just turning this idea over in my mind. Obviously the images of selfies being taken with cops and things of that nature paint quite a different picture to what we were seeing during the Northern hemisphere summer, but let’s not forget they did also kill one of them, and they did bust out the tear gas and stuff.
Was this just another strategic retreat type of tactic, where the cops figure “let them come in and bust up the furniture, they’ll tucker themselves out”? Has the difference in police response been exaggerated? I think it’s obvious on its face that a significant portion, if not a majority, of cops share sympathies with the protestors cause, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to mass dereliction of “duty”.
I’m not particularly trying to advance this argument, more just trying to get a discussion going and see what everyone thinks.
One of the key reasons the MLPD abandoned the 3rd precinct is because they were literally running out of riot munitions to fire at protesters after several days of gassing and maiming them. It got to the point where they needed people to periodically run in carts full of additional riot munitions, and the logistics of doing this became fraught. This is not what happened in D.C.
The battle in Minneapolis was like the Zap Brannigan bit where he sends wave after wave of troops at the killbots until they hit their kill limits and shut down. In D.C, they didn't even bother putting up a defense. There were no killbots.