Jay wrote:
Larssen wrote:
Cause and effect jay. If that man wasn't needlessly murdered in such a disgusting way, you wouldn't have an entire neighbourhood rioting out in the streets. The anger of a mob is blind and in that moment of anarchy shit gets destroyed and stolen. Moreso by people who already despise the society they live in for whatever reason - especially if the murdered individual is perceived to be 'one of them'.
https://www.facebook.com/jay.schubert/v … 0497302343Here, I downloaded the video and made it public.
I don't have any problem with getting angry. I don't have any problem with protesting. I have a problem when they cross the line and start looting and burning. Maybe that's an arbitrary line to some people. Maybe it's just things that are replaceable and covered by insurance. To me, it's a complete destruction of trust and a big fuck you to everyone in society. I'm mad so I'm going to burn shit. No, you're not mad. Burning shit is fun and you're taking advantage of the situation to anonymously destroy shit that other people built just because you can. There's nothing noble in it. There's pictures all over social media of people posing in front of burning buildings and laughing because they're having a good time.
I see it and I've seen it many times before in many different countries and contexts, including my own. You expect these people to still colour inside the lines, to 'protest peacefully', without significantly ruining people's days. Well, this isn't a climate protest.
This protest is in response to a murder that has been swiftly incorporated into the identity struggle within your society. Which as you said has a long history, so much so that numerous prominent people have publicly asked 'what's it gonna take for things to change? Violence?'. Peaceful protest doesn't seem to be doing much and people talked themselves into violent behaviour before this even began. Make no mistake about the protestors, they don't usually burn or destroy stuff which they know belongs to people within their community. An example is the banlieue riots in Paris in 2010 when over 1000 cars were burned. All of them were parked in the banlieues, but the people who destroyed them made sure not to burn the next door lady's car, or those of others who are part of their, for lack of a better word, tribe. It's only one example but a pattern you can often see in rioting violence. It's not really 'their own neighbourhood' which is destroyed.
The rioters mostly end up destroying property of in this case and as per a surface reading from my end - the 'white america' which they see as enablers or creators of systematic racism & policy brutality. Of course, if that moment of anarchy exists that I talked about, there will be opportunists who destroy/loot as they see fit, but the key is that it's condoned within the riot. It's a catalyst and release for pent up anger. You'll see usually non violent kids or people get dragged into that as well, people who normally don't participate, now throwing stones and smashing windows. Similarly there will be others who promote the violent behaviour, usually the first people to smash cop car windows, escalating into burning the stores.
Note that I'm not telling you what is right or wrong here, but that the above is what you're dealing with, and there's some added context to this as well. A lot of people seem to expect some nice and tidy Ghandi-esque nonviolent sit-ins at the capitol. Well there's an increasing number of people in your minority population saying 'fuck you' to that notion. Here's the result - up to you how you want to deal with that, but the narrative stance you're taking is unlikely to have any positive effect.