Right now, in Hong Kong, the police are waging a war on their own citizens, for being defiant, and protesting.
Every day it gets a little worse, and the citizens gets a little more defiant, and even a little more violent. They throw rocks at the windows of the police stations. They shine laser lights at them, blinding them. They try to damage and destroy cars in the police stations' parking lots.
But are they rioting? Are they really? Or are they just being defiant and angry at the police that are out of control and just a militant arm of the government that is taking them in a direction they don't want to go? Sure, they're attacking and destroying police property...but are they rioting? How many are destroying individual's property? No, they're just not being non-violent against a police force that has used riot gear against them before they did anything wrong.
This is not abnormal anymore though. Police use rubber bullets and wooden bullet and pepper spray and tear gas on protestors all the time. They think it's somehow alright. And the media just reports it mater of factly like it's normal. Just another occurrence. Just something that happened. No need to discuss it. Just move on with the news. If they even report on it at all.
But this isn't normal. Or it shouldn't be.
Police all over the world have made it normal to wage war with the population they're supposed to be protecting. Well, mainly the US has made it normal, and the rest of the world seems to be starting to go along with it.
How can it be considered normal that police use violence against citizens just for protesting actions that their governments have perpetrated upon them. People do not protest just willy nilly. They are risking their life and their limbs, risking the lives of their family, who has to live without their income, to go protest something they believe in. Then the police hit them for daring to disobey them, pepper spray them, tear gas them, and even shoot them with rubber bullets.
Tear gas is banned in war. It's a chemical weapon. I think pepper spray is considered a chemical weapon as well. Otherwise they could just drop liquid pepper on a population and watch them all run around like ants under a magnifying glass.
Thankfully they don't really use anything much worse commonly. I hope at least.
They only drop worse chemicals on our food, causing us all cancers.
They also do mass arrests regularly. Not because they have evidence that someone did something like throw a rock or destroy property, just because they were protesting and they didn't like it.
You are defying the man. You dare to go against your glorious leaders? We shall beat you and arrest you and throw you in jail, after spraying you with the extract of the pepper so you will feel a bit of the hell to which you deserve for being so defiant. And we shall disperse you all with a chemical cocktail made to make you cry and run in pain and terror.
And the protestors are the bad ones? They are so horrible, because they believe in something, and want people to know that something's not right, so they carry signs and yell slogans, they are so horrible?
Nay...
I don't care why this normalization of war on protestors has happened, but it needs to stop.
Ask a Vietnam vet how he feels after the police attack these protestors. They will tell you it's war. They will be cowering in fear from their PTSD. They know it's war.
The police are waging war on their populace, because they dare to defy them. And we think it's normal.
It's not.
This is what it looks like when you can't question your government.
That's not normal.
That's not right.
People have done uprisings before for things like this.
But what are we to do? They have far greater weapons than us.
All we can do is protest and get tear gassed.