Political Science Professor Omar Wasow authored an op-ed in The New York Times titled "We’re Seeing the Weakness of a Strong State."
I study the political consequences of protest and state violence. So when federal immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month, I was reminded of Jimmie Lee Jackson.
On the night of Feb. 18, 1965, police officers and state troopers attacked civil rights demonstrators in Marion, Ala. Jackson, a 26-year-old woodcutter, fled with his mother and grandfather into a cafe. Troopers followed them inside and began beating his mother; Jackson tried to protect her. The state trooper James Bonard Fowler shot him in the stomach. Eight days later, Jackson died. His killing incited the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., and his death helped pass the Voting Rights Act.
Sixty years later in Minneapolis, we had two civilians (one, like Jackson in 1965, trying to protect someone else) killed in the same month and a militarized occupation of an American city.
What we are seeing is the weakness of strong states. Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesn’t just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy.