Sunday, May 31, 2020

Kansas City, MO

“Rights and Riots”

Today has brought us some cool weather here in Kansas City. The weather has been so on and off lately, you never know what to expect. Life here in the big city has become a tiring effort…an effort to keep one’s sanity. The COVID 19 pandemic has gripped our state and our nation in a fist of fear, unknowing, and mistrust. But I won’t prattle on about that today, I am sure you all are as tired of that whole story as I am.

Today I want to focus on the largest news story of today; the demonstrations and riots. This morning’s headlines made me remember the LA riots of 1992. I had returned from the Gulf War, regained custody of my daughter, and was restarting my life again. The riots began with a young African American man (Rodney King) that was severely beaten by four Los Angeles police officers. The officers were acquitted, and all hell broke loose. The riots became so intense and uncontrollable that the California National Guardsmen, the Army’s 7^th Infantry Division, and the First Marine Division were called in to quell the whole affair, but not before hundreds of buildings, neighborhoods, and Korea Town were literally destroyed. 63 people lost their lives, and the bill for damages exceeded one billion dollars.

The riots of the last 2-3 days are supposedly about a man named George Floyd, a person that was being arrested for allegedly trying to buy merchandise with a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Again, there are four non-blacks, and one black guy. Floyd was restrained by human bodies, but the arresting officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck (against concrete) for a little under nine minutes. Floyd died soon after of still conflicting causes.

I mourn for George Floyd, his family, and anyone that suffers or dies from police brutality. But I have to ask, what does someone think rioting and pillaging in their own city will do to fix this? Floyd’s death, just like Eric Garner in 2014; was a tragedy. These cops need to be policed, because a small percentage of them are out of control. I’ve known many police officers in my life, and listened to their stories for years. I’ve never been a cop, but I know what someone would be like in uniform just by listening to their verbiage. I know this from years of supervising soldiers and going to war with them. The soldier that walks around saying “kill ’em all, let God sort ‘em out” is someone that you don’t want to go to war with. My friends (that were police officers) often told me the same about their partners or other cops in their precinct.  I would hear stories like “he won’t think that way after five of us corner him in an alley,” or “they are all animals; just pretend you’re hunting.” All of the garbage needs to be in Hollywood movies, not on the streets of our nation.

As I watched the looting and kids fighting with the police, I wondered how long this will go on, and how little children will describe it to their children 30 years from now.  The people that I saw on one video were taunting the police, and throwing trash at them. The protesters were trying to start a fight, not get justice for Floyd. The woman (that could hear the best) was instigating anything that she could to start fight with the police. She also kept saying “this is against the Constitution.” Fact check here: The First Amendment states specifically that our citizens “the right to peaceably assemble, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

Please note that their isn’t a damn thing written there that says “taunt the police, fuck the police, or ‘try me, big boy!” Peaceful assembly means that you can carry signs, chant slogans, sing Glory Hallelujah, or play your harmonicas while marching. Absolutely nothing in that amendment gives you the right to hurt people, destroy their property, or set things on fire.

The last thing that I want to establish here is this. Republicans have elected a President that has sounded the battle cry from his microphone many times. He’s said things that shouldn’t come out of anyone’s mouth, let alone the President of the United States and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. You’ve all heard them, even the last one that said “remember, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He has set precedents at that point for any moron to claim that “this is his President’s order” in a court of law. In many ways we are a nation of very intelligent and peaceful people, but in other ways extremely ignorant and belligerent at times. It’s high time that we stop allowing this nation to digress into a state of utter chaos, and bring in a new way of thinking and doing things. Do I speak of constitutional reform? Why yes; yes I do.

-Jim

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me at jimculp.blogspot.com