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starkem -> RE: I HATE Rioting (12/2/2014 8:04:00 PM)
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Bravo Lucylastic.
I'm sure a lot of people are disheartened by the ensuing rioting. Most people want justice, and they don't want merchandise.
In the 60s, the FBI enlisted black people to be black provocators at peaceful demonstrations to cause the peaceful ambitions and black voices of discontent to cause a mob mentality of unrest to encourage rioting. The cointel pro clandestine operations were willfully conducted by the FBI, under J. edgar Hoover and can be reviewed as part of the freedom of information act realeased in the 80s or 90s. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders didn't want civil unrest; they wanted peaceful demonstration and change. Hoover saw such black peaceful organizing for real power and change as a matter of the highest threat to national security and sovereignty as to the status quo of that day.
He publicly stated that King was one of the most dangerous men in America of that day. White and black people of the era hated King just like they dislike the Sharptons of today as being menacing troublemakers. Legitimate black organizations have historically been targeted to dismantle any efforts for Black people to politically organize against social injustice economic empowerment. You have a new generation of demonstrators that have known of these unscrupulous tactics. Then, as now, younger generations will not wait or expect justice. Such anger is a tinderbox of unrest easily manipulated into rioting. Whether it is still the Governments agenda to disrupt the right of black people to organize and develop real political and economic power is not that obvious or deliberate today.
Corporations, however, have a vested interest in being businesses that profit from the poverty in these communities. Could you imagine if black people stopped shopping with these stores and developed their stores and merchants. Corporations are not hiring provacators, but they are ignoring the injustice of police brutality while they profit from those impoverished. Have you ever heard of Black Wall Street and the tragedy incurred for such development?
You may ask why rioting is considered an exercise of power. It's a good question with many historical implications. While you ask your question in earnest, the question projected unto you, with little resistance to the status quo, is why do black people have to wait for justice? The question of economical empowerment so they can police their own communities is not even on the table anymore.
An orthodox Jewish community stormed a New York City precinct when one of their men had been arrested and injured a few officers without one shot fired. That's power that youth understand -not peaceful protest. Shim Fein (sp?) was one of the most violent groups of the IRA for decades responsible for mass deaths; yet, Jerry Rawlins was the mouthpiece for this violent activity with impunity. When they hired the first black fireman in NYC the Irish and Italian formed a mob that hung black men in the streets with impunity. Violence is not new to America nor the rest of the world. It is only hard to fathom that some black people see the disparity in America and throughout the world as intolerable. History has shown that the ballot or the bullet will be everyone's undoing, but difficult choices must be made for change that are unpopular to people who enjoy certain privilege unduly. I only say unduly privileged because they can't expect to ejoy the same rights denied to those troubled by the disparity. I think they called that the "Troubles" in Ireland.
Are we that naive to ask such questions? Are we that innocent to ignore a benign neglect of basic human rights. King's book was entitled, "Why Must Not Wait!" Paraphrase: "People sit on an island of privilege (like the privilege of driving a luxury car and not being harassed by police) with justice blind to a sea of poverty.". I would add things like discrimination, racism, and lack of economic empowerment in communities like Ferguson while people wonder why places like that erupt. We can't be that naive or have we forgotten or ignored the underlying problem. It is not a privilege to know that if you are black, you can possibly be accosted, harassed and killed by the police while other communities don't received such brutality. "Well, we don't commit crimes like rioting.". That is the problem right there. Those type of statements ignore the disturbing patterns that need to be addressed.
Why attack the stores? The stores are a part of the problem. They -the corporate executives- exploit those same communities that they abhore the residents, and they would never live there; yet, take the money with blatant disregard of the disparity. That is not merely a black people problem -look at the 99% Occupy Wall Street movement for example. Shut them down is the rallying cry. These executives and corporations should be the first to say something is wrong -even if not for this one case. If these corporations don't speak out for injustice and see nothing wrong with police patterns of utter brutality and deprivation of civil rights to be apprehended and right to a fair trial then let the police protect them from the riots. Then you begin to see what the outcry is about. The police are not protecting the community. Which was the case being made by people who find these cases of injustice systemic and problematic. How does it feel? Stupid? Okay.....
One last point as to the community at large, as of 2001, your right to peaceful assembly and protest of the government or any entity has been changed. I don't know what implications that holds for anyone but that seems overreaching and the rudimentary steps a police/corporate state and the privileges we enjoy as citizens to question government and the regulating agencies it employs to maintain civility and protect corporations.
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