I just saw a friend shared a screenshot from a Fox News ticker thingy which basically said that "health experts" say protesting the police isn't risky in regard to covid-19, but protesting the lockdown is still not okay.
And then I thought about it just a little bit longer and I was like... Wait a second, isn't the "lockdown" technically sort of the "police" as well?
If you're protesting the lockdown you are protesting the police/law enforcement/government trying to infringe on your freedoms.
Protesting the George Floyd case is against the police just in a different manner.
One is protesting a non white person who was murdered by police, another is protesting a lockdown which is enforced by those same police...
However, how many black individuals and just people in general has the lockdown killed around the world? Especially in poorer 3rd world kinds of places?
It seems like... They're basically trying to say... You can protest the government in "this way" but, not "that way".
To me, both these problems arise from the same source and a way that might help to look at some of it is through the etymological language involved.
We have "pol"-ice upholding and enabling the "pol"-itical system.
The word "pol", is believed to be linked to the word "city" in Greek.
The pol-icy that pol-iticians put into law, the pol-ice are to enforce.
The politicians are representatives of government, so... Basically the police protect the political system and if you're protesting the lockdown, I believe you are protesting the police as they are the ones who will forcefully try to enforce such measures draconian measures which will deprive you of your freedom.
If you feel I'm twisting the language here or being unfair, feel free to let me know.
Oh also, here we go. I just looked and found the article and this is interesting.
"Instead, we wanted to present a narrative that prioritizes opposition to racism as vital to the public health, including the epidemic response. We believe that the way forward is not to suppress protests in the name of public health but to respond to protesters demands in the name of public health, thereby addressing multiple public health crises."
So, what it seems like they are saying here is that opposition to racism is vital to public health, yet... Opposition to government taking away ALL races freedoms, that's still not okay to protest! That's not vital to public health.
And this reminds me of one of the most important lessons I've learned about freedom and "rights", and that's that... The rights of the individual are paramount.
When you start favoring certain people or groups in regards to "rights" or freedoms that historical seems to often get into really sketchy territory.
However, if you protect the INDIVIDUALS rights, then that I think extends to all other groups.
You have to actually respect it though and not just pay lip service to it.
If the individual has their rights and freedoms respected, the groups should by extension also be respected.
Here's a link to the article if anyone would like to read it.
https://whdh.com/news/over-1000-health-professionals-sign-a-letter-saying-dont-shut-down-protests-using-coronavirus-concerns-as-an-excuse/