Make It Stop

 "If you want to protest peacefully, by all means go out and do it. It’s your right. But don’t be a part of this destructive force that’s burning our community. That’s not a productive path to justice. We are not sitting idly, watching the destruction of our community. We’re making every effort to make it stop, and I hope you will too."

These were the words issued in a statement from Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth after another night of rioting in Wisconsin. The riots erupted after three Kenosha police officers were seen on cellphone video following Jacob Blake Jr. Blake around his SUV and at least one of them is seen shooting Blake multiple times in the back as he opened the driver's side door and entered the vehicle, where his three young children were still inside.

Sheriff Beth tells us that a riot is not a productive path to justice. Fair enough. Hard to argue in support of riots, but then again, Sheriff Beth did not offer an alternative path. Sworn officers of the law, sometimes referred to as "peace officers," shot an unarmed black man seven times. In the back. In front of his children. Doctors suggest it will take a miracle for Jacob to be able to walk again. 

Jacob is still alive. He might be able to walk again. These are miracles in and of themselves. But that path to justice remains elusive. 

The rage that has built over the past four hundred years has not been diminished by the continuation of oppressive force and brutality. Once again, the light is being shined on the reaction to this barbaric treatment of our citizens rather than on the barbaric treatment itself. Windows are broken. Things are set on fire. Gunfire erupts. Why do we expect peaceful demonstrations when there is nothing peaceful going on across that thin blue line. That ideal of "serve and protect" has evaporated, if it ever really existed anywhere outside the lofty mottos painted on the doors of their cars. 

Certainly there will be the backlash from those who insist that this is because it's another one of those cities with a Democrat for a mayor. The cure suggested by these voices will be to use more force. Overwhelm protesters with superior firepower. Don't they understand this is a war they can't win? 

As I wrote that, I wondered to which "they" I was referring. Perhaps I mean everyone. Who wins in a war? When tyranny is banished and people breathe and live free without fear, that would be a win. That is not happening. Jacob Blake joins a list of black men, women, boys, girls, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers whose lives have been forever torn apart by the very institutions that are supposed to be protecting them. 

So what is that path to justice? Freedom? Liberty? Back in 1776, it started with a Declaration. And then there was a lot of breaking, burning, and shooting. Two hundred fifty years later, we are still waiting for that American Dream. In what confirms the grotesque irony of the situation, a young vigilante who shot someone at the protest was arrested and charged with murder. The police officers who shot Jacob Blake are on administrative leave. 

We have run out of patience. We are seeking to bend the arc that Martin Luther King spoke of toward justice. By any means necessary.