It’s past time we started hearing
I’ve seen a number of people pushing the idea, in the wake of the nationwide protests-turned-riots, stemming from the death of George Floyd while Minneapolis PD Officer Derek Chauvin pressed a knee on his neck, that “looting is good actually.”
I don’t know if I can ever be one of those people.
Intellectually, I understand the argument that when the establishment values property over lives (particularly and especially Black lives) the destruction of property (particularly and especially insured property) is a poignant way to hit ’em where it hurts, and I would never deny the legitimate grievances of the Black community, which motivate such a backlash (when it is, in fact, Black people doing the looting — I’ve seen multiple videos of Black protestors banding together and castigating white agitators who are attempting to vandalize storefronts).
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose 1968 assassination touched off the last round of demonstrations comparable to the rash we’re witnessing, called riots “the language of the unheard.”
So many people who feel unbothered by Black death on the margins suddenly snap to attention when the machinery of commerce is threatened.
Even so, as a generally non-violent person who endeavors to respect the enumerated rights of others, looting doesn’t exactly jibe with my individual morals.
Regardless, as a question of scale, the problem of looting pales in comparison to the problem of state-sanctioned violence against its citizenry.
We live in an era of unchecked municipal militarization. Police departments are drowning in body armor and tear gas, while local hospitals try to navigate ongoing PPE shortages in the midst of a still-very-real COVID-19 pandemic that has already claimed over 100,000 American lives.
Some PDs even have tanks, and once you’ve got a tank you’ve got to have an enemy (or else what’s the point of the tank?) How can you “protect and serve” someone you see as your enemy?
The short answer is, you can’t. And with qualified immunity against civil suits, internal affairs boards that exist to shield departments from damages, and unions that resist any attempt to alter the status quo, officers largely don’t have to, enabling those with a yen to crack skulls the opportunity to do so with relative impunity.
This isn’t a “cops are bad” screed, but it seems evident that the culture surrounding police work has to change.
Many of the riots over the past few days were escalated by an aggressive, devil-may-care police presence that assaulted and gassed previously peaceful protestors. Videos have surfaced showing NYPD cruisers driving straight into crowds. In Louisville, WAVE 3 reporter Kaitlin Rust was fired upon with pepper bullets live on air. In Salt Lake City an outlet caught an officer shoving an elderly (white) man with a cane to the ground for the crime of standing on the side of the street. Unreasoned violence is all too many in law enforcement seem to know (in the sense that one would be too many).
It certainly appears to be all Derek Chauvin knew.
Chauvin didn’t need a tank to kill George Floyd. All he needed was a knee, a healthy amount of jarhead attitude, and the reassurance, stemming from a lifetime of reinforcement (including skating past 18 previous complaints against him) that whatever he did in the course of apprehending this “number one male,” he’d get away with it.
Maybe he won’t. After all, he has, been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but until a sentence is rendered it’s easy to imagine a through-line that dumps us off at “justifiable use of force.”
That’s America’s legacy as it regards race relations. In the 400 years since the first African slaves touched down in Virginia, Black people’s lot has been cruel exploitation and second-class citizenship from keel to stern.
Some might argue that the above description is unfair, that the lot of Black Americans is considerably better than it was 200 years ago.
Others, however, would rightfully observe the above description elides the fact that, for the majority of their history, Black Americans have not been citizens of any stripe — second class or otherwise. It won’t be until 2111 that they’ve spent as much time “free” as they did in bondage.
Besides, “better” has never, in any of its usages meant “good.”
Couple all this with headlines highlighting how the billionaire class has grown $400 billion richer in the midst of a global pandemic (because it’s almost impossible for billionaires not to grow their wealth) while domestic unemployment has spiked to Great Depression levels and other discouraging signs of kleptocracy run amok and ...
Maybe looting is good, actually?
That’s a bit too depressing a note to end on, and, ultimately, not what I want anyone to take away from this. More than anything, I want to drive home the point that this is a time for us to have our eyes wide open as Americans -- to witness the inequalities that surround us and to not allow ourselves to be distracted by a few smashed windows at an AutoZone. We cannot use broken glass as an excuse to ignore broken systems that marginalize and oppress vulnerable communities.