Rebel of the Week: Shamar Thomas
October 20th, 2011
The Occupiers held a massive demonstration at Times Square on October 15th, which was an international day of protest. Thomas joined the Occupiers where he saw police assaulting Occupiers, including a woman he says a cop punched in the face. He then delivered the following impromptu tongue lashing.
He stopped about two dozen officers with just the force of his words. As police cleared the streets of nonviolent protesters with batons and shields Thomas shouted back, “It does not make you tough to hurt these people,” and “There is no honor in hurting unarmed civilians!” He added “You guys are walking around in riot gear like this is a war. These people don’t have guns… This is not a war zone!” But the most poignant question Thomas asked officers wsa “How do you sleep at night.” I honestly don’t know how they answer.
The video was so popular that Thomas was later where he tells the story of facing hostile crowds throwing rocks at his battalion and the Marines demonstrated greater restraint than these domestic police officers. Thomas later added, “I was involved in a riot in Rutbah, Iraq in 2004 and we did not treat the Iraqi citizens like they are treating the unarmed civilians in our own country.” It’s a sad commentary on how far we’ve allowed our country to slip into a police state.
Here’s why I’m ambivalent. Thomas also said, “If you want to hurt people go to Iraq and Afghanistan.” Now maybe that’s just rhetoric, but I think that’s a despicable thing to say. If they want to hurt people they should start their own Fight Club and beat the snot out of each other, in my opinion. He also said, “These cops are hurting people that I fought to protect” and “My whole family fought to protect this country.” Maybe that’s rhetoric too, but if he still believes that the military is sending soldiers on missions that protect the American people there’s a lot he hasn’t processed.
Thomas served two tours in Iraq, and he comes from a military family. His mother was in the Army in Iraq. His step father is active duty Army in Afghanistan. His grand father was in the Air Force in Vietnam and his great grand father was in the Navy during World War II. I understand how difficult it can be to confront generations of orthodoxy in a military family. Maybe it is just rhetoric. Maybe Sgt. Shamar Thomas was as much of a champion for unarmed civilians in Iraq as he was in New York. But if he wasn’t, and he behaved as most Marines do, and he hasn’t processed that trauma, it may be that some small inside voice is bubbling up with statements his subconscious wishes someone had yelled at him:
“It does not make you tough to hurt these people.”“There is no honor in hurting unarmed civilians!”“How do you sleep at night?”
