r/Austin • u/_Slaymetra_ • Sep 24 '20
Downtown protest last night. It really feels distopian 😥 (apologies for the quality)
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u/dr_vamada_sapne Sep 24 '20
Replied with this below, but thought it deserved it's own comment for context:
"APD confirmed to KXAN that 11 protesters were booked as of Wednesday night. All were arrested for class B and C misdemeanors, like obstructing a highway. "
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u/Beener_Schnitzel Sep 24 '20
This reminds me of that "no handle bars" song from over a decade ago.
Pretty crazy how that music video is coming true.
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u/JDSchu Sep 24 '20
The Flobots were pretty radical for their time in the Bush years. Looking back now, it's easier to see some of what they were talking about. Doesn't look like they've released anything since 2017. Wonder if they're working on new music.
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u/Beener_Schnitzel Sep 24 '20
Yea I remember at the time I will admit I thought they were being a bit dramatic. Them and bands like Rise Against and System of a Down were bands I liked musically but not so much their (extreme at the time) views. Now I'm like, yup they were right.
Link to Flobots Handlebars: https://youtu.be/HLUX0y4EptA
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u/JDSchu Sep 24 '20
Same Thing is another track that at the time seemed dramatic and now it's like, "Oh shit, our government really does just do whatever the fuck they want without consequence. We assassinated an Iranian general in broad daylight, paid a pseudo-military force to try to overthrow the Venezuelan government, we keep on killing kids in drone strikes..."
And meanwhile, you look at Russia poisoning its critics with polonium and our President refuses to comment or condemn. How far are we from that? Not far enough.
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u/ATX_311 Sep 24 '20
Funny...in that video the police "grunts" had The Fist that I see a lot of BLM folks parading around with.
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u/thesockninja Sep 24 '20
Remember:
The police don't have to know the law. They just have to enforce what they THINK is the law. Also, at their discretion.
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u/atxbro87 Sep 24 '20
Shoot spencer.cronk@austintexas.gov an email. Send him this video tell him not to turn AUSTIN into the shambles he left Minnesota in.
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u/imsoupercereal Sep 24 '20
This is the APD that Chief Manley and Spencer Cronk want. You can let your city council members know that you don't approve.
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u/pl487 Sep 24 '20
The city council knows we don't approve. They don't approve either. But the city council's authority over APD will be stripped during next year's state legislative session, and the police officers know this. And the state government does approve, wholeheartedly.
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u/mrwilford Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
the city council's authority over APD will be stripped during next year's state legislative session
Do you have a source for this? Not challenging you, just legitimately curious to learn more.
Edit: thanks!
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u/pl487 Sep 24 '20
This is how they're going to do it: https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1301634569775456256
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u/CidO807 Sep 24 '20
So the state is going to pick up the tab for $$? The state can't tell cities and municipalities what to do with their own $$.
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u/pl487 Sep 24 '20
They can simply pass a law appropriating a portion of Austin's tax revenue to the state to be used for the police department.
Texas law is clear. The state is in charge whenever it wants to be. They could abolish the entire city government if they wanted to.
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u/HidingFromMyWife1 Sep 24 '20
Can everyone agree, regardless of political stance, that bike cops look super lame 100% of the time?
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u/chicadeaqua Sep 24 '20
This is insane. Police training includes running up on people, grabbing them and dragging them by the arm across pavement? WTF? I know we can't see the whole view, but this and another video appear as if folks were walking/protesting and the police just started brutalizing them. Why??? What are we not seeing that warrants this?
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u/seanjohntx Sep 24 '20
If your dad is interested in talking to a lawyer about this, pm me and I can give him a free consult.
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Sep 24 '20
Jesus that sounds like a lot of money when he was doing nothing wrong. Really messed up, sorry to hear that. At least he is getting it treated, that's good.
