Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Why Do Left-Wing Protesters Keep Getting Killed by Police?<!-- wp:html --><p>Cheney Orr/Reuters</p> <p>On Jan. 18, a small army of <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/georgia-runoff-is-about-way-more-than-herschel-walkers-lies?ref=topic">Georgia</a> state troopers entered Atlanta’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/5-atlanta-activists-protesting-cop-city-training-center-charged-with-domestic-terrorism">Weelaunee forest</a>, with long guns drawn, to end a months-long occupation by a group of “forest defenders”—and to clear the way for the urban warfare training camp known as “Cop City.” Within minutes, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trooper-shot-during-protest-outside-atlantas-controversial-cop-city">an indigenous protester was dead</a>, felled by a police bullet. Law enforcement sources claim the officer acted in self-defense, but witnesses say the deceased was unarmed when they were shot.</p> <p>It’s too soon to know what exactly went down, but however the facts shake out, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/21/protester-killed-georgia-cop-city-police-shooting">Manuel Esteban Paez Terán</a> joins a growing list of left-wing dissidents killed by police at (or near) protest events in recent years. And government intervention has only grown more deadly: the events of Jan. 18 marked the fourth such fatality nationally in the last three years.</p> <p>While the details vary from one death to the next, they are connected by some common threads. All of the protesters shot dead by law enforcement in the years since 2020 had been known, in their lifetimes, as outspoken critics of police violence.</p> <p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-do-left-wing-protesters-keep-getting-killed-by-police?source=articles&via=rss">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->

Cheney Orr/Reuters

On Jan. 18, a small army of Georgia state troopers entered Atlanta’s Weelaunee forest, with long guns drawn, to end a months-long occupation by a group of “forest defenders”—and to clear the way for the urban warfare training camp known as “Cop City.” Within minutes, an indigenous protester was dead, felled by a police bullet. Law enforcement sources claim the officer acted in self-defense, but witnesses say the deceased was unarmed when they were shot.

It’s too soon to know what exactly went down, but however the facts shake out, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán joins a growing list of left-wing dissidents killed by police at (or near) protest events in recent years. And government intervention has only grown more deadly: the events of Jan. 18 marked the fourth such fatality nationally in the last three years.

While the details vary from one death to the next, they are connected by some common threads. All of the protesters shot dead by law enforcement in the years since 2020 had been known, in their lifetimes, as outspoken critics of police violence.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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