Calling all cops ‘racists’ indiscriminately and promoting an image of police as violent trigger-happy thugs who kill innocent black people is exactly what set the stage for violence.
The aim of propaganda is to elicit an emotional reaction. WaPo and other media did a great job at inciting violent reaction, riots that lasted for months, fed primarily by the media and amplified by facebook and Twitter.
Does your definition of the West include Latin America? Because law enforcement in Latin America kill far, far more people than law enforcement in the US.
In the US (pop 330M), law enforcement kills about 1000 people per year (about 34 people per 10M pop per year). [0]
In Honduras (pop 9.1M), law enforcement kills about 40 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In the Dominican Republic (pop 10.7M), law enforcement kills about 130 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In Brazil (pop 210M), law enforcement kills about 275 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In Jamaica (pop 2.9M), law enforcement kills about 470 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In Nicaragua (pop 6.2M), law enforcement kills about 530 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In El Salvador (pop 6.4M), law enforcement kills about 950 people per 10M pop per year [1]
In Venezuela (pop 29M), law enforcement kills about 1830 people per 10M pop per year [1]
> Does your definition of the West include Latin America?
Wikipedia's does not.[1]
Also from the info you provided, it seems like US police are only 20% less violent than Honduran police. This is despite Honduras having the 5th highest murder rate in the world - which presumably means Honduran police deal with violent criminals far more often than American police.[2] That's pretty wild!
In that case, you're comparing the US, a country with extremely lax gun control laws and the resulting greatly increased threat to police safety, to countries with far more stringent gun control. I'm a homicide researcher in Chicago. There were over 4000 shootings and nearly 800 homicides in my city last year, and I've seen footage from a lot of them, including a lot of completely justified police shootings. Calling officers "trigger-happy thugs" ignores the reality of policing in a country where the frequency of encountering someone carrying a firearm is so high.
That being said, somehow the Newark Police Department(in Newark, New Jersey's biggest city, and about 50 homicides per year) went all of 2020 without any of any officers firing a single shot (outside of training and firearm qualification contexts, I assume) [0].
How did correctly indicating that us police are unusually violent set the stage for an attack, by various groups, including police officers, on elected officials and the capitol?
Yes! Thank you! And now the same politicians and reporters who said that are pretending to care for the police hurt in this riot and talking about how important law enforcement is.
Forgive me for believing that law enforcement protecting family businesses is 1000x more important than law enforcement protecting politicians.
EDIT: love the downvotes from people who believe torching family businesses, often immigrant ones, is cool! I'm telling you guys keep downvoting. You really look like the good guys.
What is wrong with you? Literally nobody is saying that.
Holding police accountable is something we should all get behind. Whatever it is you think the "other side" supports sounds like something you picked up from Breitbart. Get real man.
I agree we should hold police accountable, which is why I voted for whatever the BLM protestors asked for in my city of Portland. When they protested, I supported them. When they harassed mayor wheeler, I supported them.
When they started destroying local businesses, I didn't support them. I posted once on my next door to please let's all remain peaceful and stop the destruction of local small businesses, and was met with immediate condemnations of being racist. I got so many hate messages, despite being brown myself, that I eventually left next door, out of fear of doxxing.
When BLM then went and tagged Pelosi and McConnell's homes, I cheered them on. I don't mind seeing people harass politicians. I just don't want them destroying private citizen's stuff, or killing them when they defend it.
And I don't read Breitbart. I read Mother Jones and the New Yorker, and sometimes I read Breitbart when left wing people get outraged by their articles.
The aim of propaganda is to elicit an emotional reaction. WaPo and other media did a great job at inciting violent reaction, riots that lasted for months, fed primarily by the media and amplified by facebook and Twitter.