History Memes

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Just a few bad red apples! (media.piefed.social)

submitted 4 days ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

You do know that the captain in charge and six of the eight soldiers were found not guilty of any crime by a court of the colonists themselves... The idea of the event as a "massacre" was propaganda rather than truth.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The jury agreed with Adams's arguments and acquitted six of the soldiers after 21⁄2 hours of deliberation. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they had fired directly into the crowd. The jury's decisions suggest that they believed that the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd but should have delayed firing.[73] The convicted soldiers pled benefit of clergy, the right to a lesser sentence for a first offender. This reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.[74]

[–] teft@piefed.social 9 points 4 days ago

This reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.[74]

That's a hell of a reduction.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yes, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with your original meme. The British soldiers really were reasonably well disciplined and the colonists really were threatening them. The incident wasn't an example of British oppression. I suppose that one might say that the two convicted soldiers were "bad apples" but I suspect that they might not have been convicted by a less hostile jury.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The idea of the event as a “massacre” was propaganda rather than truth.

As the redcoats' defending attorney noted:

As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right. This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The defense attorney, being John Adams, wasn't exactly unbiased. (And, to the extent that blaming someone other than the soldiers may have helped sway the jury, he was also just being a good lawyer.)

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The point being made here is that the issue is not "a few bad apples," but of the use of and enabling of repressive apparatus of force against civilians as policy. The lines of apologia can be applied equally in the modern day as then - and equally ridiculous, unless you're the kind of person who supports policing forces bashing 13 year old kids in the head with a gun buttstock for the crime of being annoying.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago

Considering I have this account tagged as “Fascist enabler” I think we can assume this is the kind of agitation propaganda they typically troll with and we can all point and laugh and tell them to fuck all the way off.