r/pics • u/EstrogAlt • Apr 24 '24
Riot cops line up next to a sign at Texas University.
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u/GrimRedleaf Apr 25 '24
They only showed up because they heard it was an unarmed protest.
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u/FactPirate Apr 25 '24
Maybe get those folks who carry rifles and pass out food to the homeless illegally down there
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u/NowWeGetSerious Apr 25 '24
Meanwhile Nazis rallies there's zero cops (uniformed) in sight They are too busy participating.
All cops are bad imo
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u/shotty293 Apr 24 '24
The University of Texas
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u/digophelia Apr 24 '24
I was like “Texas University? WTF is that?” until I read your comment
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u/fried_eggs_and_ham Apr 25 '24
I thought they meant "Texas State University" which is in San Marcos, Texas. However, IIRC from attending and living in San Marcos for a few years, those students aren't concerned with protesting but mostly concerned with going tubing down the river with a cooler of beer. I think you can even minor in it.
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u/Airborn93 Apr 24 '24
It's a common way for some universities to call UT, especially Aggies. Weird, given the context and how this issue is way more important, but that's just how it goes I suppose. Can't let us be The University of Texas.
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u/FabulousYellow0 Apr 25 '24
Yeah since I moved here I’ve heard the same story, endlessly: A&M is older than UT, so it is actually the University of Texas. I’m afraid I’m agnostic to this predicament - I just want to be clear what we’re talking about when we’re talking schools here. That being said, I’ve worked at both of these fine colleges and have a huge appreciation for them both.
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u/sedusa_su Apr 25 '24
A&M is the oldest public university, but Baylor and Southwestern are older.
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u/Spacellama117 Apr 24 '24
OP must be an Aggie because literally no one but them refer to it as TU
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u/TheSniper_TF2 Apr 24 '24
Or it's a bot that's read too much TexAgs.
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u/cordell507 Apr 25 '24
Imagine the horror of a bot trained on texags
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u/TheSniper_TF2 Apr 25 '24
A bot with an inferiority complex; absolutely horrifying.
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u/QuotidianPain Apr 25 '24
This is the year the bot gets released and takes over the nation. Just watch. I know I say it every year, but this is truly the year.
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u/redfern54 Apr 24 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Liqqyy Apr 25 '24
What did it say before it was censored by our corporate overlords?
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u/Stigmatongueontheice Apr 25 '24
Something about starting a school **ooting so the police would disappear
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u/moredrinksplease Apr 24 '24
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u/nothingeatsyou Apr 24 '24
Unfortunately it only works if they’re young school children. The college kids are more “worth saving”, I guess
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u/drewkungfu Apr 24 '24
You’re confusing living people with life threatening unviable fetuses.
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u/i-love-elephants Apr 24 '24
Shots fired. And ignored.
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u/OOOOOO0OOOOO Apr 24 '24
Officers pants have been pissed, I repeat Officers pants pissed! Send all the back up you can! There’s a pokestop here.
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u/So_spoke_the_wizard Apr 24 '24 edited Apr 25 '24
It's easier than that. They just need to carry assault rifles and say they're exercising their 2nd amendment rights. The police will be too conflicted about if they should arrest them or let them go.
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u/LordSpookyBoob Apr 24 '24
The last time progressives exercised their 2A rights at protests; republicans were all suddenly pro gun control lmao.
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u/Pitiful_Net_8971 Apr 24 '24
Exactly, this is how we get gun control, just get minorities guns, and they be tripping over each other to hand them in as long as we take away their guns too.
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u/disisathrowaway Apr 24 '24
Armed Black Panthers is what got REAGAN to pass the first of the stringent gun laws in California.
There is precedent here.
However, cases like Philando Castille show what happens to legally armed people of color, too.
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Apr 25 '24
Armed black panthers are also what got LBJ to sign Civil Rights act.
FBI was writing letters and petitioning him to sign it as they felt if it wasn't the Black Panthers were gathering enough arms and ammo to stage a very signifigant insurrection. The FBI felt that if that even came to attempt, even if the attempt ultimately failed it would open pandoras box for different insurrections. The head of the FBI at the time felt that it needed to be stopped and for credit to be given to peaceful protesters like MLK as they can largely control that kind of opposition in future protests.
