re: 75 year old man pushed to the ground by police

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Again, this doesn't make the point you think it does, and it actually represents its own insidious type of idealism.

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Not really. This is about as basic of a risk assessment as it gets.

You realize that the cop saw the guy walking toward him from at least 6 feet? It was clear both hands were holding things, one of which was clearly a helmet. This is terrible risk assessment.

But you're deflecting.

Can’t wait until next week when a cop punches a new born in the face and people here blame the baby for crawling the cops general direction

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honestly, if this is how you really believe, then you should be protesting with everyone else

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Again, it's just a basic risk assessment. You can insert your ideological stance all you want, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation.

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You’re arguing in favor of police escalating the situation and that we should be okay with that. You realize that, right?

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That's obviously your jaded interpretation of what I said. I'm just stating that it's reasonable to assume something might go south if you stand in front police in riot gear advancing toward you. I'm not saying that's an acceptable or ideal assumption. I'm just saying it's the current reality. I don't like the heavy handedness of police, but I can still recognize it may result in something bad if/when I challenge them.

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But mmmmm mmmm the boots are cooked well and tender in this thread. You can suck down the boot laces like spaghetti

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and again, if you think everyone should assess the risk of walking up to a cop as "this will probably end bad for me", then you should absolutely be out protesting against police brutality

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These weren't cops going about their daily routine and walking their beat. If this happened during a normal day, I would say your assessment would be reasonable.

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You can insert your ideological stance all you want, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation.

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You don't even see how your own ideological stance is affecting your perception. You are saying that if a person approaches police, who are prepared for a riot, should have the reasonable expectation of violence by virtue of the fact that the police are prepared for a riot. In addition, the police are so bad at risk assessment that they can't properly categorize someone who is a risk and someone who isn't, negating the need for risk assessment in the first place. If everyone is a potential adversary, then what is the point of the assessment?

Not only that, you are removing the entire context from this specific situation to justify this extremely flimsy defense of risk assessment, and then resort to some half-assed "bothsideism." For what end, who knows? There doesn't seem to be a riot going on in this video, there are absolutely no other protesters near them, and yet these people who are paid by tax dollars are so amped up that they can't even do a proper assessment of the situation. There was one group that escalated the situation, and it wasn't the old man. Again, you aren't making the points you think you are.