For better or worse, I don't think it's all that surprising that police end up being more hesitant to fire rubber bullets at a group of protesters with rifles slung over their shoulders.
I'm going to pretext this with saying I can't like or dislike the US policing system, because it doesn't affect me directly. I can only comment on what I've been seeing through media/social media/etc.<p>It's tough. People are emotional. People are going to make mistakes. Sometimes mistakes are more likely to present themselves when faced with certain situations.<p>Just like people aren't perfect, police aren't perfect. Whether it's truly the belief of hundreds of thousands on the left, or if it's just the usual social media amplification of minority opinions - the general rhetoric of the rioters (separate from protestors) is "all cops are bad", "defund the police", "cops are pigs", "kill all cops" etc.<p>When you're the very people that are tasked with "maintaining the peace" and there's thousands of people rioting (leading to in one case that I know of, the abandonment and eventual burning down of a major precinct), of course there's going to be situations where police make mistakes or act with their emotions - especially when their superiors (chiefs, government officials, etc) are condoning and <i>debatably</i> encouraging the protests/riots with their statements/rhetoric.<p>Likewise with the other side, there are several videos that were circulating online of hundreds/thousands of people rioting in city centers and you have the select few "ruining" it by lighting things on fire, throwing improvised bombs/fireworks at officers, shooting and killing officers in broad daylight while they're sitting in their cars on break.<p>Of course officers tasked with riot control are going to be a bit more heavy-handed in how they react. Likewise - of course rioters are going to "take it to the next level" - it's an arms race that nobody can win.<p>It's frustrating to go and look at it from both sides and how pig-headed (ha) both of them are. There's absolutely ZERO compromise on either side - and I have no concrete idea/theory what has happened in modern society to promote this division and one-sidedness.
>The statistics, based on law enforcement responses to more than 13,000 protests across the United States since April 2020,<p>13 000?? how the...<p>it's >30 per day. everyday
One possible explanation is there is more “egoboo” in left-wing protestors being assaulted by police than right-wing protestors being assaulted, both in street cred and in images that can be used for recruitment.<p>Left wing - “This anonymous authority figure, who I will never meet at the local events in my parent’s neighborhood in million years, is using PHYSICAL FORCE (against my illegal(?) physical acts)...honor my martyrdom and visit my Facebook page!!!”<p>Right wing - “Clem, if things get rough, we will get various body parts kicked and it will make us look like wimps. And I <i>do not want</i> to risk losing my concealed carry. Anyway, doesn’t your cousin work for the Force? How am I going to explain that to Lucille at the Memorial Day picnic? Let’s be effective rather than violent...that’s what the ol’ Colonel said...say, doesn’t Jim-bob work for the power company in the big city?”
True, but keep in mind there were 511 left-wing protests and 33 right-wing protests and the use of force was measured in the single digit percentages for both.
At least where I am, one of the tactics that the right-wing protestors engage in is to walk right up to the limit of the law and greatly antagonize the left-wing counter-protestors. When the counter-protestors respond, they play the victim card and the police arrest the left-wing.<p>Sort of like antagonizing a kid on the playground and then telling teacher when you get socked. Sure it may not be right for the person you antagonized to hit you, but you knew exactly what you were doing.
I find it pretty hard to believe. I wonder if the statistic takes in account factors like the size of the protest (large sizes alone can be seen as threatening) or the attitude of protesters- I imagine that left-wing protesters can be more confrontational than right-wing ones, especially when the issue at hand is police violence and partly because rightwing people might see the police more as an ally than a threat (because law-and-order and general conservativism).