I pleaded in my original commentary on Tuesday for those mourning the killing of George Floyd to spare the “feckless, traffic-jamming protests,” which white cops killing unarmed black men invariably trigger. But I harbored no illusions.
This is why I was not surprised when I felt obliged to write a follow up just hours later under the headline “Rioting, vandalizing, and looting in the name of justice…?”
Still, I see no point in belaboring the obvious, namely that rioters, vandals, and looters will use any pretext to do what they do. No doubt you’ve seen images of all types stealing away from local Minneapolis stores with everything from TVs and computers to household wares and prescription drugs. Sadly, those marching to protest this “lynching in broad daylight” gave them that pretext.
And, yes, President Trump just couldn’t settle for the gift they provided by drawing the media away from their 24-7 pillorying of his Covid-19 leadership. He had to put a bow on that gift with this Bull Connor, Jim Crow-like tweet:
These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
Enough said…?
Truth be told, I mostly want to express my solidarity with the black woman I saw on CBS This Morning. The show featured her crying in utter despair as she surveyed the looted and charred remains of her business property.
As fate would have it, of all the segments it has for replay on its site, this one is conspicuously not among them. That is why I’m having to paraphrase what she said as follows:
- This place represented years of my family’s hard work. We want justice for George too. But how is burning my business and other businesses in our community to the ground going to deliver that? I begged them, ‘we’re black, don’t do this.’ But they didn’t care. All my husband could do was grab the register and us to run for our lives before the mob had their way.
As she ended, the CBS camera panned over to her husband. He was just standing stoically, indignantly, silently amidst their ruins with tears streaming down his cheeks.
I am not a crying man. Perhaps that’s why the first thing that came to mind at that point was the famous image of the “Crying Indian” who personified America’s anti-litter movement. That fairly well conveys my disgust and hopelessness.
Finally, I would be remiss not to note the futility of jackbooted National Guardsmen showing up to protect businesses that have already been looted dry and burned to the ground. This horse-already-out-of-the-barn spectacle is another feature of these feckless protests that I find so incomprehensible.
But, talk about thanks for nothing!
Frankly, the predictable nature of these protest marches ending in riots is such that failure to ring fence them with riot police from the outset seems a dereliction of duty.
Meanwhile, I fear it’s only a matter of time before another white cop kills another (unarmed) black man. And, with all due respect to former President Barack Obama, “this shouldn’t be normal” but it is.
Related commentaries:
killing of George Floyd…