This should be obvious, but stating the obvious seems necessary when situations get messier. When the obvious isn’t stated, it’s sometimes ignored in the scramble to retreat to comfortable thought bunkers where the specific aspects of the situation upon which people focus are suspiciously correlated with which political party those people tend to support. So, the obvious:
- Murder is a terrible evil. It should be met with swift arrest and the beginnings of criminal proceedings.
- Racism is prevalent in the United States. It may be getting better. It may be getting worse. Whatever its trajectory, it’s prevalent in both its implicit and explicit forms. Both of those are—all racism is—a terrible evil.
- Citizens of Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, and hopefully everywhere, are justifiably enraged by what, from multiple pieces of video evidence and with near certainty, appears to be the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black American, at the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer.
- Peaceful protesting of terrible evils is to be admired and encouraged.
- Theft, destruction, and arson are to be condemned. Forced to parse severity, though, murder is clearly, unambiguously worse. Racially motivated murder (again, implicit racism is still racism) is clearly, unambiguously worse. It must be treated as such.
- It is very likely that the overwhelming majority of peaceful protesters this week did not switch methods and participate in the theft, destruction, and arson which have occurred. They should not be associated with those who did. Similarly, it is very likely that some who participated in the theft, destruction, and arson had not been previously protesting, and were not doing such things out of protest. For those who did participate in the theft, destruction, and arson as a form of protest, the anger is still justified. The actions are not acceptable (though again, they must not be wrongly equated with murder). But the anger is justified. This is a silly thing to have to parse, but it’s probably necessary to parse it, given the coverage so far from some of the country’s most prominent media outlets as well as the inevitable coverage to come.
- This is all very sad.
These are the moral realities that form the backdrop of what happened in Minneapolis last night. These are the obvious.
There’s a risk, in addressing more subtle aspects of events like those of this week, of ignoring the most important aspect. That aspect is racism. A great number of things have been written and said this week about racism. Little of value can be added here, except by adding one more voice to the chorus and echoing that white Americans need to listen to our fellow human beings, and all people—but especially white Americans—need to admit and confront our own biases and prejudices.
Now, something more particular.
It’s unclear, as of this writing, how exactly the rioting (I’ll now begin using this word to encompass the theft, destruction, and arson) began. We will likely never know how exactly the rioting began. Getting the best idea we can, though, is important. It’s important because peaceful protests are an essential piece of our societal process towards progress. We need peaceful protests. We need to learn how to protect peaceful protests.
On an associated note, it’s also unclear, as of this writing, what the Minneapolis Police Department’s approach to the protests was. It’s unclear what protocols and preparations they had in place for this sort of situation. It’s unclear what, and when, and how, and why live decisions were made over the last few days. It is clear that rioting broke out alongside the peaceful protests, and while we shouldn’t absolve wrongdoing on the part of any person or organization, it’s important practically to explore how to prevent rioting.
The short piece linked below, from Radley Balko in the Washington Post in 2016, citing an Eric Jaffe piece in Fast Company from 2014, is just one viewpoint, but it’s a heavily researched viewpoint, and it’s worth reading in full (as is Jaffe’s original piece).
How to Police Crowds and Protests to Prevent Violence – Washington Post, July 5th 2016
If you don’t want to read either in full, here’s the crux of it, from Balko:
Basically, the better approach here is not for police to be unprepared for violence, but to understand that showing up in commando garb in preparation for violence tends to make violence inevitable. The better approach, first formalized in police by Washington police chief Jerry Wilson in the early 1970s, is for cops to show up in regular uniforms, and for police leaders to instruct them that their job is not to “keep order” or “prevent rioting,” but to facilitate the free speech rights of the protesters. That flips how cops view their role. They aren’t antagonists to the protesters; they’re nearly allies. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. You still have your riot team on standby, of course. But you keep them out of view.
We need peaceful protests. We need to protect peaceful protests.
