I have been meaning to write about my recent experience with Google App Engine and also about the Pokemon Go phenomenon. And I will eventually do so, but given the events in the US this past week these topics seem trivial to me at the moment.
The statistics make it abundantly clear that deadly force is used by police against Black Americans at a much higher rate than against whites. When you add that to statistics about incarceration, poverty, disease and more the weight of evidence on the long term after effects of slavery in the United States is overwhelming. The legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement is based not just in recent events but in this much broader historical context.
The killing of 5 Dallas Police officers is loathsome but changes nothing about that. It is an act of terrorism. To use it to call into question the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement or suppress protest is exactly how terrorism wins. Responding with a militarized police force as in Baton Rouge that indiscriminately arrests protestors and journalists is deeply anti-democratic.
Now more than ever is a time when we need to uphold the right of citizens to protest. We have to do this even in the face of some militant participants and even when confronted with a horrible act of terrorism. Democracy is under attack all around the world and also here in the United States. Supporting the right to protest is supporting democracy.
