Nyet, comrade. My points were perfectly valid and to not acknowledge them is willful ignorance at best.
Black bloc and others are a problem but that actually feeds into what the authorities want, which is to completely suppress protest and civil disobedience.
Challenge: explain away the arrest of compliant CNN reporters on live tv, as well as the intentional targeting of reporters elsewhere (with rubber bullets), and last, but very much not least, the police shooting people in their yards for the act of filming them.
That police, in some instances, act irresponsibly, does not invalidate the absolute need for police to use some degree of force given the prevalence of a variety of violent agitators.
As for the journalist - in a riot situation, people are often detained temporarily as police are clearing areas. Once a riot hits, the police are within their rights to clear out areas. While the legality of temporary detainment varies, you should consider why police are all carrying handfulls of plastic ties ... to detain people.
In some cases, the police were shooting rubber bullets in the direction of protesters wherein there were reporters - there's nothing wrong here.
In some cases, the police were shooting pellets directly at reporters, I don't think this is fair or right, but it still doesn't abnegate the need of cops to be there and to clear people - also - we never know the full details. Maybe the police had warned the crew to leave several times before.
Once things turn into a riot, it's going to be a little bit of a fight, there's no other way about it. If this were 50 years ago there would have been batons cracking heads, thankfully we don't have that. We have have now is actually fairly mundane.
Also, the regular protestors, during the day, are allowed to do as they please generally speaking which is fine.
So to summarize your assessment: you have no real problem with the state of police conduct in the U.S., and that these protests cause all the trouble.
I think the only way you would ever change your mind is if you went to one of these protests just to observe peacefully and respectfully, and then get caught up in a sweep. Experiential learning is powerful stuff.
Please bear in mind that this topic is not about denying rightful enforcement of law, it's the exact opposite: ensuring enforcement of the law is just and in the interests of all.
Nyet, comrade. My points were perfectly valid and to not acknowledge them is willful ignorance at best.
Black bloc and others are a problem but that actually feeds into what the authorities want, which is to completely suppress protest and civil disobedience.
Challenge: explain away the arrest of compliant CNN reporters on live tv, as well as the intentional targeting of reporters elsewhere (with rubber bullets), and last, but very much not least, the police shooting people in their yards for the act of filming them.