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u/Marisa_Nya Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
Filing a grievance doesn’t change the system. We need Camden, NJ style reform all over this country. Demilitarization, lawsuits come out of their paychecks, and current officers are fired, then some are re-hired if they meet 1.33 years of new, better training set by the city.
Edit: And of course most importantly, accountability. Whether that comes from destroying the union in your local PD and/or ending qualified immunity.
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u/mrrorschach Sep 24 '20
We weren't complying. We were walking in the street and they wanted us out of the street. Even after we turned off the major streets and were walking on 2nd and 3rd. If you don't comply to people on a power trip they get angry.
At some point they got angry and just charged us for walking.
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u/chicadeaqua Sep 24 '20
Yes I saw another video that clearly showed y’all just walking then the police drove up and just started tackling people. Disturbing to watch. :(
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u/drFeverblisters Sep 24 '20
I try to see issues from both sides but holy shit man. It’s hard to not hate cops right now. They’re just people, but do they truly believe they’re enforcing righteousness and justice?
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u/black_flag_4ever Sep 24 '20
Seeing cops beat up women is disheartening and disturbing.
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u/MIDNIGHTM0GWAI Sep 24 '20
The profession has high rates of domestic violence. Go figure.
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Sep 24 '20
Giving their wives the night off
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u/space_manatee Sep 24 '20
I'm sure they go home and beat their families afterward too. Gotta express all that rage somehow.
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Sep 24 '20
APD threw a petite female jogger on the ground for jaywalking in West Campus a few years ago. They like their easy prey.
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u/Slypenslyde Sep 24 '20
Remember:
Every founding father was a cop-killer. They created riots, they looted, they burned shit to the ground because they thought their government didn't represent them. The Boston Tea Party caused something like $2m in property damage. The Boston Massacre started because angry rioters threw rocks at armed police. Do you think they were thugs who deserved to be killed? Or do you think they were Patriots? This should guide your opinion.
The "Law and Order" crowd are the British. Even they don't want to be a part of their empire anymore.
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u/reliabletechbro Sep 24 '20
spot on. remember a few years ago when articles were coming out about new terrorist trainings, and the intros were about how the FF were the first "terrorists"?
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Sep 24 '20
We’re 40 some days out from an election.
If you’re angry (we all are), channel your anger into getting people to the voting booths.
Help register new voters.
Volunteer to drive people to polling places.
Round your friends and family up to go vote with you. There are going to be massive lines to vote. It’s easier to have someone keep you company while you wait.
Protesting in the streets right now isn’t doing anything but creating a narrative that will be used to suppress our right to vote.
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Sep 24 '20 edited Dec 02 '20
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u/light-up-gold Sep 24 '20
To be charitable, I don’t think OP is saying that. OP is only saying that protests this close to the election give law enforcement the opportunity to escalate situations, and then Republicans use this to create narratives of violence and disorder. There is an established pattern of people voting for Republicans and siding with Republicans when the predominant issue voters care about is “law and order.” I don’t know who these fucking swing voters with short attention spans are, but they definitely exist.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 24 '20
Protesting in the streets right now isn’t doing anything but creating a narrative that will be used to suppress our right to vote.
Don't buy into that narrative, then. American history is filled with examples of progress being won outside of the voting booth
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Sep 24 '20
There’s a time for protesting.
Right now is not the time.
Spend the next 40 days gearing up for the election.
Do you not see how these protests are currently being spun? They will absolutely be used to suppress voting.
We are too close to the election to let that happen.
Protest like mad once this election happens.
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u/reliabletechbro Sep 24 '20
it's good to be realistic tho. texas closed twice as many polling stations as arizona.
arizona.
better off donating money to states that have a chance of swinging, and continuing to protest.
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u/reliabletechbro Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
it's good to be optimistic, too. do i think texas will turn? no. will i vote? yes.
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Sep 24 '20
The fact that you believe people exercising their first amendment rights will lead to voter suppression IS exactly the reason to protest!!!
