The MLK quote the article leads with isn’t always out of context when invoked to talk about the rioting, but it is here. The gist of MLK’s point was that riots are, even if understandable, still unjustifiable and counter-productive. Whereas the view expressed in the rest of the article is something along the ones of: “why are you talking about property damage when someone lost his life?” Whatever this view has going for it, it’s inconsistent with what MLK said (and more largely, what he stood for). But MLK said that the police brutality needs to be condemned equally to the rioting. He didn’t say to ignore the rioting.<p>I come from a country that exists because we were able to violently overthrow our oppressors. Our problem of being second class citizens in our own country was decisively solved with guns. But MLK keenly recognized that this course of action was not on the table for African Americans in the United States, regardless of how justified or not it may be. Attempts to justify the violence ignore this sobering lesson.
If anyone's interested, the track with Big Floyd and DJ Screw is on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2bBdbvF20" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2bBdbvF20</a>
I think this article, like much analysis I've seen, is unreasonably optimistic about the long-term prognosis of riots.<p>> Target will reopen. The stores will reopen. That’s assured.<p>It's not assured! In the riots of the 60s, many neighborhoods didn't see the stores reopen and took decades to recover. Multiple days of rioting is an existential threat to a neighborhood. Maybe that's a price worth paying, but you've got to own it, not pretend sustained looting is a temporary inconvenience.
I really think humanity is near checkmate in the battle against elite wealth. It will be complete when AI and automation render most of us obsolete.<p>Any battle against a militarized police force will be more hopeless than it already is.
I remember the England riots in 2011 were strongly opposed by most people I know. I am surprised how much support these riots appear to have on social media. Rioting is a terrible, violent act.