If and when that no longer works, when people rise up and say, "No more," then force is the next option. They may use military hardware, or assault rifles, or rubber bullets, or water-hoses, trying to provoke a reaction that they can use to justify their repression. Independent media are forced out. Only the powerful and their puppets are allowed to speak, to interpret situations of resistance.
When oppressed people stand up for themselves and their communities, and will not be made silent, will not return to the way things were, the next response is to call for calm. Why calm? Because the primary power of oppressed people in situations of ongoing collective violence is to shed light on their reality. By rallying, resisting, and protesting police and paramilitary repression, they reveal the violence already at work before the "conflict" the rest of us didn't see.
I lived in the Saint Louis metro for three years while at Eden Seminary. It was, and still is, a very segregated area. While Ferguson, MO is over 60% African-American, the political power structure as well as police force remains overwhelmingly white. The slaying of Michael Brown was just the catalyst for a reaction against a larger system of oppression, of police brutality, the militarization of policing, and incarceration. This is our America.
Do not be fooled by calls for calm or an end to conflict. Conflict can be productive when it uncovers (as a divine revelation?) hidden violence. Calm can be an opiate to acquiesce to the status quo. No, sometimes the most faithful response to oppression is an uprising to assert one's dignity. Hands up!
Seeking a liberating peace,
Timothy Murphy
Executive Director