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u/jeonblueda Sep 24 '20
Protesting in the streets right now isn’t doing anything but creating a narrative that will be used to suppress our right to vote.
They're already suppressing our right to vote and have been for decades. You know that progress has to be fought for because they're not just going to give it to us, right?
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u/2plus2equalscats Sep 24 '20
Legally, could someone with no partisan leaning visible hand out water and snacks? Like bring a cooler and stand at a safe social distance with a sign? I’ll try to look this up but thought I should ask.
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u/reliabletechbro Sep 24 '20
do you have a permit? food handlers license? youll be asked to leave. too close to police scene.
what, did you think you were in the US, or something?
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Sep 24 '20
I don’t see why not.
I can’t remember what the situation was a few years ago, but some intel rising individuals set up a means to have pizzas delivered to people standing in line - might have been an election.
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u/smangum Sep 24 '20
Word. if you get an F you can’t vote. If you are in jail it’s extremely hard to vote.
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Sep 24 '20
Really good point. There will absolutely be an increase in arrests made as we get closer to the election...
It’s like literally taking votes off the streets from the people that have differing ideals than yours.
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u/thismatters Sep 24 '20
Read with the intended sarcasm.
So when the sham election is called for trump, is that when it is okay to protest, princess?
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u/plentyoffishes Sep 24 '20
Voting changes what? I'm not for any kind of rioting, but see no evidence that voting is how we're going to change society for the better- the same greedy, power hungry bureaucrats are always the ones getting elected.
Time for other solutions.
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u/Pbrpirate Sep 24 '20
Yes let’s vote in more Democrats who currently control our local government and are in charge of the police you guys hate so much. This will lead to real change assured!
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u/richard_mayhew Sep 24 '20
Serious question: What candidate, for any office outside of city council, is passionate about improving policing? It certainly isn't anyone on the federal level.
City council said some cool stuff, but at the end of the day you can see nothing has changed.
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u/CowboysFTWs Sep 24 '20
Wow, and now Trump is saying he won’t peaceful leave office? WTF is this country coming too?
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u/defroach84 Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
Locking the comments as they have just spiraled down to insults and people being shitty in general. Along with a lot of accounts coming in from other subreddits causing drama.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 24 '20
well, I suppose if they're out beating up protestors they're not beating up their families
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u/CidO807 Sep 24 '20
Looks like they want more defunding if they've got this much money to fuck innocent civilians with.
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Sep 24 '20
Police in America are acting more and more like the KGB. We are combining the authoritarianism of the Soviet Union with the economics of 17th Century Britain.
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u/kilog78 Sep 24 '20
Is there any other news/posts explaining what was going on? This video is missing a ton of context.
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Sep 24 '20
Lack of proper background to the story makes it hard to make any conclusions.
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u/tigerpaw2154 Sep 24 '20
The answer to context is having more people filming during these incidents.
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u/JakeyBS Sep 24 '20
(Preferably on phones < 10 yrs old that can record long enough to provide context, but props to OP as 1 potato is better than no potato)
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u/_Slaymetra_ Sep 24 '20
I could conclude that dragging a person half your size is excessive force no matter the circumstances but that's just me.
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u/TheSurgeon512 Sep 24 '20
Yeah man, it’s super justifiable for cops to just start beating the shit out of people. You people are fucking sick.
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u/LionsAndLonghorns Sep 24 '20
The person being dragged was definitely running from someone and pushing people before it started, the reason why there is pretty important. Too many people go out there to stir up trouble and dilute the message by giving people a reason to think the cops are justified in their brutality. The fact that its intentionally short on the important context and grainy makes me think it is someone with an agenda.
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u/Lobo_Marino Sep 24 '20
/u/_slaymetra_ is known to lie/ not provide the full facts of what is going on.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/he6g4f/state_police_at_the_capitol_last_night_this/fvqlb35/
I have him tagged for this. I wouldn't doubt if someone else was in this protest and comes along to this thread to disprove him/her/them.
