One sign of a sick society is that riots become commonplace in reaction to, well, anything.
Another sign of societal illness is when so many people refuse to inhabit the ample middle ground between “police are inherently racist” and “defend police at all costs.”
Consider the twin police-related tragedies in the Minneapolis area — the death of counterfeit-bill passer George Floyd last year and the April 11 killing of arrest-resisting motorist Daunte Wright. Neither death was acceptable, but only Floyd’s was inexplicable. Yet, both received an immediate and proper response from officials, with investigations beginning quickly and our admirable system of justice revving into gear.
There is absolutely no reasonable excuse for the riots in Minnesota this week after Wright’s killing. Then again, there was no good excuse for riots after Floyd’s horrendous death last May. Protests, yes. Highly impassioned protests, even. But violence? Looting? Arson? No. Not in a free society with ample means of redress for crimes and misconduct.
Indeed, because violent protests upend the whole civil order and make victims of entirely innocent citizens, the perpetrators should be penalized severely, with full prosecutions and (for those found guilty) lengthy criminal sentences.
Floyd’s killing represents one of the worst examples of police misconduct I’ve ever seen. Expert witness after expert witness in his trial has attested to the impropriety of officer Derek’s Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd, who at the time was handcuffed and had been entirely cooperative except when ordered into the police car, at which time he flopped and wriggled like a fish until pulled out of the door on the other side. And yes, while “racism” has become an all-too-frequently false wolf-cry, lived experience does indicate that, perhaps because of subconscious bias, a white suspect similarly situated would likely not have suffered the same treatment at Chauvin’s hands.
Even then, though, the rioting was inexcusable. This isn’t Venezuela, or some other illegitimate system wherein human rights are routinely violated. The American system of justice, while imperfect as human institutions tend to be, is thoughtfully designed and broadly effective at providing a fair and thorough process of investigation, trial, and either punishment or exoneration.
The riots are especially outrageous in response to Wright’s killing. Unlike the Chauvin-Floyd situation in which the police had well over 10 minutes (from time of arrest) to think about what they were doing, this clearly was a horrid, spur-of-the-moment mistake in the heat of action. For no good reason, Wright tried to wrestle away from officers, reenter his car, and drive away. In reply, officer Kim Potter warned him she would use her Taser on him if he kept trying to escape. She then bizarrely but probably unintentionally mistook her handgun for a Taser and fired it instead.
This was not a considered reaction but an instinctual one. And there is no reason whatsoever to suspect any racial motive or even subconscious racial assumptions.
Wright’s killing was a terrible accident, but no reason to break windows, loot, burglarize, or attack random police officers. It certainly is no reason to yell, as one prominent protest leader did, that the killing is the fault of white people in general or, as another put it, an example of white supremacy.
In reality, the trial of Derek Chauvin, extensively covered for all the world to see, shows that justice, through a fair, exhaustive process, will be pursued when such incidents occur. Heaping the injustice of violent protests atop the injustice of Floyd’s killing, or of Wright’s killing, only creates more injustice. The riots are shameful. They must stop.
