From: julianlzb87@gmail.com   
      
   They say you should never meet your heroes, a rule that is not always   
   correct. But I did have a salutary session some years ago when a friend   
   in New York asked me if I wanted to meet a comedian I really do admire.   
      
   I had been looking forward to the meeting, but unfortunately it took   
   place during the summer of 2020. If you remember those far-distant days,   
   this was a time when America was obsessing over the story of alleged   
   disproportionate police violence against black Americans. One of the   
   cases was that of a woman named Breonna Taylor. Although the case for   
   the police’s actions and the victim’s innocence revolved around a number   
   of issues, the main one was whether officers should have shot when they   
   did. As ever, this involved highly specific ballistics issues and a   
   considerable amount of hindsight. For two hours I sat with my comedy   
   hero discussing post-mortem reports and bullet trajectories.   
      
   Certainly I have had funnier meetings. I went away dismayed for a number   
   of reasons. One was the fact that this seemed such a bizarre way to   
   litigate a case. Yes it was important, but is it healthy for everyone to   
   obsess over it in such minute detail?   
      
   The thought recurred to me this week with the shooting of a second   
   protestor by ICE officials in Minnesota. These officials are currently   
   going after a good many people who broke into America illegally and have   
   then continued to commit other crimes while in the country. The point of   
   why the American taxpayer should continue to fund and allow this is a   
   sore one for many. Other Americans – mainly on the left – believe that   
   ICE either should not perform these raids, or should conduct them with a   
   greater degree of decorum. As a result, prominent Democrat politicians   
   and others have been encouraging protestors to stand in ICE’s way,   
   something which already led to the death of Renée Nicole Good three   
   weeks ago.   
      
   The nature of this second shooting – of an anti-ICE protestor called   
   Alex Pretti – has now returned America to the ballistics obsession.   
   Online rumours claimed that the ICU nurse had fired at officers with a   
   gun he was carrying. Then it was suggested that his firearm may have   
   accidentally discharged.   
      
   The story has led the bulletins around the world. And it made me wonder   
   again about this state of things. Yes, it is important to Americans who   
   their federal officials take shots at, and why. But why are these cases   
   getting so much more attention in the news cycle than, say, the reported   
   shootings of tens of thousands of brave protestors on the streets of Iran?   
      
   The answer is, in part, a very simple one: visuals. As with the handful   
   of black people killed by US police during the 2010s, these recent ICE   
   killings benefit from taking place in a society where almost everyone   
   owns a phone camera. Think of the number of angles the world was able to   
   see of the death of George Floyd. Members of the public had cameras;   
   police turned out to have bodycam footage.   
      
   It is the same with those killed while trying to monitor or stop ICE   
   going about their duties. Within minutes of the event, the news has gone   
   around the internet. People are able to analyse the footage for   
   themselves and reach their own conclusions. Then a second angle video   
   comes out, sometimes a third and so on. Law enforcement officers’   
   footage will emerge, too. Within 24 hours everybody can be an expert,   
   not just on the shooting, but on how differently they might have reacted   
   were they the federal agent in such a situation coming across a handgun.   
      
   Which returns me to the subject of Iran.    Why hasn’t there been a   
   greater global outcry about the untold number of protestors being gunned   
   down on its streets by regime thugs intent on suppressing the   
   anti-regime movement? Why, even weeks after Donald Trump gave warning   
   that the world would not stand by and watch Iranians being massacred,   
   has nothing been done to support the protests?   
      
   I am afraid the explanation is that we haven’t watched the violence   
   unfold in real time, because of a difference between free and unfree   
   societies. Censorship works. If you search online, you can find footage   
   of the aftermath of the Iran massacres. There are even some tapes that   
   appear to show the Basij militia and other regime forces taking aim at   
   the crowds. But the mullahs were clever at the outset of these   
   uprisings. They turned off the internet and other communications   
   channels, and as a result the world has had to rely on small bits of   
   footage smuggled out by dissidents.   
      
   All this is happening in a visual culture where if something hasn’t   
   appeared online then it effectively has not happened. What are mere   
   reports of tens of thousands of Iranians being killed if we lack the   
   visuals?   
      
   Of course, one reason for the lack of balance is that the violence is   
   happening in one country – America – and the other in a theocratic   
   dictatorship. But it is also the fact that when the mullahs flick the   
   switch and carry out massacres in effective darkness their trick works.   
   The US President and others warned the Iranians not to execute   
   protestors in public. There was talk of the suspension of some public   
   hangings. But there has been no reported let-up in the public shootings   
   of thousands. The only thing we have lacked is the crucial footage of   
   every interaction that might have caused the world to feel forced to   
   know – and act.   
      
   More footage is coming out. The window seems to be closing when outside   
   intervention, plus the domestic pressure inside Iran, might have   
   coalesced. If that is the case then it is obviously a tragedy for the   
   Iranian people. It also says something tragic about our own culture.   
   Dictatorships manipulate – that is their operating procedure. But for us   
   to allow ourselves to be manipulated is another thing entirely.   
      
      
   Douglas Murray   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)