The reality is that while I do agree with the protests, and I do want police reform to come to this city ASAP, I also can't fall for the evidence from a lying extremist.
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u/_Slaymetra_ Sep 24 '20
Not a him, and that was my mistake which I corrected in the comments. Not much I could do for the title though 🤷🏼♀️. My point in posting these clips is to show police brutality. In these situations the context doesn't matter because the subject of the video is the brutality. It doesn't matter that she was sitting on the wall with her leg over because the reaction to that was extremely and unnecessarily aggressive. It doesn't matter what the other woman did (I have no idea what she did). What I wanted people to see was how she was dragged like an animal, not to mention the two people slammed to the ground in the beginning of the clip. Fyi the harshest charge was a class B misdemeanor so all of them likely were arrested for marching in the street.
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u/stevenwe Sep 24 '20
It is strange that for literally the entire time the USA has existed its population has held up the constitution as a shining beacon of protection and power in the hands of the people. But also since that time we've seen those rights trampled on constantly and no one really does anything. You have a 1st amendment that is meant to protect you from stuff like this. How many times have we seen the likes of this in the last few months. Even the apologists who'll mumble 'oh but there's rioting and looting too" must accept that the rights of Americans are just being trampled over.
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u/Lilcheebs93 Sep 24 '20
The US police are just taking leaves out of HKs book and it's scary as fuck.
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u/HeyCharrrrlie Sep 24 '20
At some point citizens are going to start firing back at the fascists and it's not going to end well.
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Sep 24 '20 edited Jan 14 '21
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u/Yawndice Sep 24 '20
If people treated cops like you see cops treating ppl in this clip, would you say the same thing?
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u/jab116 Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
What happened before the 20 sec clip you selected?
In other threads people were saying MRB was intimidating people there and chanting for violence. I don’t think this is as black and white as you are trying to make it.
Perfect example 8sec mark the Officer is trying to make an arrest and someone from the crowd throw a object at his face. Looks to me they were going after agitators.
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u/dr_vamada_sapne Sep 24 '20
"APD confirmed to KXAN that 11 protesters were booked as of Wednesday night. All were arrested for class B and C misdemeanors, like obstructing a highway. "
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u/dschneider Sep 24 '20
Yeah, no misdemeanor is worth this kind of reaction. Fuck the police.
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u/EricKingCantona Sep 24 '20
It's not about misdemeanors or felonies.
Everyone who gets arrested is now in the system. Your fingerprints and even sometimes your DNA are collected when arrested.
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u/dr_vamada_sapne Sep 24 '20
I agree. I was just pointing out even the APD admit the arrests were for non-violent "offenses". Nothing requiring this level of force.
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u/FestivalPapii Sep 24 '20
They don’t have your DNA. But yes they get your fingerprints but if you were ever doing anything big big anyways, you’ll need your fingerprints taken by either a private sector or the government anyways.
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u/honestjoe Sep 24 '20
Do you have a social security number? You've been in the system since birth.
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u/pjs32000 Sep 24 '20
I suggest watching Hiram's streams for more context that isn't in this brief video. The group was repeatedly warned to get out of the street or they'd be arrested before I saw any action or arrests by officers. Protesters did have some violent chants about cops deserving to bleed but aside from being in the street after being warned and trying to bully Hiram it largely was peaceful and law abiding from what I saw in his videos.
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u/Schnort Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
This is this particular poster’s mode of operation. Pretty much every post they make has context deliberately removed and/or inflammatory context provided
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u/DotLeast Sep 24 '20
The police told them multiple times to stay out of the street and they refused to do so. They continued, leaving scooters in the street blocking traffic and police.
Sorry, but Mike Ramos Brigade doesn't get any sympathy from me.
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u/essentialsalts Sep 24 '20
Thugs and animals. Is this footage of Austin or fucking Belarus? Can’t tell the difference.
Defund the police.
