Turn on any news channel and it looks like something out of a work of dystopian science fiction.
Gangs of cops, clad in body armor, their faces hidden behind visors and masks, walk the streets. God help anyone who crosses their path.
Overhead, a glowing sign looms. A politician’s smiling face sits next to a reminder that curfew starts at 8.
Military vehicles move in convoys down those same streets. A person hunkered down in their home records from a window.
Cars burn and businesses are ransacked. People everywhere wonder if it’s even safe to go to sleep that night, for fear of what might happen next.
This is America in 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic (remember that?) has been unseated as the Story of the Year. The new focus is a wave of unrest that has swept from coast to coast.
It can be traced back to the tragic death of George Floyd. But that was just the proverbial line finally being crossed.
What we’ve been seeing for the past week is the natural conclusion to the story of a country that has long teetered on the edge. A country that has long been staring into the abyss of societal decline before finally stepping off the ledge.
The roots of this whole thing are far-reaching, the implications many, and the outcome murky at best. One thing that is clear is that many people are finally getting a look behind the curtain.
Division and Disarray
Divisions in this country have been clear for some time. We’re so used to both racial and class divides that it seems like we hardly think about them anymore. But one type of division many people are forced to face for the first time in light of this is that of citizens vs. authority.
Just this past week, there have been many videos of police officers attacking peaceful protestors. They’ve been pepper-sprayed, attacked with non-lethal rounds, beaten with clubs. There’s even video of an NYPD SUV driving into a crowd of people. Not even reporters are safe, with some having been arrested while others have been shot by pepper balls.
The unrest has gotten so bad that curfews have been imposed in over two dozen cities across the country. Police, backed by National Guard units in some places, have taken to exercising intimidation to enforce these curfews. One video showed someone from a patrol in Minneapolis firing paint at people standing on their porch. The citizens were simply recording the police. In Denver, a protest quickly collapsed into chaos when officers began using tear gas and pepper bullets to clear protestors out of a park 5 minutes after the start of an 8 p.m. curfew.
These are just two stories of local law enforcement taking action without regard for optics or consequences. No surprise, considering they are being bolstered not just by vague, sweeping powers to crack down on protests, but by the president himself.
Never one to see a spotlight he doesn’t like, Donald Trump was quick to label himself as a “president of law and order.” His rhetoric was aggressive, lumping protestors and scattered pockets of violent, opportunistic rioters in the same group. He vowed military action if things got too out of hand, and promised a very cavalier approach in stamping out this problem.
This goes hand-in-hand with the longstanding issue of the militarization of police forces. Officers are given tools like armored personnel carriers, automatic weapons, and other pieces of equipment typically used by the military. Their training increasingly stresses that everyone who isn’t a cop is the enemy. So it’s no surprise that in the case of the recent unrest especially, officers often escalate the situation instead of deescalating.
We’ve reached this situation because an overzealous cop killed a man in broad daylight. Many in that community seem to have no problem taking it to the next level. This is especially true when they know the commander-in-chief has their back.
But people can only be pushed so far.
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan have made it clear that trying to hold a society together through aggressive military response simply doesn’t work. Curfews and intimidation tend to lead to resentment more than they do compliance. And resentment, when it festers long enough, tends to turn into action and even more escalation.
Even now, as protests continue, Donald Trump and his kind favor an aggressive response to a problem caused by the sort of divisiveness that has largely defined his presidency. Accountability from law enforcement has been thrown out the window.
Into Uncertainty
Uncertainty seems to be the theme of 2020. If you said just two weeks ago that the nation would soon be in the grip of growing unrest, no one would have believed you. But now that we’re here, there’s no telling how this story is going to end.
The officers responsible for the action that started this have been arrested, but the truth about how much disdain some in positions of authority have for citizens has been laid bare. While this almost certainly won’t affect policy while Trump is still in office, the conversation is one that’s been started. It’s something that we as a society have thrown on the pile of a crumbling economy, a pandemic, rising unemployment, and a seemingly tone-deaf market that ignores all of these things.
It’s also been made clear that it’s up to the individual to protect themself. It’s something you have to do physically, but financially as well.
We’re in the middle of a perfect storm of uncertainty with no clue as to when or how it’s going to end.
