It started out peaceful, with signs and shouted slogans. Then someone spray-painted a mural. Another broke a mom-and-pop grocery store’s window. Another set fire to some parked cars. Someone else punched someone whose sign they disagreed with. Meanwhile, people were loading their vans with items looted from several stores.
This is how our protests are going. It could be because the protesters feel they aren’t being heard. It can also be people coming from other areas who don’t care about destroying neighborhoods not their own. It could be orchestrated by a group with a political agenda. The “who” doesn’t matter; the actions do.
What point does it make when people’s businesses, especially the small ones who are hanging by a string, struggling to survive this pandemic, are burned, smashed, and looted? Or when public art, owned by all of us, is covered over with statements and profanity? Or people are injured by cars speeding into the crowd?
The protests are about the violence of inequality. Does it make sense to create more violence and destroy the livelihood of families belonging to any ethnic group, let alone the group who is already dealing with the injustice being protested? Can we really believe that our demand to do the right thing will even be heard above the cacophony of destruction and greed being created?
If the message of a protest is intended to make positive change, the protest itself should reflect that, not contradict it.