It’s been a rough few weeks for anyone who would rather not see heavily armed men with a license to kill running rampant around the United States. On Friday, Marines detained an American civilian on US soil for the first time, as far as I can tell, since the Civil War. It was the logical outcome of the militarization of our domestic law enforcement that’s been ramping up since at least the 60s: first we start giving Mayberry cops surplus tanks, then we bring the Marines into Los Angeles to keep teenage anarchists from spray painting Bart Was Here on the side of a Target, so of course this is going to end up with guys in flak jackets zip-tying some bystander who crossed the wrong yellow ribbon. It seems like that point about the incident has been completely glossed over in the discourse: the man who arrested wasn’t even a protester! He was just some guy.
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