1 week agoAt the second Palestine Solidarity Camp, police in riot gear faced off against student and local protesters. The power disparity between the protesters, armed with water bottles, musical instruments and megaphones, and the police, armed with “less lethal” munitions, tear gas and riot gear, was stark.
Many argue that police need this equipment and weapons to protect themselves from the dangers of their jobs. 138 police officers Of the police officers killed in the line of duty in 2023, only a few were killed during altercations with targets. That same year, police officers 1,247 people.
The disparity in death tolls is reprehensible, but it doesn’t tell the whole story about police power: the batons that have repelled student protesters, the tear gas and guns that have broken up countless Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020. It claimed the lives of 1,195 people last year. These are all the police’s greatest powers. Legal Rights Use physical violence against residents.
Of the 1,247 people who will die in 2023, Ten cases were indicted Police have a monopoly on the use of violence against officers who commit crimes. As an enforcement arm of the state, police, like any other government agency, can legally authorize and use violence to achieve their goals. Despite this overwhelming legal and physical power, the Blue Lives Matter movement began in 2014 to position police as the underdog in a tough fight against crime and to defend police rights. Extra protection For the police.
of Depiction of the police Portraying police officers as individuals constantly at risk – as martyrs and heroes who need to be protected from the violent criminals who roam the streets – is not a new or unique tactic for garnering sympathy for a people who in reality constitute a dominant presence, both physically and politically.
The most powerful groups (legally, militarily or otherwise) seem to be the ones most eager to claim that they desperately need to defend themselves, that they have no choice but to take up arms and fight for justice. This is exactly what is happening in Palestine, and has been for over a century.
The connection between the Israeli military and the US police is literal, with many US police officers Participate in a training program in Israel – And it is an ideological issue: both countries commit human rights violations under the guise of self-defense and under the cover of broad legal protections.
On October 7, 1,200 Israelis were killed in a Hamas attack. Eight months later, Israel More than 37,000 PalestiniansWhile American police are protected by the state’s right of violence, the Israeli government Diplomacy of world powersIt has granted UN membership to Israel but not to Palestine, and has provided Israel with funding and arms to further its domination of the Middle East. Political and Economic benefits.
So what does it mean for an institution or nation that is in a relatively advantageous position vis-à-vis its adversary to act in “self-defense”?
What does it mean when police have committed extrajudicial killings of over 12,000 people in 10 years in order to protect themselves? Tens of thousands injured Every year? Seven Policemen How many people have been convicted of murder between 2005 and 2020?
What does it mean when the Zionist movement, backed by the British military, murders thousands of Palestinians who rebelled to defend themselves? 1936 to 1939When the newly established state of Israel controlled 78% of Palestine By 1949Why did Israel kill 15,000 Palestinians and displace over 700,000 when it launched a preemptive attack and devastated its Arab neighbors? 1967Why did he murder some 20,000 Arabs in Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and again displace thousands of Palestinian refugees, when he oversaw the Lebanese army’s massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps? Beirut was besieged The murder of another 20,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in 1982? They killed 1,500 in Palestine in the first intifada, another 3,000 in the second? Today they are mercilessly bombing the Gaza Strip. Over 70,000 tons Explosives and Refuse to accept Will we enter into a ceasefire even if it disproportionately benefits Israel?
What does it mean when injustices drag on and those responsible die before ever being brought to justice?
These organizations are not protecting themselves for their own safety. In fact, they are not protecting themselves at all. Organizations with such enormous diplomatic and military power are far safer from danger than ordinary citizens who have to live at gunpoint.
What they are trying to protect is a frightening image of themselves as having the power to crush, and indeed to crush, any threat to their authority.
They defend the elevated heart rates of pulled-over drivers, knowing they may be putting themselves in danger. 1 in 100 People who lost their lives in traffic violations that year. They defend their reluctance to organize a new Palestinian resistance that might mean losing their friends, their mothers, their children, or maybe everyone.
And Derek Chauvin This intensified the fear. Since the police failure of 2020, Americans have risen in droves to protest police across the country, and with every great loss of life and land suffered by Palestinians, they regroup and continue to fight for freedom, knowing that one day, after more than a century of resistance, things might finally end differently.
Thus, when we ask who has the right to self-defense, we must first ask who has the right to use violence: who can act with impunity and who is willing to deliver a deadly, devastating blow beyond what a target can physically retaliate against?
The groups that help monopolise violence have little interest in self-preservation. They are interested in preserving fear, preserving obedience, and preserving a social order in which no one has to think about what it’s like to be on the other side of a gun.
Thomas Riley writes about politics, language, and campus events. His email address is email address.
