this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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647
LA Protesters Aren’t Inviting Violent Authoritarianism, They’re Mobilizing to Stop It (theintercept.com)
submitted 7 hours ago by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world
53 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

WHEN PRESIDENT DONALD Trump announced on Saturday night that he would send the National Guard to Los Angeles to crush protests, a narrative emerged on social media that demonstrators had somehow given a gift to the authoritarian president by escalating confrontations with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

“Los Angeles — violence is never the answer. Assaulting law enforcement is never ok,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posted on Sunday. “Indeed, doing so plays directly into the hands of those who seek to antagonize and weaponize the situation for their own gain. Don’t let them succeed.”

In reality, the protesters throwing rocks at heavily armed security forces or attempting to damage the vehicles used to kidnap their immigrant neighbors did not introduce violence. They are instead acting in militant community defense.

After all, would the situation somehow be less violent were ICE left to snatch and disappear people without impediment? Does Schiff imagine either his pronouncements or the empty condemnations of his Democratic Party colleagues will slow down the deportation of our neighbors?

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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 23 points 6 hours ago (20 children)

Don’t believe the doubters: protest still has power

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.

Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Working with Maria Stephan, a researcher at the ICNC, Chenoweth performed an extensive review of the literature on civil resistance and social movements from 1900 to 2006 – a data set then corroborated with other experts in the field. They primarily considered attempts to bring about regime change. A movement was considered a success if it fully achieved its goals both within a year of its peak engagement and as a direct result of its activities. A regime change resulting from foreign military intervention would not be considered a success, for instance. A campaign was considered violent, meanwhile, if it involved bombings, kidnappings, the destruction of infrastructure – or any other physical harm to people or property.

Source in article from 2019

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 43 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (14 children)

I’m not saying protest doesn’t have power. But the power of nonviolent protest diminishes sharply if there’s no implicit threat of violent protest if matters get pushed too far. One of the primary reasons MLK succeeded was because Malcom X was waiting in the wings.

Nonviolent protest against a status quo ante is one thing; nonviolent protest against an aggressively authoritarian regime that’s grabbing more power by the day is quite another. It is a very, very different context.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago (5 children)

I see what you're saying, but I live in Seattle. I saw how they spun our city as a "hellhole" and "it's on fire" for months. I had family members calling to see if I was okay when it was very contained and our cops had been quiet quitting for years anyway, it was that fucked up. You have to have the people on your side, and not be on the side of the soldiers/agents/whatever.

[–] brandon@piefed.social 11 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

They will say that regardless of how much violence protesters actually do. Purity testing demonstrations only makes the situation worse by allowing the right the ability to dictate the narrative.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What are you trying to say? That the demonstrators should start killing people, looting and setting everything on fire? I don't think that's a good solution. In fact, that would just get a lot of protesters killed.

There's no purity testing. I'm counteracting a lot of people saying to bring their guns and start shooting. I wonder why people are calling for that? It doesn't seem in the protester's best interest.

[–] brandon@piefed.social 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I am saying that:

  1. the vast majority of violence perpetrated at these demonstrations is done by law enforcement
  2. if cops wanted people to stop throwing water bottles at them they would stop trampling people with horses and shooting reporters with rubber bullets
  3. framing these demonstrations as "violent" only serves the narrative of the right
[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I agree wholeheartedly with you. People are being mixed in to the comments that want violence and are promoting violence all over Lemmy. I apologize for somehow lumping you in with that.

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