Thugs, rioters, and criminals who commit violence absolutely deserve to be arrested and prosecuted. If they engage in violence during the course of their arrest, they should be meant with the amount of force needed to affect the arrest and protect the officers.

But instead of this, the leaders of the Fed LE seem to be painting a large group of US citizens with a broad brush and saying "if any do X, all are guilty of X, and therefore our actions are warranted."

Online defenders of this post videos of rioters engaging in criminal activity (and often exaggerate exactly what is being shown in the video), to which I say "great, arrest those people"

I have no issue conceding the fact that a large chunk, if not a majority of those on the streets in Portland, are scumbags. Many of them are advocates for a system which historically has been more repressive than anything they are protesting.

But so what? LEOs can't play by the same rules as scumbags, so I don't understand why "I cut my leg so it's ok to beat another person in the crowd" is seen as a compelling argument.

We have video evidence of both a) the beating of an obviously nonviolent protester and b) and unlawful arrest. These things, under the sanction of govt authority, as well as the issues of federalism, concern me more than the scumbag actions of people I expect to be scumbags-

Not because of degree, but because of precedence- and the auspices of government power.

But, I know this may come as a shock to many, it's possible to be condemn both!

* so many typos and errors in this thread, this is a stand in to correct them all... I was typing hurriedly