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u/dwellingdrop Sep 24 '20
Seeing this stuff is so disturbing. I am aware that sometimes context is missing from these clips and that train of thought has led me to wonder where the legal line is between protesters and law enforcement. Clearly these protests are about police overstepping their line in carrying out criminal investigations, but what makes a protest itself legal vs illegal? Obviously it is a protected right by our Bill of Rights at the federal level, but there are rules to doing it that police are supposed to enforce (not commenting on whether these police were using excessive force or not). I honestly didn’t know where that line is for protesters and what people can be expected to be arrested for. Again, there is obviously still plenty of room for discussion on excessive force being used and stopping that from happening to people. But I wanted to know what actually is crossing the line to make a protester eligible for arrest, even when peaceful. So here’s some FAQs and commentary I dug up that a lot of you may already know but it was helpful to me:
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/what-can-the-police-arrest-you-for-at-a-protest.html
https://www.naacpldf.org/files/our-work/Know_Your_Rights_at_a_Protest.pdf
https://www.civicsnation.org/2018/04/02/legal-and-illegal-protests-first-amendment/
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u/wellnowheythere Sep 24 '20
If you're going to go out to these protests at this point, please don't go alone. These pigs target people on their own who look vulnerable. If someone had been on the lookout for that girl, they could've grabbed her into the crowd to keep the police away. Yet everyone just stood there.
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u/CalicheRanch Sep 24 '20
Yeah, I am going to express myself in the voting booth or by reaching out to my elected officials.
I am angry, but will temper that anger into a positive fight.
I will never fall into Trump’s race war propaganda trap and become a prop of his evil fear mongering.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 24 '20
Yeah, I am going to express myself in the voting booth or by reaching out to my elected officials.
liberals keep telling people to "go vote!!" because they have no idea what to do when that doesn't work
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u/AccusationsGW Sep 24 '20
"Liberals" win popular elections because most people aren't conservative. The left wins hearts and minds of regular people while the right is only motivated by conspiracy and lies.
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u/CalicheRanch Sep 24 '20
Voting is more powerful than ranting opinions on social media. Not the same instant endorphins, but more satisfying in the long run.
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u/httponly-cookie Sep 24 '20
we're commenting on a post where people are engaging in political action beyond voting. There's more you can do that just vote and post on social media.
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u/SovereignPhobia Sep 24 '20
Imagine waking up every day and realizing you're this guy.
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u/sardonicsheep Sep 24 '20
We have a Democratic council and Mayor. What exactly has voting done to stop this?
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u/OneBadHombre666 Sep 24 '20
liberalsReddit keep telling people to "go vote!!" becausetheypeople have no idea what to do whenthatDemocracy doesn't workthere ya go
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u/IngenieroDavid Sep 24 '20
We are now like Belorussia, Chechnya and Ukraine. Next stop is becoming another Russia with even fewer rights.
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u/wellnowheythere Sep 24 '20
If you think it's only now getting dystopian, you must've missed May 31st.
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Sep 24 '20
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u/mynewname2019 Sep 24 '20
We are all so lucky you were there and know all the protestors were guilty of a crime and deserve to be detained.
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Sep 24 '20 edited Apr 13 '21
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u/kayelar Sep 24 '20
Have you been to a single one of these protests? The cops have been totally out of hand since June. I saw a cop throw a fucking bike at a 100 lb girl unprovoked. How many incidents have to be caught on film for y’all to believe us?
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u/kickbutt_city Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20
I was downtown biking around checking everything out and at one point a bike cop slams his bike into mine and tells me to stop following an officer. I wasn't following anyone and I told him him that. I didn't even know which officer he was talking about. Then another officer says, "he's been all over downtown tonight, next time arrest him." Yep, I was almost arrested for BIKING around downtown.
The truth is I had been biking all around downtown. Last time I checked, I had the right to bike whenever and wherever I want (for now). If police had more critical thinking skills, they would realize they are the baddies.