Protests offer lessons in accountability, understanding

Re Howl for justice and declare: This must stop: DiManno, May 30

I quote from this piece: “I say the fires that engulfed the Third Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department were a furnace of sanity amid the derangement of a nation.”

I have rarely been as outraged by a column as I have been by this one, as it is a deplorable and horrifying justification of anarchy, violence and lawlessness.

What would a society look like in which the injured could take the law into their own hands and act out the rage they feel, however justified, in the passion of the moment? Actually, it would look like Minneapolis: the burning, the burglary, the businesses looted; people’s entire lives’ work up in flames.

Should the cop who killed George Floyd be charged with and tried for murder? Absolutely! His actions were cruel and inhumane.

Should police brutality be overlooked? Absolutely not! Protests are in order. Black lives matter. All human lives matter.

It is common sense that we cannot live in a society where people can take justice into their own hands by committing violent actions.

It is also common sense that a responsible mainstream publication cannot allow itself to be a vehicle for endorsing anarchy and violence. Sandy Gonzoles, Toronto

The columnist points out that raging against racism and discriminatory violence is sane, normal and expected. If people are maddened by violence and injustice against them, it would be madness to blame them for lashing out. It is the perpetrators that are to blame. I totally agree with this. The Black people in America have the right to protest, even violently, at the brutal treatment meted out to them for years. They will not be heard otherwise. My question is: why is this same understanding is not applied to peoples in other parts of the world?

A people whose homeland is taken over by another group, who have been forced out of their homes and lived for generations in refugee camps, who have faced constant racism and violence for more than 70 years … do they have the right to be maddened? Is it sane for them to fight back, because they will not be heard otherwise? Or will that be considered terrorists?

Why the double standards? Tahera Kassamali, Vaughan