Neither my head nor my heart have been able to keep up with everything that had been going on before these riots let alone during them. This has been far too much to process, but I’m trying. I’m trying because I think what’s happening deserves that. I find my thoughts on the riots spinning wildly around three fixed points: the protests and riots, the injustice that is in the riots, and the likely effect of the riots.
First, the protests and the riots. I’m drawing a distinction between the protests and the riots because it seems that they must be distinguished. The protests have been largely peaceful. The riots have happened afterward with an almost eerie clockwork; they are, by definition, violent. I have no idea what the overlap between the protestors and the rioters might be. I hope there is none, and I’m sure that there are so many protestors would never think of rioting, but I’m not naïve about my own nature nor human nature as to simply assume there is no overlap. Nevertheless, the protests are not the riots and the riots are not the protests and must be thought of as such.
I spoke with some protestors in Sioux Falls this past weekend. They were cordial and very willing to share their experiences. When the riots there began, I was, interestingly enough, watching the recent movie about Mr. Rogers, whose wisdom and kindness would be much appreciated today.
The protests are calling for justice for George Floyd. That goal turns a bit fuzzy given that the man who murdered Floyd has been arrested and the other officers have at least been fired at this point. The cry of justice for Floyd now draws attention to recent injustices, historic injustices, and serves as a cry for justice in general. The situation now that Derek Chauvin has been arrested is that it’s easy to agree with the phrase “Justice for George Floyd” but hard to know what to do with it. This movement has sympathy and energy. It remains to see what good and lasting change will come out of it.
The riots are much more diverse in motivation. Some were rioting out of anger for what happened. I chose the word “were rioting” because we are now moving beyond the immediate response to the events of May 25.
Some are now rioting because they think this is the only way to bring change. I can see the frustration that leads to such thinking. These people want to see change before they remove the pressure because they think maintaining the pressure is the only way to make change happen.
Some are rioting because it is an opportunity. There are goods to be stolen and property to be destroyed. Greed and violence are not alien to any of our hearts. There are certain sorts of evil simply waiting for an opportunity to flourish.
Some are rioting because they simply want to feel something. There is always a thrill when an event beyond us is underway. This is a real live drama unfolding. This is a chance to be part of something, and a great many people in our culture have nothing to live for or to die for. I think that accounts for at least some of the young people in these riots, and the Sioux Falls riots involved a disturbing number of local youths.
Some are rioting because it is dystopian. The past few months have been filled with masks, plexiglass dividers, quarantines, rationing, and conspiracy theories. The nation already seemed to be devouring itself. Rioting certainly fits right in.
Some are rioting for political ends; that group is too diverse to pin down. Some are calling for the defunding of police departments. Some are rioting to give the protests a bad image. I imagine that different groups have an eye toward influencing the 2020 election in any number of different directions.
People are protesting and rioting for different reasons. The protests have their place and their purpose moving toward justice. The riots, however, have entered a dance with injustice: that’s our second point. What happened to George Floyd was doubtlessly unjust. What has been happening to so many has been unjust. This is, in many ways, an unjust society. These riots express their own injustice.
I dare say that the most principled of the rioters would agree. They say that their injustice is in the service of justice. The amount of frustration it must take to lead to this line of thinking deserves as much understanding as I can attain. They are arguing from the greater good, which is the eventual refuge of principled transgressors. They must see their deeds as good even as they do otherwise in the moment. The times in which I’ve done that, I’ve done so because I felt backed into a corner.
However, the storeowner who spent years bettering his business for the sake of the community will not see the vandalism done to his store as an act of service to the greater good. The widow of the police officer who dies during these riots will not see what happened to her husband as an act of service to the greater good. They will judge these actions to be unjust and deserving of justice just as what happened to George Floyd was unjust and deserved justice.
Any attempt to paper over these deaths and injustices of the riots by seeing them as necessary evils on the way to a greater good can only dehumanize the victims. You can’t value the humanity of a storeowner and loot his store. You can’t value the humanity of a police officer and then shoot him in the back of the head. You can’t value the humanity of man and keep your knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. These riots dehumanize; you won’t see any of the names of these victims of the riots spray painted on storefronts during these riots.
These riots express injustice because justice must be readily and widely understandable. The vast majority could see the injustice done to George Floyd. Would that all could. The logic that counts on justice coming out of deeds of injustice is something else entirely. It is a sort of “secret knowledge” available to only a few who consider themselves the vanguard of justice.
These riots express injustice because these rioters are in no way treating their neighbor as themselves. All of them would be rightly calling for justice if the crimes they committed were committed against them. It’s necessary to recognize that the victims of these riots deserve justice. That’s an act of identification. That’s what was and is due George Floyd too. That’s what it is needed for the rioters, but that is also what is due their victims.
The riots sow injustice and they will reap a harvest. That’s our final point: the effect of the riots. The riots have already bred further division. There will be no shortage of it on the street level. Many of these rioters will continue to live in these same communities because, of course, these are their homes; these Are also the homes of storeowners, police officers, and other civilians affected by the riots. Imagine the mutual suspicion. Imagine the power keg.
Families will be strained. There are difficult conversations underway and ahead for the parents who have been shocked to discover that the apple of their eye has been involved in all of this for reasons beyond their understanding.
The riots have inflamed divisions on a wider scale as the various political and cultural tribes of our day respond manipulatively and with animosity toward one another. This, of course, is not the responsibility of the rioters. It is the responsibility of the tribes and their leaders.
Perhaps most tragically, the riots have, for many, derailed the conversation and work which was needed on May 25, well before May 25, and is needed today. Attention has moved from the protests over the death of George Floyd to the riots George Floyd’s brother tearfully said he would have condemned. It will prove difficult to put the attention where it needs to be. It’s hard enough to draw people into sticky conversations even without the wariness and suspicion that has emerged.
It will be quite difficult to recapture the nation’s attention in any constructive way now. Consider how little attention has been given to the coronavirus since these riots began.
The coronavirus was a three-month shared national experience that remains a threat and even it has been shoved from the national consciousness. The conversation has shifted.
The national attention has fallen, like the eye of Sauron, on the riots. I fear it will move on in a few weeks to some new consuming interest leaving the behind the clean up, the protests, and the injustice.
Some are continuing to push for justice in the best ways. I’ve seen any number of helpful books to read, questions to ask, and simple actionable steps. The cognitive dissonance between these helpful first steps and a feeling of revulsion toward the riots will wrongly shut some people down. That’s one sad consequence (and perhaps an intended consequence of some of the more duplicitous rioters).
The end result of the riots will, most likely, be an exacerbation of many of the problems protestors bemoan. Attitudes that needed changing on multiple sides will be further entrenched. Conversations that needed to happen are being shelved. What I fear is that we are all in a cycle that we lack the leadership and willpower to escape and that people will continue to be crushed underneath.