tatterdemalionamberite:

variablejabberwocky:

stuffidonthaveablogfor:

queeranarchism:

forumgamer:

queeranarchism:

hadmeatporny:

stik123:

cakeandrevolution:

queeranarchism:

60 year old historian Martin Bühler (who identified himself to the press, I do not identify activists without consent) appears to ‘photobomb’ a lot of media images of the G20 in Hamburg. In reality he is a long time observer documenting police brutality. In Hamburg he chose to cultivate the most non-activist ‘white bystander in a suit with a bike’ look he could manage and casually walked in front of police. As police slowed down or interrupted attacks and waited for the ‘bystander’ to get out of the way (being caught on camera trashing what look like bystanders is bad press after all), activists had time to regroup or retreat.

oh my god, what a fucking badass

This is such an important example of racism playing a major part in how the police treat people.

this is a classism thing not a racism thing. the cops were attacking protesters of all colors, orientations, etc and they stopped only when “one of them” was in the way.

It’s both.

Because of racism POC are never fully perceived as middle or upper class the way white people are. You can be a lawyer in a fancy suit in a restaurant, if you’re not white random white strangers will assume you’re a waiter. You can drive an expensive car, cops will pull you over for ‘looking suspicious’. Etc etc.

The tactic Buhler used in Hamburg can only be done if you are constantly automatically assumed to be middle class or up. Since the middle class is collective imagined to be white, having white priviledge is a big part of being able to do it.

And that’s before even getting into the ‘people of color are seen as threatening 1000 times faster no matter what they’re doing’ aspect of white privilege that allowed Buhler to do this.

(There are probably gonna be white people replying ‘that kind of racism happens in the US, not Germany….’. They’re lying. It happens in Germany they just don’t wanna see it.)

I would say it’s more an example of white privilege than racism, but that’s obviously splitting hairs semantically because it’s two sides of the same coin.

As someone from Hamburg, though, that’s STILL brave as fuck. I know white people, plenty of them, who got on the wrong side of cops during those days and suffered for it, and not all of them were looking “young and lower class”, if you know what I mean. Police also actually targeted reporters with clear press credentials on display, which is on another level of scandal altogether.

All very very true. Privilege in these situations means being less at risk, it doesn’t mean not being at risk at all. Especially with the police being as incredibly violent as they were in Hamburg during the G20. 

If I may:

If protests were a game of poker, cops would all
automatically get a 4 of a Kind. Protestors, on average, might have Straights. Cops
would know, without much doubt, that there’s almost no chance of the protestors
beating them. So, they could do whatever they wanted with them. Mr. Buhler here,
though? He might as well be walking up to the cops, throwing a Royal Flush on
the table, and saying, “Try me, bitches.”

It’s not just that he’s an old, white man with evidence of
high class status. He needs those things to make this work, yes, but those
things alone would only put him on par with the cops. He needs more in order to
make this as effective as it is.

So he puts on a white collar shirt and black slacks, but no tie, jacket, or briefcase: He
dresses nicely because he can, not because he’s going to work. In fact, he
might not be going anywhere. He’s definitely not trying to impress anyone, and
he wouldn’t care if the shirt got ruined—except that, you know, if you ruin it,
you’ll owe him a new one. He could afford ten of them no problem, but he’ll
make you buy the replacement on principle.

He takes a bicycle, but
he doesn’t ride it. He could be high-tailing it out of there as fast as his
legs will pedal him, but he’s choosing to walk. You won’t hit him. You won’t
touch him. He knows you’re on his side, because everyone is. He has enough
money to make sure of that. 

And here, despite the usual order, his weight is a benefit: This is a man who never leaves his chair. He never runs paperwork to his boss, because he doesn’t have one. He
never gets coffee from the break room, because he has a secretary and three
assistants who do that for him. He can either afford a restaurant every day, or he has a trophy wife who brings his food to him wherever he prefers to eat it. 

So, he walks. He
walks slow and looks around. He moves straight through the dangerous spots as
if it’s just too much of a bother to avoid them. He knows you’ll move out of
his way, because everyone does,
sooner or later. He’s used to being accommodated, no matter how inconvenient he gets.

This isn’t just a rich, old, white man. This is a carefully
crafted, impeccably replicated, Rich, Old, White Man™ of the most dangerous
order. This is a politician who will fire your entire department because you
dented the bike he never uses. This is a lawyer who would rather sue you for
twice the cost of damages than draw another breath. This is the spoiled CEO who
thinks assigning every lawyer he’s got to finding legal ways of making you
suffer is a normal reaction to being insulted. This is a man who, for whatever
reason, knows that nothing you can do to him will be worse than what will happen
to you if you do it.

Sounds like that’s not who Mr. Buhler really is, of course,
but having grown up in a town full of just that kind of man? That’s 100% what
he looks like in those pictures. And no, the cops don’t touch those men. The cops want to be friends with those men, because those men are the Friends in High Places that could get them promotions or raises while erasing all evidence of their misdeeds.

this is how you lawful good

That analysis from @stuffidonthaveablogfor is breathtakingly on-point.