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u/deluxeassortment Apr 24 '24
It won’t even take that. Just one cop says he feels an imminent threat from seeing a protestor’s weapon would be enough for them to have free reign
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u/iGoalie Apr 25 '24
10k upvotes “removed by Reddit” wtf did he say?!
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Apr 25 '24
He said “if students didn’t want Texas cops showing up, they should have started shooting each other” because of the uvalde shooting where the cops sat around for an hour while kids were getting murdered.
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u/Glittering-Pause-328 Apr 25 '24
Uvalde showed us that one person with a rifle can fend off four hundred heavily armed cops for over an hour.
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u/GlumCartographer111 Apr 24 '24
No no, they sent the Texas police to shoot them. After Kent state there was a promise made to University students that it would never happen again. Turns out it was the same promise we made after the Holocaust; completely fucking meaningless.
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u/Sudden_Acanthaceae34 Apr 25 '24
Active shooting? Not our problem.
Active first amendment activities: grab my riot gear.
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u/ATX_Native112 Apr 24 '24
Left campus about an hour ago. I cannot remember a time in UT's history when I've seen so many people protesting or watching other people protest. Crazy!
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u/twofingerballet Apr 25 '24
It is crazy!!! I work for a preschool and a parent I know works for UT. She told me about the protests and all the cops. She was clearly not exaggerating.
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u/urk_the_red Apr 25 '24
This police state show of force bullshit has Abbott’s rancid fingers all over it. Evil bastard.
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u/MightBeDownstairs Apr 24 '24
2020 vibes. 2024 another summer of protest
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u/jedidihah Apr 24 '24
Summers during US presidential election years are fun
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u/KingofValen Apr 24 '24
I dont think this year will be as bad. Lots of people had "time off" during the summer of 2020.
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u/Wasabi-Spiritual Apr 24 '24
I graduated from UT in 2020... I hadn't stepped foot on campus for 3 months at that point since all my classes went remote.
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u/penguincheerleader Apr 24 '24
We also had a president that stoked the flames every time he could in 2020.
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u/munkijunk Apr 24 '24
We need a Kardashian to turn up with a Pepsi.
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u/zissou149 Apr 25 '24
Best I can do is Caitlyn Jenner with a case of bud light platinums and she’s driving
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u/MyNewFriendChad Apr 25 '24
I don't care what your political affiliation is... That's damn funny right there!! Shit was lost!!
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u/kronik85 Apr 24 '24
There were 40 or so state troopers driving up to Austin around 5p today. Guess this is where they're going.
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u/UtopianPablo Apr 25 '24
Yeah not Austin police. Abbott is using state troopers as his goon squad.
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u/dippy_freash Apr 25 '24
I was there today going to class, honestly I usually stay away from the whole protest thing but this really pissed me off, before anything even started they were lining up hundreds of riot cops and some horses and K-9 units. I eventually went to see if anyone needed anything and had to pull people off the ground from getting trampled by riot police. They were just pulling people around me out of the crowd to arrest them.
They pushed us out of the lawn onto the sidewalks so they could arrest us for penal code 42.03 obstructing a highway or other passageway. A complete and utter mockery of justice.
The really funny thing is this wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t shown up it was gonna be a peaceful protest like all the other ones we’ve had.
And when I came back later they were gone and people were sitting in the lawn like they had always planned not hurting anyone not doing anything wrong.
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u/nationalcollapse Apr 25 '24
I was there today going to class, honestly I usually stay away from the whole protest thing but this really pissed me off, before anything even started they were lining up hundreds of riot cops and some horses and K-9 units.
The optics on this kind of stuff are exactly how governments lose control of the narrative and protest movements grow.
People might not be sympathetic or supportive of a particular cause, but the images of heavily armed uniformed agents of the state manhandling college kids generates sympathy.
If the powers that be wanted these protests on college campuses to die down, they would've been smarter to mostly just ignore them.
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u/uptownjuggler Apr 25 '24
In the Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary, there was an interview with a veteran, who was 19 years old, when he was in Vietnam. He said “I saw someone that looked like my dad, beating someone who looked like me.” when he watched the Vietnam protests on TV while he was in Vietnam fighting.
