The grim future scenario I didn’t want to write

We’ve seen too many videos of police attacking viciously peaceful protesters. One would be too many, but there are many more than one, and not just in one city. In many cities.

As I began writing this, it started to become another long post about the injustice I see, I deleted that. I did a long post yesterday and if you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you’re willfully blind and there’s no sense having that conversation.

So here’s my quick thought for the day:

People saw a police officer kill George Floyd on video. We were told that wasn’t what we saw. Then they tried to introduce mitigating factors and excuses to play it down. Gaslighting, he’s no angel, and copaganda.

Some watched this careless abuse of power in disbelief. Many would tell you they knew this was going on for years. Until George Floyd’s funeral, there was still a lot of disbelief and sorrow floating around. I think that’s coming to an end. Not the movement, the emotion.

Police were ordered to crush dissent and it’s apparent a lot of them could not wait to assault citizens exercising their First Amendment right. The attacks on peaceful protesters are horrifying. However, when you push a spring down that hard, it’s going to pop up and catch you in the jaw.

My apocalyptic predictions

1. The sorrow will fade somewhat but the protests will not. Authorities want the protesters to resign. The more they push down, the more they prove the point of Black Lives Matter. Instead of resignation, you will see steely resolve.
2. As abuse of innocents grows (especially when it comes from a nameless, faceless force with no accountability) anger will expand to eclipse the sorrow.
3. People who didn’t have weapons before will purchase them. Their fear of authority will recede, replaced with utter frustration.
4. You’ll begin to see weapons at protests in the hands of protesters.
5. As peaceful protests fail to move those in authority, good and hopeful people who chanted “Give peace a chance,” will be quieter.
6. “No justice, no peace,” will get louder.
7. More shots will be fired and the fire will not come from only one direction.
8. Donald Trump will lose the election in November but will not concede.
9. There will be more blood.
10. America will remain divided.
    
    I’m not advocating violence. I’m seeing it coming, as predictable and as expected as a rush-hour bus at its first stop. I hope, somewhere in there, people who defy their oppressors will get the concessions they deserve. I hope they receive the legal protections and the value they were told was coming if they only remained patient for-goddamn-ever.
    
    2020 is the year the dam breaks. The reservoir of patience is broken.
    
    Black.
    Lives.
    Matter.
    
    Don’t like my predictions? Neither do I.
    
    To avoid bloodshed and chaos, the authorities will have to make concessions.

Here are some necessary concessions:

8 CAN’T WAIT

And from Killer Mike:

Plot. Plan. Strategize. Organize. Mobillize.