ONCE AGAIN...

America is being consumed by protests of police brutality in a most Justifiable case in Minneapolis.  And once again, "peaceful" demonstrations have gotten out of hand in Louisville as well as other cities.  Firing weapons, by protestors, is not peaceful.
Setting stores and businesses on fire is not peaceful  Looting is not peaceful.


Why does it always seem to happen? (Good  case here for a consortium of social psychologists to take a look.)  I am always skeptical when city officials blame "outsiders" for turning peaceful demonstrations into violent ones, but Minnesota officials seem to have factual evidence that 30% or more of those arrested, or license plates involved were from other states, some as far as Alabama. Still, we need more facts on this, and arrest and court records, and we need prosecutions.


People who loot stores (and I saw whites & blacks doing this in some cities) are not protestors, they are thieves.  People who set fire to businesses (and PBS did a fine report on an area in Twin City St. Paul where the owners of the burned out places were often minorities or immigrants; a story that has been repeated over and over since the infamous South L.A. riots)--those firebugs are not protestors but arsonists and need to be prosecuted as such.


And, if convicted, let all of America have their names and hometowns. Meanwhile, Ms. Taylor's family in Louisville has put out a great statement denying that their daughter would approve such violence. An EMT woman, devoted to saving people from their injuries, would never support actions designed to injury others, often the truly innocent.


That said, we can not overlook the inexcusable actions of a few sworn "to serve and protect." One wonders if the Minneapolis PD ever showed, in training classes, the illegal choke hold that took a similar citizen's life not so many years ago, in the first of the "I can't breathe" incidents. Will police departments across the nation now incorporate into their training programs the video from Minnesota? Will "no knock" warrants finally be outlawed? Will we learn from the honest protests to incident after incident involving minority communities, and will civilian review boards (and juries) hold offenders culpable?


We need our police (and) I have ridden with many of them in many states over the years, been on the "cop shop" beat in several cities. I would not have their job, even if they were paid a better salary. But they are crucial to the workings of a "civil" society. Maybe we need a new national Kerner Commission (Google it) that can help us better address their crucial role, while maintaining the rights and liberties of ALL our citizens?


Some pundits are worried that we can not handle two major social issues at once. That misses the point. We have no choice; between saving another 100,000 and insuring the rights of all Americans,  we must do both, before another round of "peaceful" protests totally shreds our American dream.


I'm just sayin'...