Man, I just don’t believe these protests would be where they are right now without the cops escalating it. At this point, I’m really worried it’s going to keep getting worse because the cops just can’t help themselves. Whether it’s them taking the bait of someone antagonistically putting up a tent or not is a bit beside the point. In a proper world, the government should act like the adult and try everything they can to deescalate. But I give that almost no chance of happening.
Hartzell may be the only one who can save this situation, and it will involve him acting like an adult and joining the protesters .. not in their message, but physically going down there, standing with them, stating that he supports their right to peacefully assemble, and ordering the police to stand down. Some will say that’s a risk to his personal safety now, but if he’d done it last week I truly don’t believe we’d be where we are today.
In the end, I guess my point is that Hartzell made this bed, and now he needs to fix it.