Is resorting to violence a legitimate form of protest? We can expand this question to ask, is defending one’s country from an invading force through the use of violent resistance, legitimate? The featured artwork from Banksy deals with this complex issue as it was created in the West Bank in 2003. 20 years later Hamas launched their brutal assault on Israel, and things are much worse for both the people living in Gaza and the West Bank. Are they closer or further away from freedom?

Why did South Africa manage to find a peaceful resolution to a decades long conflict, yet Israel and Palestine are still fighting? What started as civil disobedience and peaceful non-cooperation, dramatically changed after the Apartheid regime opened fire on protesters in what is known as the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960. Nelson Mandela and a group of ANC members decided to take up arms after this incident as peaceful protests were being met with extreme violence. 

It took 30 years of armed resistance for the Apartheid Government to finally ask the white minority if they wanted peace, or suffer perpetual war. The 1992 Referendum overwhelmingly chose peace, almost 70% of white people wanted the National Party to negotiate with Nelson Mandela and the ANC. South Africa held its first free and fair elections in 1994, 46 years after Apartheid was made the official policy of the NP in 1948. 

BANKSY: The figure’s posture, ready to throw, conveys both tension and resistance, representing the desire for change in oppressive environments. As art critic David J. M. Allen suggests, “The flowers symbolize hope, while the figure’s stance reflects defiance against oppression.” The bouquet in the figure’s hand acts as a symbol of hope, calling for peace in a world often marked by violence and conflict. The defiance shown by the figure reflects a universal call for peaceful resistance, a core message in many of Banksy’s works.

Art historian Anne-Marie Koo interprets Banksy’s broader message in pieces like Flower Thrower as an effort to provoke societal reflection, as well as engagement. She notes, “Banksy’s work challenges societal norms, pushing viewers to rethink the role of art in activism.” This artwork, in particular, engages with themes of peace, resistance, and activism, urging viewers to reconsider the effectiveness and morality of violence as a means of protest. – Wiki –

Some of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, and the J6 protest of 2021, descended into violent anarchy that shook America to the core. These events followed a pattern of escalating violent confrontations between the Proud Boys and Antifa. In some instances protesters were fully armed and it is a miracle that America did not descend into a full blown Civil War. It is anyone’s guess what would have happened if Donald Trump lost the 2024 election. 

How will both ordinary citizens and the government respond to the inevitable mass protests on the horizon. Will they be peaceful, and will authorities clamp down hard as a promised by 47? When Elon Musk and Ben Shapiro ask DT to pardon the former policeman responsible for George Floyd’s death, it almost feels as if they are picking a fight. As if they relish the opportunity to make good on their promise of LAW AND ORDER. 

It would be interesting to know what you think about this conundrum. Peaceful resistance or violent resistance, and what is the red line separating these two very different approaches to dealing with oppression.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: – Killing in the Name – ‘A howling, expletive-driven tirade against the ills of American society”.

GEORGE FLOYD: Elon Musk weighed in on a movement to pardon former police officer Derek Chauvin, saying the controversial action was ‘something to think about.’ 

Chauvin, the disgraced Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering George Floyd back in 2020, is currently serving concurrent state and federal sentences in a federal prison in Arizona.

Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire has begun an effort to pardon Chauvin with an open letter to Donald Trump, calling his conviction ‘the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics.’

‘Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation,’ Shapiro said.

Musk reposted a video of Shapiro arguing for Chauvin to be pardoned by the president and commented: ‘Something to think about.’

Shapiro added that the incident would allow the country to ‘turn the page’ on the ‘Woke’ era and end ‘the weaponization of the American justice system.’

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that Trump’s potential pardon wouldn’t ‘free’ Chauvin since he’s still concurrently serving a state sentence.

‘The only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law,’ Ellison told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Chauvin’s anticipated release date is December 10, 2035. Attempting to restrain the man, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for what officials would later deem was 9 minutes and 29 seconds, fatally asphyxiating him in the process.

In his final moments, Floyd uttered the words ‘I can’t breathe’ – creating a rallying cry for a subsequent civil rights movement in the process. – Stephen M Lepore for DM 5/3/2025

RODNEY KING: Killing in the Name” is a song by the American rock band Rage Against the Machine, and appears on their 1992 self-titled debut album. 

Killing in the Name” combines elements of punk and hip hop and has been described as alternative metal, rap metal, rap rock, hard rock, and proto-nu metal. The journalist Peter Buckley described it as “a howling, expletive-driven tirade against the ills of American society”. 

The song builds in intensity, as de la Rocha chants the line “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”, building in a crescendo the next four times and aggressively screaming the line the final eight times, culminating with the scream “Motherfucker!” The song contains the word “fuck” 17 times.

The lyrics were inspired by the police brutality suffered by Rodney King and the subsequent 1992 Los Angeles riots. The refrain “some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses” draws a link between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Ku Klux Klan. – Wiki

Mar 06, 2025 12:50:35 am