Yeah man, that's what street uprisings look like. That's how people react, and I'd be among them if this **** was going down around me. ******-up, power-hungry cops stomping the heads of innocent men onto the curb, killing them in cold blood, in broad daylight. **** yeah people react to seeing that. I'd react, and most of you would also react, if that was happening in your neighborhood.
You and I have a protected right to protest. You and I have NO right to break the law because we are angry. Guess what? Maybe the cop was angry. Makes no difference, does it?
Same applies to you. Protest, yell, carry signs, write e-mails, call talk-show hosts, demand to see the mayor, vote, etc. Good to go.
Burn things? Destroy property that is not yours? Loot, steal? That is not protected, it is stupid, it is counterproductive, and will do to every city what it did to Ferguson - make it a hell of a lot worse.
Vader and others who've stated this isn't a race issue are exactly right. It should bother everyone, regardless of race, to see this level of police overreach and brutality play out on the streets. And as far as those on the streets, organizing and protesting, standing up for what is right, who are we to judge them?
Wouldn't the police say the same about dealing with ignorant, angry, violent, stupid thugs all day? Yet they still have to play by the rules and if they don't, we - non-police officers - have every right to judge them.
Oh, and the "who are we to judge them?" line of argument ... Not good. Not at all.
Are you a Nazi? Ever been a Nazi? Ever killed a guy for a watch, sold crack to kids, punched a woman in the mouth, raped a woman, killed a prostitute by strangling her?? No, huh. Oh, then I guess you can't judge them.
Or maybe every person is entitled to judge others, and support arguments that the behavior is unacceptable. Abhorrent. Intolerable. Needs to be punished.
One line of reasoning leads to civilization, the other leads to shithholes like Mogadishu.
When you're pissed off you put your foot through the door, put a dent in it, not thinking through you'll need that door to be intact the next day, or the following day.
So what? I get pissed seeing idiot looters demolishing what was once a beautiful city. So I guess I now have a right to stomp a few, maybe unload a couple of magazines?
Oh, I don't? Explain why not and apply above.
Protests like these are fast & furious, when people take to the streets in the thousands. Shocking to see, frankly, in the US. More like scenes out of Egypt or some banana republic, folks en masse burning down the 3rd precinct police department, cause they've had enough and they're pissed off.
Yes, funny how these things seem to happen in Los Angeles, Detroit, Watts, Los Angeles again, Ferguson, Baltimore, now Minneapolis.
Can you guess what EVERY city had in common, and I mean, EVERY. CITY?
Also, being "pissed off" is not an excuse for violating the law. I wager that 90% of murderers - the non-sociopaths - were "pissed off" about something. "She burned dinner," "He got fired," "My kid is so goddamn lazy," "That ******* cut me off!!"
So what? Being angry does not give you or me or looters the right to burn and steal. Sorry, doesn't.
Finally, without looking it up I am guessing you have no idea how many citizens, almost all white by the way, were MURDERED because of the Rodney King riots. It was 63.
SIXTY. THREE. PEOPLE. MURDERED.
None of them involved in the traffic stop, beating, trial, none of them even cops. But who cares, buncha white people, probably racists, and the murderers were ANGRY. Who are we to judge??
