Trump Violates the Right to Assemble- Again
Tuesday morning, in an artifact of modern history that will come to mark our time as surely as face masks and Tik Tok dances, a baby boomer sporting an uncomfortably uneven spray tan opened his twitter account, and typed out a tweet so intentionally threatening twitter itself immediately flagged it for violence:
In coordination with the internationally beautiful demonstrations for the memory of George Floyd, protesters across America have been taking civil matters into their own hands; removing the statues of murderers and genocide mongers that American citizens have been grudgingly forced to live with in their public spaces. This remains specifically true of Confederate statues. So many Black activists have, with their typical heroism, led the charge in ending the deification of terrorism and hate against Black Americans that is endemic to every chapter of this country’s history. Their platform can be found here, but the public demonstrations have focused largely on ending police brutality, defunding an aggressively funded militarized police force, taking police officers out of school, and generally receiving justice for the disturbingly high number of innocent people (specifically Black people) who’ve been murdered by the hands of the American police.
Monday June 22, protesters attempted to peacefully remove a statue of Andrew Jackson- an individual responsible for the trail of tears, and a ruthless slaver- from the public park in front of the white house. They were unsuccessful, as was their attempt to establish DC’s version of Seattle’s Chaz, BHAZ: Black House Autonomous Zone. Protesters, all who were non violent and most who were not in any way involved in any kind of statue removal, were pepper sprayed, tear gassed, with some were arrested; all while dangerously low flying helicopters flew a questionable proximity overhead.
Amnesty International has counted numerous violations by the police against peaceful protestors.
The White House’s 45th government endorsed resident continues to display a definitive thin skinnedness about public activism that’s unusual for a President, but completely in character for a dictator. The President has displayed a consistent level of force against activists that even fellow Republicans have disavowed, placing him squarely in the camp of the reactionary extremism that he has so frequently publicly admired. Amnesty International has counted no shortage of 125 human rights violations by the police against protestors in one short month. Americans have a right to peacefully assemble, and this is a right Trump has aggressively violated since the beginning of his administration. Still, the racial element is one that can’t be ignored. It’s no accident that the protesters Trump has so aggressively engaged the military against are not women’s marchers or climate activists, but young black people, chanting things like: “arms up, don’t shoot”.
Lafayette Square park has a history of protest. And yet it’s difficult to describe the warzone-like quality that’s descended upon the public park outside the white house since Donald J. Trump began the process of tear gassing, arresting, and sending riot gear clad cops on protestors with a disturbing regularity. Regardless of how you feel about the justice of the Black Lives Matter protests, there’s no doubt about the shocking way Trump and his administration have violated those activists’ rights, dignity, and safety. Regardless of how you feel about the protests themselves, they have a right to continue. And for anyone with a basic interest in living in a democratically governed nation, that should be a very very good thing.
