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> The Amir Locke shooting has not really taken on a national protest atmosphere Well, remember - BLM has been around since 2012 (when Trayvon Martin was shot).
by commandlinefan 5y ago
> The Amir Locke shooting has not really taken on a national protest atmosphere
Well, remember - BLM has been around since 2012 (when Trayvon Martin was shot). They did sponsor some protests here and there (Michael Brown, Freddie Gray) but didn't capture the entire country until 2020. So what was different? I really think it was two things: Donald Trump and corona virus lockdowns. The protests were likely 50% Donald Trump protests and 50% an excuse to get out of the house after having been locked down for a year. Now we don't have either thing, so we're back to "normal" for BLM.
- csee 5y agoI'd say it was 1/4 Trump 1/4 lockdowns 1/4 the emotional visual imagery of the knee on the neck 1/4 social media penetration of 2020s compared to 2012
- gknoy 5y agoI think that the fact that we had irrefutable video evidence of it happening (as opposed to e.g. Martin or other "well the officer thought he had a gun" events) made it much easier to gain traction in the public consciousness. There was no split-second-bad-decisions that could be claimed (such as when officers shot the man for not obeying conflicting commands), just multiple minutes of sickening brutality.
- Izkata 5y ago> and 50% an excuse to get out of the house after having been locked down for a year. Let's not mess up the timeline - at that point it had only been like two or three months.