We’re not even through the pandemic and we are “hit” with 24/7 news showing protests and looters. To their credit, one Los Angeles County city actually scheduled a peaceful demonstration for Sunday, apparently forgetting the past: does anyone else remember the 1965 Watts riots? They actually destroyed their own community, focusing on store owners who were different than they and probably immigrants. I had moved to L.A. just the previous year and was shocked at the lengths to which some people would go, purportedly in order to vent their anger at injustice, would steal what was easily grabbed, would beat up innocent people who disagree, would set fires to businesses and, I think, even homes. If you don’t remember that week of riots you can read about it on Wikipedia, along with how the riots and protests started: a Black man was stopped for reckless driving near his mother’s home; his brother left the car brought her to the scene. She chewed her son out for drinking and driving, then ended up attacking the police, and the three of them – mother and two sons – were arrested. The rioting started then and grew to as far away as Pasadena, Pacoima, Monrovia, Long Beach, and even San Diego.
The exact same incidents took place in those cities then as what we saw in the past week: the defiance of necessary curfews, the necessary deployment of the National Guard, attacking first responders like police and their vehicles, arson and looting of stores. Curiously, this time the LAPD and Sheriff were unprepared for the similar actions and the necessary measures took a few days to be employed. Winston Churchill, paraphrasing George Santayana, said “‘Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
I can understand their frustration and anger somewhat: my immigrant White ancestor, who came here simply to bring the gospel and served the American Indians for years, was murdered by some (who were probably also related to me); years later her son and grandchildren were driven to seek refuge in Canada by the same tribe. But how could I justify punishing American Indians alive now, for what their ancestors did? Somewhere, sometime, somehow, vengeance has to stop being people’s motivation for acting as they have been doing in the past 50+ years.
Am I alone in thinking that what happens in L.A. or elsewhere in California doesn’t really affect the police in Minneapolis? So what good does marching in the streets and on the freeways, disrupting traffic, torching businesses that they would need in the future and the very police vehicles that might have been called to assist them at other times, and otherwise straining LAPD’s and others’ resources, really do? One has to believe that the looters are just hoodlums looking to make a quick buck on someone else’s property. And this time the looters can wear masks to conceal their identities without raising suspicions.
And why would people, who just didn’t like being forced to stay home the past two months in order to stop or slow the pandemic, get out there and violate social distancing, quite likely exposing themselves or others to the Coronavirus, and starting another upsurge? It defies reason.
If the Floyd family can ask for the violence to stop, and respect what George Floyd would have said was appropriate, who is entitled to continue it?
From the policeman’s history, it seems like he should have been fired and arrested a long time ago. For that failure, George Floyd paid the ultimate price, but out of his untimely death perhaps can come some good: a bad cop is finally off the streets. And he will probably have to watch his back constantly when he goes to prison, where he belongs, because the other inmates will likely exact their revenge.
If it seems like these troubles will never end, for the Bible readers Matthew 24 gives a good description of what we can expect in the future. MM
