Voices in My Head
Looting Is Not Change and A Riot Is Not A Revolution.
Looting is robbery. Okay, not technically (The legal definition of looting in California is committing any of the following offenses, during a state of emergency or a local emergency: Burglary; Grand theft or Petty theft: Penal Code 463 PC). It is still stealing. What it is not is change. No, it does not change public policy nor does it resolve the issue that caused the anger. A riot that kills or injures people, whoever they are, does nothing but give power to the system that they were trying to dismantle in the first place. Romantic ideas of “Up against the barricades” and “F*ck the man” are rooted in delusion and not realistic political strategy and tactics in a democracy. A riot is not a revolution.
Inviting battles with the police while you are looting and rioting so you can then call them out for brutality is illogical. It will not change one iota of policy nor stimulate the dialogue that leads to solutions. It only gets people injured and killed. Thinking otherwise is a fantasy.
Protest should lead to real change. That change happens when those demanding that change call out a series of strategies that examined the problem and then came up with a series of solutions. They diagnosed the root causes and then set out, in a democracy, to gather enough support to implement those solutions. That might involve legislation or public policy changes or any other series of administrative actions that get you the same results.
Wait, I’m sorry, am I writing too fast or going over your head with all this mumbo-jumbo? Are you kidding, you say? “We’ve tried this and it got us nothing!” If you believe that there has been no change in the history of this country because of protest, then you have your eyes and ears closed. But, it takes more. Every time, you decide to not become engaged in the political process because it is too inconvenient or too hard, then that void is filled by someone else. In the seventy-one years of my life, I have seen it countless times. From the sixties through 2016, every time progressive voices have abandoned engagement or gotten a little too comfortable with the progress that has already been made (Our job is done here), other regressive voices have been more than willing to rush in and change the rules, reset the table, and guess what, we find ourselves having to begin all over again.
While you were rioting and looting, the Trump administration and the GOP led Senate has been very efficiently changing the legal system of this country, filling up the courts with right-wing conservative judges. Very young right-wing conservative judges who will be on the courts for the next twenty-five years or more. While you were grumbling about that corporate-owned store that you managed to burn down in defense of a cause (by the way, that store employs your friends), the Trump administration has been able to carry out a series of administrative and public policy changes that will haunt us for years. Even if we’re lucky enough to kick him out of office, it will take years to undo the damage that this administration has done in domestic and foreign policy.
Then, to do all of this riot destruction inside of a pandemic that has affected the lives of so many people of color is the ultimate illogical move. Really? I mean someone must have thought this out? From the images I saw, I would have to say no.
Living in America and implementing progressive change is hard. It takes leadership, discussion, engagement, public policy recommendations, electing progressive voices to everything from local community councils to the United States Congress to the White House. There is a long list of actions that must happen to spark progressive change but looting and rioting are not one of them. They may get people’s attention but, in America, I have found that attention not followed up with engaged action soon fades from the headlines and our hearts and minds. Trust me, it won’t be long before we return to our regularly scheduled program where we can indulge ourselves in all the violence that our hearts desire. Except, in that case, no one gets hurt or dies. And the revolution dies.
