Americans waking up to the reality of police brutality being widespread: Analyst

Americans are waking up to the reality of police brutality against people of color being widespread in the United States, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig said it is not surprising that US President Donald Trump supports police brutality which is one of greatest threats to American civil society.

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on a statement by President Trump.

Trump is promoting a conspiracy theory that ANTIFA has set up the police assault on an elderly man, which left him lying motionless as blood pooled on the sidewalk with the officers walking away.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump pointed the finger at the anti-fascist group, citing his favorite right-wing One America News Network (OANN) after the tragic footage appeared of the 75-year-old man in Buffalo, New York.

"Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment," Trump said. "I watched, he fell harder than was pushed… Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?"

Gugino fell harder than pushed: Trump blames ANTIFA for set-up

US President Donald Trump is promoting a conspiracy theory that ANTIFA has set up the police assault on an elderly man.

Hoenig said, “It is no secret that most police officers vote Republican and support Trump. It is no secret either that the police, as an institution, lie all the time about their own criminal behavior. It is no secret that our judicial system colludes with the police in order to get convictions, which enhances the political reputations of the prosecutors.”

“And it is no secret that President Trump would take the side of the police when they say someone tripped rather than shoved by them, and to say that that individual who was a pacifist fighter against fascism and the man who was assaulted by the police, Martin Gugino, was a radical fanatic of the Antifa organization, which doesn’t exist,” he stated.

“All throughout the country, more and more people are waking up to this fact. The police are in no doubt one of our greatest threats to civil society. Our country is split now more than ever. In the 50s and 60s race was the major dividing line. In the 60s and 70s it was the Vietnam War. Today the dividing line is between all that the Black Lives Matter concerns are valid or that white privilege shields so many people of this realization,” he noted.  

“Unfortunately, we’re in a period where there are plenty of other dividing lines that are just as potentially catastrophic to the future of the US,” he said.

“The incident with Gugino is horrible but minor, especially compared to how people of color are treated by the police every day. We have seen numerous examples all over the country of this happening during this American Spring. The police are on one side and the majority of the people on the other,” he added.  

“The call for defunding (not eliminating) the police is widespread. Democratic members of Congress shamefully dress up in Kente cloth pretending to support the goals of BLM. Armed white rightwing terrorists, at the demonstrations and for their own, walk the streets with impunity as the police look away,” he said.

“When Freddy Gray was murdered by the police in 2015 in Baltimore the uprising lasted only about 2 weeks. It is surprising that the murder of George Floyd has energized so many for so long. But there is always a breaking point and his murder just might be it,” the analyst noted.

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