Is this racist?

[HairOfTheDog]

I have no problem lumping protesters, peaceful or otherwise, in the same category. Regardless of race.

It's not racist for LE response to be different in this case. "What if they were all black people?" There was a group like that... they were called the Black Panthers. They disrupted a government session by armed force. About 30 people, 6 were arrested. Were they all gunned down? No. Was the group labeled thugs? Not historically. Did stupid people use Twitter to share every asinine thought they wanted to leak out of their stupid brains? (To be fair, it wasn't created yet.)

I think occupying a gov't building by force to try to advertise your cause is stupid. It makes people hate you and hurts whatever mission you have. Then you get arrested (best case scenario.) Goal orientation and critical thinking are beyond many people I guess. I think forming a militia in the first place is punching your ticket to disregarded-ville. But if it were a black militia, in today's society, LE would leave the state. Game over man, they own it now. I don't think middle eastern people are dumb enough to form a militia.

I didn't say it was racist for LE response to be different in this case. They aren't comparable cases/responses because the strategies of the activists are different.

You might be right about how LE would handle black occupiers in today's climate. I hope we don't have to find out.

I don't share your view that people who protest peacefully are to be lumped in with people who commit criminal acts to forward their protest agenda. I don't have a problem with you lumping them all into the same category, but I would have a problem if I ever found myself adopting that viewpoint.

People who peacefully exercise their first amendment rights are not committing crimes in so doing. If a subset of them, or people from the same demographic but unassociated with the protesters, illegally occupy buildings, start fires, steal...those people are obviously criminals, not the peaceful protesters. Just like people who exercise their second amendment rights to bear arms are not criminals in so doing, but the subset who goes out and shoots/kills others offensively are obviously criminals. To lump them all together makes no sense to me.

And, I agree with you about the stupidity of occupying a building. I think it's even stupider to attempt to force an armed conflict with law enforcement.