true, they do both. whatever works best for controlling people and destroying their collective power.
mostly they often just stand around and don’t do anything to either incite or dissolve the energy of the protest, but rather just arrest people who damage private property or fight back against the cops.
they will even often be the ones trying to turn the crowd against people who’s rage leads to more aggressive actions like vandalism at a protest. anything to divide the crowd amongst itself.
i assume no one is a cop until i have some kind of evidence more concrete than what someone at a protest for genuine reasons would do (i.e.- carrying handcuffs, being seen behind police lines talking with other cops, etc…
i assume no one is a cop until i have some kind of evidence more concrete
problem is the evidence never comes because the evidence for who is and isn’t a cop is controlled by the police. this is like the people who say “we can’t say it was a CIA coup until they release the declassification 50 years from now.” keeping in mind suspcious behavior that cops generally engage in is not the same as pointing at someone specific and “cop jacketing” them. which i imagine cops probably infiltrate protests and try to cop jacket legitimate people anyway. so add cop jacketing to the list of suspicious behaviors cops probably engage in.
