millergrovesue wrote:For me this article isn't about people being hungry or having sympathy or lack thereof for the plight of the hungry. It's about making excuses for illegal behavior and specifically rioting. I don't believe hunger had anything to do with destroying property, burning things, and shooting. I think poor up bringings, low morals, and mob mentality were in play here. Had it been hunger the mobs would have broken into only grocery stores and restaurants and stolen food and nothing else. Or heck, they would have traded their weapons for food.
Yeah, I got a bit off topic. I get frustrated sometimes at the brutality people justify for political or religious reasons. I sort of obscured my point.
No, the rioting and looting were not directly caused by hunger...or any other one element. Maybe the riots flowed from the protests and maybe they didn't. But, they weren't the same thing. So, what pushes a community to turn out and destroy their own neighborhood? I don't think we can ever understand that. Of course, anger is really the driving force but you have to admit it is justified anger in the main. Not just police abuses or rights violations...unemployment, hunger, schools (Ferguson's district, Normandy, has been on probation for 14 years and last years scored a 10 out of 140 on their State violation), lack of things like grocery stores, retail services...all of these combine to create a time bomb. What ultimately sets these things off seem minor in and of themselves. But, that ignores the run-up and the community pressures. These folks didn't just decide to go on a rampage...something triggered it. It may flow from the protests because they were so totally suppressed and some felt they had no other way to respond. I just am unable to say with certainty. These people live in circumstances I simply know nothing about living in day-in and day-out.
I don't think it is valid to assign causes such as poor upbringing or low morals to this. Desperation and frustration trump a wide range of positive character traits if they become severe enough or persist long enough...particularly when no one will listen to their message. Mob mentality...once it started, absolutely. They are humans, after all.
Have you ever wondered why Ferguson and Brown sparked such a response? Brown was clearly in the wrong. He at least shop lifted and assaulted a police officer. We don't know what he was doing at the end of his life but he didn't have his hands up. Why this case? Why so much passion here? Why not over the young father gunned down in Walmart while on the phone? Why not Tamar Rice...12 years old playing in the park shot within SECONDS of police arrival? I don't know, but I have a theory. I think what made Ferguson an important event was the repressive over-reaction of the City and Police. They conducted themselves as an Army, literally an Army, of occupation. The message this sent was devastating to this community (and many of us elsewhere...I watched thinking of the conduct of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe from the 50s to the 80s. We didn't do that stuff because this is a free country...we are the good guys...we aren't some repressive dictatorial Hellhole) as a rejection of any concern or justice for them by the State. Maybe it was a way to get the attention needed to kick-start change. And I believe change is coming. Body cams are a great start but still more needs to be done.
