UW-Madison students call for removal of Lincoln statue

[PTWB]

106. Let's keep an eye on those goalposts shall we? We don't want them meandering on down the block.

Your previous assertion was that radical and destructive actions taken against symbols of systemic racism and oppression are ineffective and, in fact, greatly responsible for the lack of progressive improvements we all seek. I can think of little that is more symbolic than burning down a police precinct when protesting systemic oppression, brutality and racism within that police department. And yet less than a month later the council in charge of that police precinct was unanimously voting to disband that very police department.

While we can dicker the day away over the cause and effect, we have three very simple issues here: action, response and result.

Action: George Floyd was murdered by the police department.
Response: Massive protests across the city (and the country) culminating in the symbolic burning of the 3rd Police Precinct.
Result: The city council votes to disband the police department and people across the country are supporting Black Lives Matter in droves.

We've seen murder after murder after murder of unarmed black men by the State. Some of these were met with protests, many were not. But it was not until significant force was applied along with these protests - through the damage of property and the economic damage leveraged against corporations resulting in them joining their voices to ours - that suddenly things are beginning to change.