My forehead involuntarily hit my desk.
I’m guessing that, being Australian, she wasn’t aware of the stigma of using water cannons in the US. A water cannon is probably less harmful than tazers, rubber bullets and tear gas, but the use of them would immediately draw shouts of racism.
Maybe use dingos and have them eat the protestors’ babies.
Thanks @elguapo22222. I’m Australian and I had no idea what this post was referring to before your explanation.
Why not, perhaps, round up all the criminals and ship them off to a remote island?
Why not combine German Shepherds and water cannons?
Why not just leaflet the area and drop a daisy cutter?
Why not try listening to the people and understand why they’re so upset?
Yes, that surprised me, too. From my non-American perspective they don’t seem worse than what is going on already.
And just maybe give them all HIV and nuke the transgender baby whales? And maybe getting a banking tax break, plus tiered internet laws passed while we are at it. 
Here’s what Americans (who are old enough) remember about hoses.
How about wacky water sprinklers. No one likes to walk around in wet clothes, you’ll chafe. So everyone would just go home.
How about just opening all the fire hydrants?
Yeah, and why not calmly explain to someone who may not know why a remark they made was wrong instead of tearing them to shreds on the Internet?
Also, pretty sure people are upset because police killed an unarmed person who had reportedly surrendered.
Pretty easy to understand why she wouldn’t be aware of the stigma.
Yes, in the US water cannons bring up a lot of uncomfortable memories. It is also a big deal with fire departments, who after the abuses of civil rights protesters realized that they were on the wrong side of history by siding with the cops.
I work with a lot of fire fighters in a volunteer capacity, and one, a retired chief from Texas was telling me that in the 80’s there was protesting in his town, and the cops wanted him to bring fire engines and hoses to blast people, and he refused. He was adamant that he wasn’t going to allow another “Kent State” and remove people’s trust in the fire department to protect them. The police threatened to use their authority to commandeer the trucks, so he personally took all the keys out of the engines and held them on his person so they would need to arrest him if they wanted to take them and use the water cannons on protesters. Very sensitive issue for fire departments now.
Yes, we don’t have any comparable single iconic event although - or perhaps because - water cannon use isn’t that rare.
But I have often noticed that the dynamics of riots look very different in America. They seem to go from zero to deadly serious in no time with so little middle ground.
You’re right. Its totally unreasonable for a US domestic news reporter, who’s been working in the US since 1998, to understand the historical context of her statements, especially in racially charged circumstances.
To protect and serve themselves, at all costs to others.
She should definitely be attacked for getting something wrong though. I’ve figured out that the best way to change someone’s opinion on something is to attack them. They never get their backs up, feel threatened and buckle down.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they’d do that now.
