“… some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

America’s cities are burning today, from New York to Philadelphia and Seattle to Nashville, [May 31st] still, after five days of chaos and anarchy, and rioters and looters are having a field day as they cart off toilet paper, liquor, 50″ HD televisions and electronics, proving that their actions are no longer focused on the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Thugs, criminals, communists and anarchists have forced the situation to devolve, and they act as if America’s cities owe them the courtesy of allowing them to loot and destroy whole cities, to make up for an array of grievances, both real and imagined, that emanate from the “social justice” crap so prevalent in our society today. And too many mayors, such as Nashville’s John Cooper, and governors, too, seem reticent to act to stop them. Even the most patriotic American, deep in their heart, would struggle to feel proud of their country and optimistic about its future after this week.

I full well understand the frustration and anger felt by those legitimate peaceful protesters, who only want to ensure that Floyd’s death isn’t simply shrugged off. Although I do believe a large element of racism still exists in America today, from many different segments of our society, Floyd’s death wasn’t any more egregious or horrendous than that of Tony Timpa, a 32 year old white man, who was murdered by Dallas Police, in 2016, as he pleaded for help thirty times. However, I also believe that a white person wouldn’t have been so sorely abused and mistreated by any police force, most usually, as Floyd was over a $20 counterfeit bill.

Floyd died telling police officers “I can’t breathe” and calling out for his mother. Eric Garner, a black man from New York, uttered the very same words just before his death, in 2014, caused by a police chokehold.

Now, America is on fire. All across America we see images of cars and buildings ablaze. Giant balls of flame erupt and the streets are choked with black smoke blanketing the sky. Protesters throw fire-extinguishers, knives, bottles and rocks at police, and grocery and department stores are being looted.

I thought the good people of Nashville might actually avoid getting sucked into the madness of the madding masses’ ignorance, but evil knows no limit and leaves nothing in this world untouched, so I was obviously hoping for too much. Many of us were shocked to see a supposed “peaceful protest” turn ugly with a matter of just a couple of hours, with rioters setting the Nashville Courthouse ablaze on May 30th and destroying a large swathe of Nashville’s Lower Broad tourist area.

Incredibly, the “peaceful protest” in my hometown of Murfreesboro, TN led to the city being placed under a “state of emergency” by Governor Bill Lee and Mayor Shane McFarland, after a prayer vigil and protest on Sunday, March 31st, “turned violent” and a police armored vehicle was vandalized and a brick was thrown through the window of Whiskey Dix’s business. At approximately 7:00 pm, McFarland ordered a curfew to go into effect, and about forty-five minutes later, Gov. Lee threw his support behind the move with his statement, that “the protests in Murfreeboro are no longer peaceful but have escalated to overt threats to public safety and property”. But overall, the situation was mild compared to other parts of the nation, thankfully.

No one should condone the violence spreading across this country, as an answer to George Floyd’s horrific murder. These riots that are tearing our cities apart, from Minneapolis to all points beyond, coast-to-coast, can and will only lead to more suffering, and it also overshadows the peaceful demonstrations actually in support of finding justice for George Floyd and his family, as the leftists, ANTIFA, communists and anarchists continue their quest for cosmic justice — the sort of justice they think will settle all scores of racial grievance for all time, which, of course, is unlikely to ever be settled by any means, until they have succeeded in completely destroying the founding principles of America.

What a sad day for America. I am disgusted and infuriated, not just by the murder of George Floyd, but even more so by the destruction that the ignorant mobs across the country are wreaking throughout nearly every major city. Their actions are not making America better and they certainly do not serve any real idea of justice, since the poor minority business owners, and white business owners, too, such as Ed Smith, owner of Big Time Boots in Nashville, TN, have most likely been left wondering just how justice has been served by the destruction of their businesses, burnt to the ground or simply torn apart by frenzied, crazed, senseless mobs.

And now we are to be lectured by the servants of those purveyors of “racist America”, such as Chris Wallace at Fox News, who tell us that black men are twice as likely to meet a bad end at the hands of police than white men. Could it be a difference in upbringing and home life? Could it simply be a cultural difference and a certain proclivity to go against the moral norms of America? Whatever the reason, black people comprise thirteen percent of America’s population, and yet they are responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes, including fifty-two percent of the murders in America.

Unfortunately, the race-baiters are out in full force, basically handing out the matches and gasoline that continue to stoke the riots, similar to Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, who invited Jesse Jackson to Minnesota. Jackson said, “the pain is real” and “rioting is the voice of those who truly have no way to express themselves”, shortly after leaving a meeting with Ellison, according to KARE11’s Adrienne Broaddus. Al Sharpton, who was instrumental in inciting the 1991 Crown Heights riots and numerous other incendiary situations, was on hand to offer his worthless two-cents, also, observing that destroying “black-owned stores” was “reckless”, begging the question … What about other Minneapolis businesses?

