Alan said:
> But living as we do in such an incredibly violent
> society--murders, executions, rockets and bombs
> dropped on helpless people, torture as official
> government policy....---violence out of all
> proportion to the size of the US population--It
> seems pretty hypocritical to get all pissy about
> people who might throw a few bricks as part of their efforts to change
> things.
There is one very serious problem with your analysis:
A riot is not a rational act.
How many times do I get to play my "violent childhood" card on this list?
Those of you who are sick of it can skip to the next one now, I'll
understand.
For the rest of you: I grew up in Miami. The first of our rather
spectacular riots came when Arthur McDuffie was beaten to death by police
on my 14th birthday, and subsequently got off. The city burned for about
three days. I got off from school - much like a snow day up north, except
all we had falling were ashes.
My Dad's office was on Flagler, very near one of the centers of that riot.
I knew the area well, and when I visited later I heard the owner of a
"Ferreteria" explain how the riot went down. He told everyone, over and
over, how it started out as a march down the street. He, as an
afro-cuban, was as outraged as anyone, and joined in the protests. But
then they got ugly. First, it was grafitti. Then it was bricks. Then it
was firebombs. Then people beat each other to death in the frenzy of the
moment, often with tools looted from the hardware store. Tire irons make
for very effective bludgeons.
Later, we had a smaller riot in Goulds over another racial injustice. I
was close enough to that one that I could feel the heat from the tires
soaked in gasoline which blocked the streets. The smell of this is
something that reaches down your nose and grabs your lungs in a way that
you're sure will never let go. Consider that the first act of violence,
the one that gradually led to several businesses and houses being torched
and a few people being hospitalized. I think we were lucky that no one
died that day. I'm glad I got the Hell out of there.
I'm telling you all of this because I want you to understand that unless
you have seen something like this up close and personal, you have no idea
how crazy it gets and how fast it gets there.
A riot is not a rational act.
In your everyday life you probably watch the teevee nooze. If you do
that, sad for you, but it probably fills you with a terrible rage from
time to time. That's why I gave up the stuff m'self. Now, place yourself
and how you feel when it's obvious that the world really isn't all that
fair after all in a situation where Normal Rules Don't Apply(tm). You're
free! You can do what you want!
Which emotions are likely to come out, the dignified and genteel ones, or
the pent up feelings of rage fed to you by the teevee? Experience tells
me one thing: It's the latter. Maybe not everyone, but enough people to
cause some serious personal violence to happen.
Anyone who says that it's OK to throw a brick through a window to make a
point, because that isn't violent, is utterly clueless. These actions
lead directly to personal violence more than 9 times out of 10. You can
blame it on the cops, you came blame it on the bourgeoisie, you can blame
it on big business. I don't care. It's all bullshit, because rioters are
responsible for starting a riot no matter how you look at it. Claiming
that busting a few windows somehow doesn't count is a cheap, naive, and
utterly indefensible cop-out.
The problem is that people juiced up in the moment don't understand their
responsibility. The concept of "responsibility" is the opposite of what a
riot is all about. Once people let go, they're off using the lizard part
of their brain in ways they may never have before. Things don't stop at
some careful "line".
At least, that's the way I've seen it go down. I don't live there anymore
because I don't like seeing this go down. I'd rather live someplace
peaceful. Some place like Saint Paul, for example. Do you understand why
I get upset when wannabee anglo kids get all hopped up about starting a
riot? Where I grew up, people had a point. People were getting killed by
the Powers That Be(tm). Starting a riot because it's really kewl? These
people need lives, and they need them bad. And they won't get them
throwing bricks in my neighborhood.