"Though civil rights protesters in the 1950s and 60s were repeatedly met with extreme state violence, Americans are now facing a president who is troublingly more powerful than past figures such as the notorious segregationist and Alabama governor George Wallace. Militarized and masked federal police forces, abetted by a corrupted justice department, are expansive and employ far more deadly weapons against protesters today."
"But now, local and state officials, along with ordinary citizens who have been galvanized by federal violence, are combating government crackdowns against immigrants and their neighbors. Over the span of a week, ICE agents killed an American wife and mother of three, Renee Good, and shot a man from Venezuela during a traffic stop. They have arrested and detained American citizens and have terrorized neighborhoods, businesses and schools. Their irrational, unprofessional and unconstitutional actions have caused chaos, panic and harm throughout American cities."
Americans grapple with nationwide protests and crises during the Dr Martin Luther King Jr holiday, especially in Minneapolis. A presidency with greater power than past segregationist figures has coincided with militarized, masked federal police and a corrupted justice department deploying deadlier weapons against protesters. Traditional federal intervention once sought to curb localized racial violence; now local and state officials and galvanized citizens resist federal crackdowns on immigrants and communities. ICE agents have killed, shot, arrested, and terrorized people and neighborhoods, producing chaos and panic. King urged refusal of comfort and the status quo and warned against ongoing oppression, exemplified by his April 4, 1967 Beyond Vietnam speech.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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