We’ve all seen the video of George Floyd’s murder by now, and most of us have wondered how could anyone end up handcuffed and pinned down on the street, in distress and dying under the knees of a law enforcement officer anywhere in America? It calls for us to be outraged and it’s right to demand justice, but what we are witnessing today is far from justice, and it is far removed from anything whatsoever to do with Mr Floyd’s death.

It’s very unfortunate that this violence, chaos and anarchy is unfolding in America right now. And although purposeful protest is intended to deliver a strong message to the leaders of the cities and states across the country, the message has now been sent, the message has been received and the powers-that-be have acknowledged it by arresting Derek Chauvin quickly by any known standard, with charges against the remaining officers and their arrests more than likely to follow. Justice is forthcoming and change should be on the way, if a city has moral leadership, so there actually is nothing that warrants the actions of the rioters. There actions are based on an entirely different agenda.

On May 29th, U.S. Attorney General William Barr stated, that the Department, the DOJ and FBI, “is conducting an independent investigation to determine whether any federal civil-rights laws were violated”.

Emotions are also running high, and many cities are dealing with a devious, immoral left that declares any inconvenient fact “racist”. America is also witnessing well-funded professional agitators inciting the violence and riots, stoking mob anger. And we see too many in positions of power — I won’t call them “leaders” — forcing a collective suicide for their own political causes, in a manner all too reminiscent of what transpired during the Ferguson riots.

While many leftists across our nation are so quick to throw out Dr Martin Luther King’s 1967 observation that “a riot is the language of the unheard”, they forget that it was prefaced with, “Let me say as I’ve always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating.”

Just how much rioting, looting and arson will be enough to slate the collective “aggrieved’s” sense of solidarity in their quest for justice? Five nights? Three weeks? Six months? Will it actually cease if and when the remaining three officers are prosecuted for murder? How much rioting, looting and arson will the authorities in cities across America allow to blast the nation before they move to forcefully stop it? Does all this chaos amplify itself in a feedback loop as it plays out?

At a press conference held in Minneapolis on May 29th, Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr adressed the crowd, saying: “Don’t let this [just] be another news story … We all have to get out and stand together and we don’t have to do it violently. We can do it politically. Don’t sit around and say ‘My vote don’t count’. We put these politicians in and we can take them out.”

As Alfred Pennyworth notes in the movie Dark Knight: “… some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

In a fiery speech on May 29th, Atlanta Mayor Keishs Lance Bottoms stated: “This is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated we didn’t do this to our city. … You are disgracing our city. You are disgracing the life of George Floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country. We are better than this. We are better than this as a city. We are better than this as a country. Go home, go home.”

These rioters are killing people, they are killing businesses and they are killing America. They are ensuring that America becomes the land of the angry and the home of the divided, a nation that is itself gasping for air.

Whatever sympathy the people may have felt for Black Lives Matter or greater police accountability collapsed, as the riots grew from isolated incidents into a nationwide violent upheaval, largely orchestrated and conducted by the worse elements of our society. They have lost the moral high ground.

And with that said, in regards to the violent looters, taking a page from Miami’s Police Chief Walter Headley suggestion in 1967, it is past time that criminal looters are dealt with in the most severe and harsh manner, regardless of what color they are, since today we see looters of all colors, many communists and anarchists, many simple-minded opportunists, just as likely to be the perpetrators. We have the weapons to halt this chaos and mayhem, and we have the weapons to use in this war against criminal and subversive acts and this war against America, by immoral people intent on taking America down. Looters used to be shot in the act. It’s time to revive the practice and put an end to this anarchy that is destroying the livelihoods that were built, in many instances, over a person’s lifetime, in the name of restoring order and “the rule of law”.

The promise of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal applies to every individual of every race, the George Floyds and the Ed Smiths, who have the right to their lives and their livelihoods to be protected and defended by the powers-that-be and law enforcement at every level.

Embedded in our culture for four-hundred years, racism is America’s Achilles’ Heel, but right is right and wrong is wrong. Floyd’s murder is reprehensible and demands swift justice. The destruction of American cities and some store owners being beaten senseless, as they try to defend their stores, is equally reprehensible and demands equal swift justice. And real justice in America will only come, when all Americans stop judging anyone by race and reject the calls to “reject racism”, by simply living and acting as good, decent and moral human beings, regardless of one’s color and ethnicity. Reject the natural end result of a “social justice” communist philosophy that works overtime to absolve individuals of responsibility for their crimes and blames others for political advantage. Reject rage for the sake of rage, to engage in unthinking hate, and use George Floyd’s murder to place racism in history’s dustbin, rather than continue to burn down our homes and destroy America, still the greatest nation on earth.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” ~ Hosea 8:7

June 1, 2020

~ The Author ~
Justin O. Smith has lived in Tennessee off and on most of his adult life, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1980, with a B.S. and a double major in International Relations and Cultural Geography – minors in Military Science and English, for what its worth. His real education started from that point on. Smith is a frequent contributor to the family of Kettle Moraine Publications.