I will say that the Black Lives Matter protest I went to was very fun. If you ever think about going to one, though, make sure you learn to move very fast on your feet. The truth about CS gas is that it spreads slowly and then disperses quickly in open air situations, so if you retreat fast and thereby avoid exposure, you can regroup fast and thereby effectively stymie attempts by police to keep you from being where you want to be.
For me, one place where the police really crossed the line was when they tried bringing out mounted police officers. I screamed that the horses could get seriously hurt in this situation, calling out to both the police and the crowd, and when the dumbasses tried to do a charge the crowd, anyhow, the horses balked. So much for the cops having control over their mounts. The horses are not robots. They are people and not particularly bright ones. To their credit, after I loudly lectured the crowd on how badly those horses could get hurt, the cops apparently heard and backed off after that, but I was furious. They were not in an appropriate situation for that maneuver.
Anyhow, one important thing to keep in mind about these types of protests is that, as nice as it sounds to say that people with disabilities should have a voice, we had issues with people that had seizure disorders, breathing disorders, and outright being bound to a wheelchair disorders. Police are like horses, and by that, I mean that they are people with unpredictable people emotions and are kind of stupid and are therefore likely to make profoundly dangerous errors in judgment. Their training is designed for dealing with teenage and twenty-something athletes at the prime of their lives. Police do not have abstract thought. They don't know what to do with a person that has a disability unless they are specifically trained. If you have a disability that keeps you from being able to sprint about a city block, then please, in the name of our sanity, either watch from a balcony where you can help with eye-in-the-sky intel, or help by trucking in water and other supplies, thank you.
Anyhow, the good thing is that police are not really likely to start using lethal agents like nerve agents or blister agents. I don't really chalk this up to their graciousness or humanity, but I think they just recognize that if they seriously threatened the lives of more than one thousand disaffected civilians, then those civilians would quickly become bloodthirsty combatants and kill them very dead. If you are in reasonably good health, then the police are not likely to gas you with anything that they themselves are not routinely exposed to as part of their training. CS gas is inconveniencing and annoying, but it will not permanently damage you unless you are subjected to very heavy long-term exposure and do not have the presence of mind to get away from the stuff until it has dispersed.
The police are not really going to get away from you if you and your friends run about one city block in all directions, and there are enough people watching from balconies and drone-cams that you will be able to find your cop friends again. Do not be tempted to stay there huffing gas, you inattentive douche-rocket. Tactics, logistics, and intel are how you beat them. Again, that stuff disperses very fast. You are not running away, but you are regrouping for another charge.
Hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate some more. It really annoys me when people at protests pass out from dehydration. Come on, people.
Throwing water bottles at body armored police officers...um...okay. Right. Friggin' kids. Friggin' puerile. Grumble grumble.
So about police misconduct, I want to say that, while I generally like police, I also like the fact that, when too many police have ignored basic social boundaries, the people are able to organize an effective civil uprising. By that, I do not mean an uprising to overthrow the government or to disrupt the democratic process, but I mean an uprising aimed at demonstrating that the people, if they choose to unite, are stronger than the government. The purpose of such uprisings is not to overthrow the government but, instead, to remind the government that their authority is based on trust, which is conditional, revocable, and not given for free.
As far as defunding police, don't misunderstand me when I say this, but I think it's actually brilliant. When local police are actually endangering people's lives due to chronic misconduct or acting with the demented belief that they are the ruling elites of an east Asian dictatorship, then we would better spend their wages on education, public works, new equipment for the fire department, and so on. If they don't want to lose their wages, then they can stop taking their wages for granted. They are not going to improve their behavior unless it is clear to them that there will be lasting consequences if they fail to improve their behavior.
However, I also think that the right application for defunding is at the local level, and I also think that police should be rewarded for innovation, improved community engagement, and otherwise responding in visible ways to social pressure. I don't think the "defunding" argument should go only one way. If police are revolutionizing how they do their jobs, then that is actually worthy of being rewarded. If they are willing to actively take part in reforms directed at making them more of a part of our communities, then I am aware that those kinds of improvements are more resource-intensive and require them to work longer hours. I am aware that more extensive training costs money.
Nevertheless, it actually is necessary to push for defunding when police are actually murdering civilians and not even allowing those crimes to be given thorough investigation. When civilians die and the details of their deaths are brushed under the rug and explained away with some buzzwords and bullshit, then seriously, fuck that with a nailboard.
People say, "If you don't want the police to arrest you, then don't commit crimes," but I say, "If you don't want the people to riot, then don't commit crimes against them." Actions have consequences. The police and their supporters have forgotten that that principle works both ways, and until they have acknowledged that the principle works both ways, they will continue having problems.