Thoughts On Baltimore
If you’ve been watching the news, you probably don’t know that there’s a massive riot in Baltimore. If you are on social networking sites or watch The Daily Show, you probably do.
I don’t know enough about the incident that sparked the riot, so I won’t comment on that and display my ignorance. However, I do have a couple of general comments about the situation in Baltimore and in the USA at large.
- It’s pretty stupid to destroy the businesses in the town you live in. When the violence inevitably stops, shop owners are going to leave to go somewhere safer. What will you do for commerce then? If the police are your enemy (and I largely agree with the rioters that they are), then why destroy private property of innocent civilians? It’s literally mob mentality, and very foolish.
- Police have always been violent thugs, especially to minorities. We just didn’t know how far it went until the age of the internet. The city police departments have also become heavily militarized in the last decade. Of course this will have consequences, and I think we’re starting to see them. Police needed to be checked a long time ago.
- Unfortunately, riots legitimize, in the public’s mind, the need for more police presence, not less. Protesting the police by causing havoc and violence only gives the public the notion that more police are needed, right or wrong. More violence and chaos will ensue, not less, especially among the minority communities that are already targeted by the police departments.
- Don’t be tempted to call the riots “anarchy.” The word “anarchy” doesn’t apply to the chaos, for two reasons. First, anarchists reject rulers. The rioting was sparked by how a citizen was treated by a member of the ruling class (whether you think the reaction is justified or unjustified). Second, the government’s presence in Baltimore is far-reaching and has been for a long time. Baltimore is a city run by big-government progressives, and they are either responsible for the current conditions in Baltimore or they were powerless to stop it.
That’s all I have to say. I can’t get behind either the rioters or the police; I think they’re both in the wrong. I wasn’t going to comment at all, but one of my followers asked me to do so. So there you go.
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