Black Lives Matter or President Trump?

By: Joe Mauricio

 

Peaceful protests over George Floyd’s murder have been overshadowed by images of rage-fueled violence and destruction.

When it comes to race relations, anyone who thinks rioting is the answer doesn’t grasp the question. Burning, looting, and committing mayhem don’t bend the moral arc of the universe; it breaks it.

Peaceful protests over Floyd’s killing have been overshadowed by the rioters who shouted peace, equality, and Black Lives Matter, and then breaks the windows and doors of small businesses.

Resorting to rioting is strange because there is little disagreement that Floyd’s death was senseless and criminal. Minneapolis police involved Derek Chauvin was charged with 2nd-degree murder in Floyd’s killing, 3 other ex-cops involved charged with assisting him.

Rioting sparked and spread, yet there is no national purpose behind people burning buildings, torching car dealerships, breaking windows, spray-painting obscenities and other actions that have left city blocks looking like war zones.

Some say that this is the Democrats’ expressions of anger and frustrations, and maybe so, but they are also unjustifiably foolish and counter- productive. While peaceful protesters are trying to create sympathies and understanding, the rioters have undone that effort with flying bricks and injuring policemen and people around.

The non-violent approach produced concrete results in the form of the historic Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. People of all races understand that two wrongs don’t make it right. Regardless of why riots happen, they never have any positive outcome. Businesses are destroyed and neighborhoods are ruined. The relations with the law enforcement worsen, and spreads fear and anger among the population.

The riots give those who did not want to confront complex issues a perfect excuse to write it all off to thugs as being thugs.

Some of these riots appear coordinated and pre-planned events across state lines. And, in Minneapolis, where it all started, police report that they found water bottles filled with gasoline hidden in bushes throughout neighborhoods where fires were set.

Brazen robberies of high-end store from California to New York and Boston send signals to criminal elements that there is profit in exploitation of George Floyd’s death. And rioters prove that they are just interested in ruining our communities. Our major cities run the risk of collapsing under anarchy and dramatic rage due to the vicious and violent looters and rioters.

The big question right now, in the citizenry’s mind…Is this all about Black Lives Matter, or is it all about Trump?