My Thoughts On: Generic Anti-Police Movement During "Peaceful Protests."

Personally, I've never been to a protest in my life mostly because my parents have always told me "you shouldn't go to those things, they're dangerous." Well, obviously some people's parents must have never told them. I recently took the time to really think about what's going on at these "peaceful protests/rallies," not just in America but in other countries like South Korea as well. I remember learning in my Media & Society class that the media is actually a dangerous source for educating the public because so much of the content could be tampered with, interpreted, false, or just plain bias towards one side of a story. The abundant types of news and media sources, especially the Internet, enables us to reach out to almost anything we want. I think that people should really take their time to research both ends of story before jumping on the hating bandwagon. 

I hate hearing about police brutality and such at these "peaceful protests" because I feel like a great majority of them only show one side of what really happened. It makes me angry when people with authority take advantage and go on a serious power-trip just to prove something, like those random cellphone quality videos on Youtube of police officers discriminating or those news articles of military personnel acting out of line. It's not hard to see why the people of the general public begin to harbor feelings of intimidation, uneasiness, or simply anger when they hear those stories. 

However, judging from the hundreds of news clips and videos I've seen throughout my life on these "peaceful protests," there's nothing peaceful about it. Especially when the protesters are disturbing the peace of the area by congregating in busy places, refusing to heed to the warnings, and arming themselves with random objects that could potential serve as weapons like sticks.. 

I'm not hating on protests but I hate how people use "peaceful" protests as a euphemism of what they're really doing. We're so spoiled in this country that we don't even know what could be worse, just because we don't see it, people feel like it doesn't exist. We constantly complain that the government isn't doing anything for us or demand more almost as if we want things to be just handed to us. They don't know what it's like to live in the third-world countries where their average standard of living is worse than poverty-stricken areas in the US. Seeing those "I am the 99%" photos submitted by random angry citizens made me feel a little bitter because I know there are jobs out there, that are obviously less attractive and may require more manual labor during undesirable hours of the day doing things others would never dream about. So if you're in such desperate need, funny how you spend the time to browse the internet and submit photos via digital cameras, cellphones, or computers.