This is Union Square in Manhattan. This is America.

2/ As @cbenavidesTV reports, cops took multiple protestors into custody at a rally in solidarity with George Floyd. Some of them were engaging in civil disobedience, per Benavides.

3/ The point has been before, but it will never cease to be important: look at the way that cops respond to unarmed protestors calls for an end to extrajudicial execution of black people vs. the way they treat white protestors with guns desperate for the right to cough on people.

4/ Michigan's legislature was *shut down* to avoid a confrontation with armed protestors. If Black Lives Matter protesters showed up with rifles and death threats, there would likely be a real bloodbath in Union Square.

5/ Law enforcement's different behavior based on the group shows that they aren't just policing behavior but *ideology* and revealing that they have different thresholds for illicit / edgy behavior depending on the nature of the critique.

6/ So while most Black Lives Matter protestors pose no serious threat whatsoever to the police with their bodies or their behavior, their *ideas* represent a fundamental questioning of the legitimacy of state violence ...

7/ That scares the police more than armed protestors who call for the death of politicians but whose underlying worldview dovetails naturally with the repressive state apparatus, particularly as it pertains to communities of color.

8/This plague could’ve been a unifier, an opportunity for ppl to find more in common with each other. But many rifts in society appear to be widening.

The fact that you often can’t see people’s faces during a lot of these confrontations only intensifies the image of alienation.

9/ Last point I'll make, especially since I'm (understandably) seeing a lot of worry about no masks / Covid.

The divide is not just over science. It's also about fighting to define American freedom, something people will risk their lives for.

10/ As I blogged about for my newsletter, this is why Fauci is not the right person to champion as "the nation's voice" or as a rebel against Trump:

My blog post: https://mailchi.mp/fb3247cff30a/anthony-fauci-trump-rebel-hero?e=009aae54f8

And you can sign up for my newsletter here if you'd like to: http://eepurl.com/g0ZPdH