CN LIVE! S2E11 AMERICA IN REVOLT: Margaret Kimberley, Joe Lauria, Elizabeth Vos, Garland Nixon, Brian Becker, Richard Wolff
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It has been a time it seems that many have anticipated, but whose timing could never precisely be predicted.
After 40 years of economic policies designed to create massive income inequality and after 400 years of oppression of African-Americans, and in the midst of an historic pandemic--the social explosion has occurred.
A protest begun by yet another police killing of an unarmed black man filmed with mobile phones spread in days beyond the United States. One act of police brutality has led to hundreds of horrific incidents of police violence, dramatic exposing what the true nature of the American police appears to be. .
Forget the shield for a moment and what one sees are heavily-armed, black-clad agents of state violence to protect powerful interests from a population, being defrauded and deceived, suddenly no longer accepting it.
The very essence of a 30-year program to militarize local police seemed geared towards just this moment, when an abused nation would not not take it anymore.
There are numerous questions that we will explore on tonight's program.
One is the role of violence in social protest. MLK's quote about a riot being the language of the unheard, has aptly been making the rounds. The blaming of “outside agitators” emerged again from the depths of the 1960s Deep South, or from a Middle East dictatorship, when trying to deflect responsibility for pushing a society to the brink.
Authoritarians are fond of saying of their enemies that “violence is the only language that they understand.” But can that be turned around to say that ,that is the only language understood by oppressive leaders?
Ultimately, the question is: can this moment produce serious reform in policing and economic policy to address decades of legitimate grievance.
Can this moment produce serious reform of policing , and economic policy in the long run?
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