Minneapolis is burning. Los Angeles stopped the freeways. Memphis is fed up and in the streets.
The tensions rose high in Minneapolis, Minnesota last night and the people spoke with their rage. The consecutive incidents of inequality, that left yet another unarmed person of color killed, boiled over.
Corporate buildings, retail establishments, law enforcement, and city property all burned overnight as looting and physical altercations followed.
Many on the outside of the struggle, and/or not of color, watched horrified at what they perceived as opportunists exploiting a chaotic window of time.
However, when the impoverished masses are fed up with the status quo and feel victimized, violence leads to appeasement: looting.
Protest or Public Nuisance?
The protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd escalated Wednesday night near the site of the demonstrations. To respond the police deployed tear gas, after earlier that afternoon being informed by Mayor Jacob Frey that the officer would be charged for the crime.
“I’m imploring our city, imploring our community, imploring every one of us to keep the peace. Let’s honor George Floyd’s memory,” Frey told KARE11 in a phone interview.
However, with a lack of leadership on the front lines to calm the people down, it was for naught. The justice sought wasn’t immediate so the retribution was.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz late Wednesday called it an “extremely dangerous situation” and urged residents to leave the area.
Unfortunately, there were unintended victims from the unrest.
One person was in custody in the shooting death near the site of the protests, Minneapolis police said. Officers responded to an initial report of a stabbing at 9:05 p.m. and found a man who wasn’t breathing lying on the sidewalk, police said in a statement Thursday morning.
The unidentified victim was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center. At the hospital, it was discovered the victim was shot.
Change Gone Come?
Do you subscribe to the theory of social evolutionism?
It is when you view the evolution of society and human history as progressing in some new, unique direction. However, sociological cycle theory argues that events and stages of society and history generally repeat themselves in cycles.
Last night was indicative of a sociological cycle.
The people clamored for action and without a unified plan emotions bubbled over. That is natural although upsetting and disturbing to see a major metropolis burning.
However, as long as there is system of radical injustice, there will be no peace. Remember that on April 4th 1968, Senator Bobby Kennedy, was there for the people when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
His heartfelt impromptu speech in Indianapolis, during his Presidential run, called for reconciliation. Riots still broke out but Kennedy stayed the course delivering his Mindless Menace of Violence speech.
Leadership pulls up. Leadership doesn’t hide behind canned atonement declarations crafted by image teams. The world is tired of the inauthenticity.
Perhaps George Floyd was the tipping point.