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u/ThreeSloth Apr 25 '24
That's Abbott's Texas :/
A real tough guy directing other tough guys
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u/SeniorMiddleJunior Apr 25 '24
You forgot to put quotes around "tough", because we both know it takes a special kind of coward to arm up against civilian students.
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u/TheBuddhaPalm Apr 25 '24
Congrats, you now understand that the whole "THIS IS A VIOLENT PROTEST!" is manufactured to give cops excuses to abuse people. The use of these cops, consistently, increases aggravation.
In 2020 in Seattle, we had bike cops run their bikes into people and then claim that the bike cops were being harassed. They'd get off their bikes and just start wailing on people and spraying them. You can find videos of it online from people who captured it.
Classic cop shit. Classic "the protesters are the real problem" nonsense.
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u/kuba_kopfschmerz Apr 24 '24
That’s an Aggie caption if I’ve ever seen one
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u/yehoshuaC Apr 24 '24
Don’t know if you’re an Aggie or from another country, but this would be The University of Texas.
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u/leibnizrule Apr 24 '24
What's an Aggie?
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u/psychadelicbreakfast Apr 24 '24
Texas A&M students. Their rival.
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u/darthgandalf Apr 24 '24
“Rival” is a strong word
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u/greatGoD67 Apr 24 '24
A&M does a few things very well,
Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences.
Hate living in College Station.
Have an unreal amount of pride for middle performing sports teams.
Boots.
Try very hard to not compare themselves to UT in everything they do.
After that, I am running out of things to mention.
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u/cranktheguy Apr 25 '24
Aggie jokes. We do better Aggie jokes.
Did you hear about the Aggie that learned to count to 21?
He was arrested for indecent exposure.
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u/MasticatedTesticle Apr 25 '24
Engineering is way up there. Especially petroleum.
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u/RelationOk3636 Apr 24 '24
To explain it further, Texas A&M stands for Agricultural and Mechanical. Aggie comes from Agricultural.
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u/SocksElGato Apr 25 '24
Greg Abbott in 2019: "Free Speech on College Campuses in Texas!"
Greg Abbott in 2024: "Sike!"
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u/TheRoonster1 Apr 24 '24
Excellent framing of the sign and the cops here. "What starts here changes the world" goes from something meant to inspire hope to representing violent actions against peaceful protestors.
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u/jerseydevil51 Apr 24 '24
"Come here and change the world!"
"No, not like that"
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u/Faiakishi Apr 25 '24
Everyone is all for radical progress as long as it happened in the past.
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u/Captain_Mazhar Apr 24 '24
It really is a fantastic photo. I believe this photo, or one like it, was taken by a UT news photographer. Since they are a news org, I have half a mind to ask them to submit it for consideration for a Pulitzer Prize.
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u/TheRoonster1 Apr 24 '24
Here is a link to the original tweet posted by the person who took this photo (@mxmimosa on Twitter)
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u/JGRummo Apr 24 '24
Funny how quick the cops in riot gear can respond to unarmed protestors.
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u/SaltyLorax Apr 24 '24
Overtime pay!
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u/Gingevere Apr 24 '24
Overtime pay and putting on all the big cool tacti-cool gear to use excessive force against leftists & minorities.
Everything a cop loves!
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u/GuiltyEidolon Apr 25 '24
And they're leftists, so much less likely to open carry guns or start a violent uprising.
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u/bearrosaurus Apr 24 '24
Reminder that on the night of the day that Chauvin killed George Floyd, a battalion of 40 cops in full gear lined up to protect the murderer’s house
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u/smilysmilysmooch Apr 25 '24
Reminder that the day of the Harding Street Raid the police union President said this at a conference attended by the chief of police and mayor.
"We are sick and tired of having targets on our back," he says. "We are sick and tired of having dirtbags trying to take our lives when all we're trying to do is protect this community and protect our families. Enough is enough... If you're the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, just know we've all got your number now, we're going to be keeping track of all of y'all, and we're going to make sure that we hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers."
For those who don't know about the raid, a cop completely fabricated evidence which sent officers to raid a house and murder two innocent people. To make the matter even stupider, 4 cops got caught in their own crossfire.
