraid of the accountability and personal responsibility that comes with the awareness of learning. So they deflect instead of reflect, and make every conversation about something else. Because the people who disagree with them are dying, and if they ignore them long enough then they can keep pretending they were right all along.