Originally Posted by
Wandering_Wand
I've been protesting police brutality, police murders (murders of innocents and others by the hands of police), and civil asset forfeiture since 2012. I have always stood with anyone, any group, who has protested these things as well. And, in case it needs to be said, the officer who murdered George Floyd needs to be put in prison for life and/or given the death sentence. I don't really care at this point as long as his body rots.
Having said that, looting and rioting is not the answer. Protests are. Changing the law is. Organizing people is. These are not protests (while they all may have started out as such, they quickly devolved), so if anyone continues calling them that after seeing the destruction you are LYING. And don't give me that Kaepernick crap about how people don't listen to protests. YES, protests are effective, I've been part of many. I've seen it with my own eyes. Looting and rioting businesses (built and employed by our neighbors and fellow citizens) doesn't achieve anything.
And no, it's not a matter of putting lives above brick and mortar, but even so, to those of you suggesting this has it even occurred to you what was sacrificed by many of these business owners? Not all of them were born with silver spoons in their mouths, many of these people were just like the rest of us and used up their savings to start something and provide services for others. Oh, and they employ people... But when you go and burn things down - some of those people may not come back. They may not be able to financially, or psychologically. There's even a risk of suicide for some of these people now.
Take all that in for a moment and try to see the bigger picture. Looting and rioting is an action of the lowest depths of the masses, it's not really anything that works or paints a "movement" in any type of positive light in a developed country to my knowledge. All it does is raise costs for everyone in the long run and shows that reason has left a movement.
So, police forces across the U.S. need to be reformed in so many ways. I've been saying that for years and will continue to say it. But organization and other means than rioting and looting is the way to go, not destruction.
And I guess we're going with the "eye for an eye" with some of these riots, huh? Beating people trying to defend their stores, etc. I've seen videos with gentlemen saying there's going to be a "two for one" rule in play. Yea, that's great folks. Best of luck with all of that.
Last thing: the great irony with all of this is IF there's a jump in COVID confirmations in many of these cities after all of this, will anything be attributed to these protests/gatherings/riots, etc. with hundreds/thousands of people? Nah, probably not. Most of you will probably find a way to drag the President into it and blame him. And as a last disclaimer, I didn't vote for Trump, I don't like him; I think he's a moron. But that doesn't change my observation.