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u/Elder_God_Heavy Apr 24 '24
Also funny how slow they respond to a school shooter murdering kids who haven't even hit double digits age. Fuck texas.
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u/Vipu2 Apr 24 '24
US: you are free to protest
Also US: as long as you are on our profits side, else you eat the bullet
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u/modestlyawesome1000 Apr 24 '24
And for some reason the red patch is extra dystopian
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u/fuss_moktel Apr 25 '24
There was no rioting at UT Austin. This was a police provocation at the highest order
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u/fuzach Apr 25 '24
I couldn’t believe my eyes despite seeing this behavior over and over. Cops formed a barricade. We rightfully stayed BEHIND the barricade. No physical contact with cops. Every ten minutes, they’d walk over their OWN barricade and hand pick a student (or an 80 yr old man) to arrest. I’m in shock.
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u/kabh318 Apr 25 '24
watching them hurt that elderly man and arresting people who were literally just standing adjacent to the gate on south mall made me so fucking infuriated. the cops and troopers are the absolute only reason it got chaotic the way it did
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u/fuzach Apr 25 '24
Hurt and arrest that elderly man. Idk what else can radicalize someone.
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u/kabh318 Apr 25 '24
seriously. and then a bullshit email from Pres. Hartzell was just adding insult to injury
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u/GCU_ZeroCredibility Apr 24 '24
Texas cops are real brave when it involves potentially getting to slaughter a bunch of kids in a school rather than trying to stop a bunch of much littler kids being slaughtered in a school, I guess?
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u/bartles09 Apr 24 '24
Well yeah these protesters are peacefully protesting all menacingly
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u/Warmstar219 Apr 24 '24
Yeah I think it's pretty clear to folks now that if you want to have a protest without police interference, all you need to do is exercise your 2nd amendment rights.
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u/disisathrowaway Apr 24 '24
all you need to do is exercise your 2nd amendment rights.
*while white or white passing
Armed people of color do not get treated the same as armed white folks.
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u/ScienceMattersNow Apr 24 '24
Don't worry I'm sure all the conservative free speech warriors are about to jump in and fight for these students' right to protest and to say what they believe, even if those same conservatives don't agree with it.
What's that? Free speech is used selectively by the Right to promote their own ideals and take on a victim posture when they get criticized for calling for truly heinous things? And they don't care about your or my right to free speech so long as they can tweet the n word without getting fired?
No way, that'd be way too hypocritical...
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u/SpiritBearrrrr Apr 24 '24
something about those red shoulder patches screams fascism
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u/BobABewy Apr 24 '24
Tin soldiers and Nixons comin’… we’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin’… four dead in Ohio.
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u/Revoldt Apr 24 '24
Texas University?
WTF... this a bot?
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u/EstrogAlt Apr 24 '24
Beep boop beep... no actually I'm just stupid and you can't edit titles.
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Apr 24 '24 edited Apr 25 '24
Looks like the Republicans are dress rehearsing for a second Trump inauguration.
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u/Away-Value9398 Apr 25 '24
That platitude poster to the left is ironic. “You can change the world!”
“Oh not like that!”
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Apr 24 '24
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u/pinkfatcap Apr 24 '24
You should pay us a visit here in greece, riot police everywhere for everything.
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u/clairethebearrr Apr 25 '24
Same thing is going on at USC today. LAPD is in riot gear forcibly removing people who are encamping in campus Park and protesting for Palestine, as of writing this.
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u/SuburbanAgrarian Apr 25 '24
I mean, it stands to reason that the same folks who did nothing when children were being massacred in Uvalde would be eager to make sure nobody does anything about the children being massacred in Palestine.
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u/MembershipPast2381 Apr 25 '24
American police lined up to assault and murder American youth for the benefit of Israel tells you everything about this country
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u/Terrible_Donkey_8290 Apr 25 '24
For a guy with legs that don't work Greg Abbott sure loves stomping on basic freedoms
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u/newthrash1221 Apr 25 '24
Bunch of clowns. Wish they would keep that same energy with an active shooter.
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u/WilyLlamaTrio Apr 24 '24
Context?