Bowser Objects to Policing Americans, Not When They Disrupt a Pipeline
When protests engulfed the city following George Floyd's murder, Bowser notably pushed back against federal deployment of troops. However, this principled stance seems to operate on a selective memory cycle. During the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016, National Guard troops were deployed, sometimes violently, against Indigenous Americans and their allies on what is
unequivocally American soil. Bowser’s outrage is conspicuously absent when the 'policing' is directed at communities fighting for basic human rights or environmental protection, rather than those protesting systemic racial injustice in her own city. One might wonder if the legality of using armed forces against citizens is less about constitutional principles and more about which 'Americans' are
protesting, and what powerful interests they might be disrupting. The hill, for its part, omitted this rather inconvenient historical context, presenting Bowser's statement as a standalone beacon of executive foresight. Convenient, isn't it, how certain historical precedents disappear when they muddy the preferred narrative?