Remember Why People are Angry

I can't give credit to the creator of this meme but would love to, it addresses a few things.  This of course was a response to the destruction in the cities across this country in response to the killing of George Floyd and so many others by police when lethal force was not only not necessary, but criminal.  Some have argued that this is not the same thing.  That Jesus wasn't destroying public property just cleaning up the Holy Temple.  I would argue in a way some of this graffiti that we see on monuments around the country is similar.  

While I claim no expertise over the Christian Bible, what Jesus did in the Temple with the commercialism was to destroy not only the acts of the merchants but the symbolism of what it meant. Jerusalem, at the time, was in turmoil and his anger did in fact boil over because of it. The Temple itself was a symbol to many of an oppressive society as it seemed to be in cooperation with Rome. So if one defiled the Temple merchants that was an act of revolution against the powers in charge. The statues that venerate a history that some find is one of oppression would make symbolic targets. Jesus' attack was on the establishment the merchants were a symbol. 

Now, of course, this is wrong and there is some indication that some of the worst of the vandalism and looting that took place was less about anger at oppression and more from radical extremists both on the right and the left.  In my experience with protests over the years there is always an element who thinks destruction is the necessary.  Many times the issue being protested is not relevant to them.  In fact many times they derail the message of the protesters, I believe that this is happening here. White supremacists have called for more violence in the streets to reach their goal of a race war.  Many anarchists have been using these tactics to sow discontent not in positions of government but in government itself.  People who destroy and deface public and private property should be arrested, should be held responsible and should pay the price.  But we are more and more seeing the broad brush being used to paint all protesters with the same stripe.  That is dangerous, last night in Washington the President of the United States ordered a street cleared for a photo op and tear gas was used to move people off public property where they were legally and non-violently calling for change.  One police department that was there from a county surrounding DC has said they can no longer, in good faith, participate in this kind of crowd control.  I wonder how many of those peaceful protesters will give up their non-violent stance now out of anger when met with violence of the authorities. 

The idea that people could get so angry that they smash windows, vandalize statues and symbols of power etc. can easily be understood by anyone who ever punched a wall because they were just so fed up with something. The something that some people are dealing with is decades of being seen as black before being seen as citizens.  That being black in this country means you grow up skeptical of police not in community with them.  Recently on Twitter a man ask African Americans "When was the first time a police officer pulled a gun on you?"   Not if that happened, not the only time, the question assumed that it happened and that there was more than once for a number of people.  People responded from every station and age of life with answers, some as young as 10 years old.  This is a horrible reality and I see no real end in sight.  This isn't about more training, this isn't about black communities cleaning up their streets, this isn't about using the military for law and order.  This is about a change on hearts and minds of people who carry weapons to protect and serve who shouldn't.  Police have a difficult job, they should be paid well to do it, but they must be held to a high standard and bad individuals and the system that allows they to flourish must be purged.  It won't be easy but if we are going to survive as a republic with "Liberty and Justice for All" it must be done.  We can do it.  

In the meantime there will be anger.  Black people are dying at the hands of their government.  I will never know what that is like, I will never be able to fully grasp the anger.  My skin tone and standing gives me a great deal of immunity to the horror some have to face.   All I can do is try to help find a way to repair the broken world. And looking to the Bible, Jesus, Moses, Nehemiah, Judith and Tamar all acted out of anger to change people's minds. I do wonder where they would have been on Saturday night..