The Trick With Double Standards

I get what people are saying when they go after people who are celebrating the lack of arrests at Saturday’s protests. But here’s a counterpoint: we now have a benchmark protest of enormous scale with no arrests that we can point to *every time* there are unjustified arrests going forward. We have a marker to show exactly what the double standard looks like.

That’s not something we’ve had in the popular consciousness for a long while. It’s a useful thing to have, particularly when there are so many laws being drafted up to make protesting illegal all across the country.

So yes: being upset that there are double standards in use by the powers that be is completely justified. Yet let us also consider the ways that this moment is a powerful touchstone which can be used to spotlight injustice going forward.

Use one victory to create momentum for the next.