Who is doing the shooting?

We are now several days into the protests following the murder of Mr. George Floyd. I have read that the demonstrations have begun to die down. Fewer and fewer people are showing up in the daytime, and violent rioters in the night are now quite rare. I’m glad of the latter, though worried about the former.

But what really concerns me, even more than the reports of police overreaction to the protests, is that we’re not quite sure who is firing the rubber bullets at protesters, journalists, and innocent bystanders. I’ve seen a couple of articles recently which indicate that William Barr seems to be organizing the Federal response to the demonstrations, and it seems to be using a variety of Federal agencies as the tools to do it. (See, for example, this piece in Huffpost, “William Barr’s Vast, Nameless Army Is Being Brought To Bear On D.C. Protesters,” by Ryan J. Reilly and Tara Golshan.)

The individuals who make up Barr’s Army are, as a rule, badgeless and nameless. This gives them the option, then, of committing acts ...even brutalities...for which they will never be held accountable.

Who Is Doing The Shooting?

Faceless armies are not American, and they are a threat to American democracy.

Which means that if we survive the next few months, and if we vote out Trump and the monsters who enable him, then we must act to make certain that nothing like this happens ever again. We must make certain that there are no more private armies and secret police forces…

If we fail to vote Trump out…

Well, then, there will be no problem. There will be nightmares, and horrors, and murders in the night…

But not a problem.

Just a dystopian police state that will make Fascism look like paradise.