All lives matter. I have spent the last 24 hours watching "peaceful" protests erupt in the city I live in, and I just can't take one more second of my own outrage.
No one wants to be defined by the actions of others. White, black, police, priest, and so on. One bad cop, does not equate to all bad cops. One child molesting priest, does not equate all priests being child molesters. See the comparison? To destroy cities. I have read on so many posts today, people saying windows are replaceable, lives are not. Well, no shit. But that doesn't make it o.k., and that does not equate a "peaceful" protest. It takes a village to enact change. It does not take this level of destruction. If anything, it makes it so much worse. I anticipate this to get worse again tonight.
There is most probably not one single person who is not disgusted by what happened in Minnesota. There is a different way, there just has to be. This just makes so sad and really fucking angry.
Equally tired of reading the the local law enforcement took this to a greater level. Tear gas isn't violence. It is crowd control, on city streets, that people drive on. It is a non violent level of disbursement when vandalism erupts. If I hear one more person of any color, cause there are ALL colors on the streets, say "I need a medic", in a video, when they get sprayed in the face, just shut the fuck up, and wash your eyes out like the rest of the non pussy protestors.
None of this is o.k. But burning cities. Taking the livelihoods of strangers, who you don't know who they are, and defacing and looting their businesses because you think that is best attention grab, is disgusting.
Tonight, the local law enforcement are literally just trying to move people out of the roads so people can drive through safely. It isn't that hard, is it? Stay out of the road or get sprayed. I think that is reasonable. If you want to protest and you want to advocate for change, guess what, pepper spray might be part of the fight. I am certain that is a best case scenario.
They said this morning on the news that 177 calls came through dispatch last night for emergency calls, 22 were domestic violence, and all calls experienced significant delays because of these "peaceful" protests that turned into riots. What if you needed that help from law enforcement? What if your "peaceful" protesting that took the better majority of the cities police force, cause a child to watch their parent get beaten to death, or worse, the child got beaten to death.
A peaceful protest does not involve an entire fucking police department, and then some, it involved civilized people, wanting their voice to be heard, not their anger and violence to be felt in acts of violence and destruction.
What happens when there is an act of violence against a police officer? There was one of those this week in my city. The police aren't protesting in the neighborhood where that occurred, vandalizing homes of innocent people. They are out on the streets protecting people and allowing them to protest. They aren't even allowed to have an opinion. They are just doing their job. Can you even imagine what it is like to be a black police officer?
I thought last night, as I was watching all of this unfold, I thought, do I not understand this because I am not black? No, cause all lives matter, and what happened was gross. I get that. Do I not understand because I have never felt so enraged or passionate about something, that I wouldn't scream it into the world. I don't know. I think it must just be that I am white and have never felt oppressed. Right? I mean isn't that it? No...it's not. It's because there is a right way, and this isn't it.
Maybe it is age that tells me, you cannot fix a broken system if both sides keep punching.
I am probably always going to fall on the side of law enforcement, but only because I won't judge an entire demographic on a small population of them. Just as I will not judge ANY person, based on any action of another person. Protest peacefully, and the tear gas stops. Meet in the middle. Like right now...they are saying the city has been declared an emergency and if people don't disperse chemical agents and force will be used. So leave. Just leave. And if you don't...
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