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I’ve been covering protests for years, and I stay in touch with folk. What I’ve found is most anyone who’s had a gun pointed at them by the state shows signs of trauma, and further most folk don’t have access to therapy nor state structures in order to get a diagnosis. https://twitter.com/abrokentweeter/status/1281696595961159683
Thing is naming your pain is really only helpful in a legal, financial or therapeutic framework in which one might expect some relief. Otherwise it’s just giving yourself another preexisting condition or one more untended medical issue to wrestle with.
Until quite recently one wouldn’t expect to see the kinds of people with access to things like therapy out in the streets during anything but performative protests; the middle classes tend to register their discontent in the daytime and the police tend to treat them politely
I hedge that last quite carefully as there’s always exceptions, occupy Wall Street was one that deviated from that norm to some extent.
Also, occupy was not full of people being blinded by the state, so ymmv
Also, occupy was not full of people being blinded by the state, so ymmv
I do not doubt that those officers are showing signs of PTSD; trauma need not be morally upright to be lasting, which is to say it’s scary as fuck to be in a volatile and violent situation regardless of how heavily armed you are or who holds more power in it.
I’m just thinking of all the people out there who surely are as traumatized that the state will refuse to help, because there is no fucking plan other than try to sue for average citizens in these situations.
We do not live in a rational nor moral society in a lot of ways and one way you can tell that is when people re traumatized by the corpses on their streets and then brutally oppressed by the people creating the corpses, the state’s reaction is to ask why it bothered them at all.
What I can tell you for sure is that people who were in the streets during Ferguson still have nightmares and random minutes in random days where they rage or weep without quite knowing why. I can tell you it is difficult to maintain relationships or trust anything to be good.
And that was six years ago, that was before the waves of protests in most every major city that have happened since, and that it is mostly not white people who have been out in those streets and we absolutely weaponize militarized trauma to use as racism
Thing is I’m completely fucked up, and tbh have been for years because it has been my literal job to cover wars in our streets and nobody trains you for that and there isn’t much by way of support for freelancers. It’s shut up and get tougher and do the work for us.
But I am cognizant that it is very unlikely that I will see a weapon drawn on me outside that context of my work and so it’s a different sort of thing for people in my skin. Makes it manageable because my trauma responses are out of context, though the trauma runs me sometimes
I guess the point here is that nobody, not cops nor guardsmen or protesters or press, walks away from this shit unmarked in some way.
How badly you’re scarred will seems on the context you were harmed in and how much support you can rely on afterwards.
How badly you’re scarred will seems on the context you were harmed in and how much support you can rely on afterwards.
And in these situations it’s important to remember that because THIS HURTS EVERYONE. There is no good side to this.
There are surely good and bad actors here but enacting evil also eats your soul. One need not sympathize with it to recognize it as bare fact.
There are surely good and bad actors here but enacting evil also eats your soul. One need not sympathize with it to recognize it as bare fact.
At least I know I gave my health and peace on the side of freedom and justice and that does give me some solace. Doesn’t heal shit but it’s something to hold on to and be proud of.
But yes. Every single protester who’s been gassed or beaten or aimed at or called names by cops amor arrested or humiliated or told they had no right to speak
Every single one is dealing with lifelong trauma. And there ain’t much out there for them by way of help.
Every single one is dealing with lifelong trauma. And there ain’t much out there for them by way of help.
I would also add, we’re you looking to help: give people money. Frequently this trauma will fuck up your life and make it difficult to work or do much executive functioning.
Compounding that trauma with instability is not good.
Help protesters live with the after.
Compounding that trauma with instability is not good.
Help protesters live with the after.
One does not simply walk into hell and face down power and the walk away unscathed.
Give people things to help them feel joy. Help them find new normal.
Thank them for their fucking service, for gods sake, if you’ve never defended our rights in the midst of chemical weapons.
Give people things to help them feel joy. Help them find new normal.
Thank them for their fucking service, for gods sake, if you’ve never defended our rights in the midst of chemical weapons.
Most any community-led organization will know what folk need, if you don’t personally know anyone who has stood up for the rights of the citizenry to leasable assemble.
And tbh if you don’t maybe look at your social circles, too. It shouldn’t be so siloed.
And tbh if you don’t maybe look at your social circles, too. It shouldn’t be so siloed.
