National School Walkout and LEO on Alert: Coincidence?
At 10:00 a.m. today — minutes from now — memorial walkouts for Columbine mass shooting victims will take place, part of a national school walkout protesting the lack of gun reform. Check Twitter for hashtag #NationalSchoolWalkout.
One problem: law enforcement may have received warnings this week about potentially violent protests — denoted by the call for riot gear — which could precipitate overreaction to what have been peaceful March For Our Lives events to date.
Look at this tweet from Wednesday:
Pittsburgh LEO was cautioned about protests arising should Trump fire DOJ’s Rod Rosenstein or Special Counsel Robert Mueller this week. While the warning it shares expresses concerns about yesterday, will law enforcement continue to be on alert?
We don’t know how widely the warning was shared or if there were multiple warnings from multiple sources.
It’s also upsetting that the person who organized a tentative protest rally against the prospective firing of Rosenstein or Mueller had taken out a permit.
Why is law enforcement getting its shirt in a knot about a rally with a valid permit? Why the warning this week coincident with the National School Walkout?
![[Photo: Annie Spratt via Unsplash]](https://www.emptywheel.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Books_AnnieSpratt-Unsplash_mod1-80x80.jpg)
Let’s just hope REALLY REALLY hard that there are no Kent State-like reactionary situations. With this public warning, it’s easy for provocateurs to intentionally spark trouble.
Let’s be out front. We all know that there will be attempts at organized reactionary violence. The response in Boston to the attempt to hold a violence generating demonstration after Charlottsville just sent the rats back to planning for the last few months. The key is gunna be the local police forces who are scared shitless of being caught in the middle, at least those who are not salivating at the opportunity to break some heads and kick some ass. The behavior of local leaders, political and otherwise, going forward is the only thing that might be able to hold the violence down but I’m not sanguine about that.
Rayne, you know kids are the “real” terrorists! Because they are a problem with the festering revanchist status quo. Surprised the National Guard has not been mobilized.
I am absolutely certain high school and middle school students taking to the streets terrify the GOP-led status quo — we are looking at the newest voters through the years 2024 right now, who are organizing en masse across the country and motivated enough to flout education system’s norms for behavior. I hope the fuck the oldest of the old guard are quaking and rethinking their corrupt, do-nothing, repressive legacy; the results of their lifetime are peacefully, silently admonishing them for more than 19 years of failure to serve the public interest instead of their wallets.
I think that’s right. One reason ALEC funders want public schools defunded, so that alternate “schools” can educate a properly quiescent and obedient youth. They should be no more active or inquisitive than the average board of directors.
Agreed @earl. The DeVos School model that indoctrinates to ‘know your place’, life will be better after death (says religion), so accept your lot now, your given caste and ALWAYS obey authority.
Interesting little nugget: I was having a conversation with an English-teacher-turned-writer earlier this month, and he brought up the Parkland students. He said that if you look at YA literature for the last 10-20 years, a lot of it has been about teenagers saving the world from evil governments in dystopian future hellscapes. So these students have basically been “primed” to do what they’re doing ever since they starting reading on their own. They’ve been repeatedly told that their elders have failed them, and they’re going to have to take things into their own hands if they expect any real change to occur. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Harry Potter!
Taught them all they needed to know!
Also the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis books I read to my son at ages 5 and 6 (and he read them alone once he could read), where Lewis’ Professor character asks again and again: “What do they teach them in these schools?” (That goes back many decades!)
That corresponds with a theory I have, that the Parkland students chose to act because they knew our current president can’t be depended on for leadership in situations like that. Social media makes political action easier, that’s another factor. But they aren’t saying anything new, they’ve seen the same debate year after year their whole lives. They just decided to act.
The Women’s March was similar. Hillary may have lost but the movement is stronger than ever. Without Trump and the Access Hollywood tape, that probably isn’t the case.
Tweeted ref by our very own Jim White:
http://www.ocala.com/news/20180420/student-shot-at-forest-high-school-in-ocala
WTF! I just left a message at Mayor Peduto’s office. He was at the March for Our Lives, and proudly got up to speak to everyone, and pointedly said that 3,000 people were expected but but there are “…way more than that…”. Everyone cheered.
Thirty-thousand showed up.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/03/24/pittsburgh-march-for-our-lives-gun-control-rally/
I am so appalled.
Huh?
I don’t appreciate the military police, I should have spelled that out I guess.
I thought the numbers indicated protestors? What does that have to do with military police? Sorry, still not getting it.
I believe Anne is referring to law enforcement’s preparation with riot gear — which we know based on experience across the country will appear militarized — based on the rather thin warning dd. 18-APR-2018. Correct me if I’m wrong, Anne.
I just didn’t see anything about that in the article linked (not yours), but I’m having an extended period of brain-freeze today. So there’s that.
My teenagers (daughter and son) are representing Brooklyn NYC today. I told them to be careful.
Don’t know about a national warning about protests or the interaction with 4/20. A twitter search for “police prepare for riot” shows that these words bounced around in a progressive bubble for a few hours on the 28th before being picked up by other media and right wing agitprop. https://twitter.com/williamadler78/status/986640467252203521 https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/986645125681025024
The 2016 election and 2017 immigration protests were marked by GOP street theater noise that all protests were riots, any protest with any violence was a riot, and if it wasn’t a riot the GOP would make it so it seems to me by hiring someone to attack fluorescent dressed Trump supporters and promptly providing world wide video and media coverage.
Sad state of the media when so many outlets picked up the rawstory headline of “prepare for riots”. Anyone at or viewing a protest already knows that some or all of the police have their riot gear out just preparing for protests.
Students will have extra work coming up due Illinois FBI confiscated weapons including AR15 from person threatening self harm. FBI returns confiscated weapons including AR15 to parents of person threatening self harm. Parents return weapons including AR15 to person to help-re-establish wholeness as armed white supremacist identifies self worth by holding firearms. AR15 is used not for self harm rather harm to others. Four people lost their lives because Illinois FBI wouldn’t/couldn’t justify confiscating white supremacist’s weapons permanently. High School Students shine your brightest light on this systemic failure causing four lives to be lost and several lives to be permanently injured by this reckless negligent action on the part of Illinois FBI.