This will never end

The most dangerous job in the United States is commercial fishing, but journalism is closing the gap.  According to the Guardian, more than fifty reporters were attacked by police and protesters in the eight days -- it seems so much longer -- since George Floyd's murder.  And Trump was inciting the violence as recently as Saturday, with no throat-clearing from Twitter.

Intimidating the media has been a favored tactic of the right at least since the Republican Convention of 1964 at the nicely named Cow Palace in San Francisco, but police have introduced the refinement of shooting at reporters with tear gas and rubber bullets (which are non-lethal until someone is killed, as happens regularly in the West Bank).  People have been beaten and maced while shouting "Press!"  For many cops, the red hat goes on when the riot helmet comes off.  They'd be better off shouting "Fox News!"  It's not a stretch to assume that the civilian assaults are coming from outfits like "Identity Evropa," white supremacists who set up a fake Antifa account on Twitter to foment violence.

I think at least some police are enjoying this.  Yesterday in Atlanta, six of them pulled two people from a car and tased them, but they forgot to make their body-cams malfunction and Mayor Bottoms had them charged with assault before it got any worse.  The Louisville police chief was fired after the deadly shooting of David McAtee, who used to feed cops free at his barbecue restaurant.  In  New York the Sergeants Benevolent Association had its Twitter account suspended after illegally publicizing the arrest of Chiara de Blasio, the mayor's daughter.

The nation's number one white supremacist continues to stir 'em up, then demands that the governors permit him to send in troops if they can't "dominate" the protestors.  We got a taste of that yesterday in the District of Columbia, where the federal government has more power.  Military helicopters hovered at treetop height, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was forced to show up in fatigues, all apparently on orders from the Attorney Generalissimo.  And all so Cadet Bonespurs could steal a Bible from St. John's, which had functioned as an aid station for the injured until they were driven away.  They came for the press, they came for the churches, and more people said, "Fuck, that's enough" and hit the streets, and there were more assaults by police, and more arrests, and I think I see where this is headed.  Plenty of governors are ready to allow what comes next.  The Airborne?  The Marines?

Before coronavirus lockdown turned into curfews, Trump was already trailing Biden, who has barely campaigned except to speak to us like a president.  (Next week he will attend George Floyd's funeral.)  If he thinks unleashing the military on the American people will save him from defeat and prosecution, there is no reason to think he will hesitate.  It has always been first, last and only about him.