[Lamplighter]

[quote=gvidas;926888]http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...liance/391640/

Ta-Nehisi Coates:
I am sorely tempted to quote the linked article entirely.

To answer yer 8-yr-old: what's going on in Baltimore is a bunch of people demonstrating
that the rest of the country only pays attention to how dire their situation is when they are burning shit.[/QUOTE

Excellent article, gv.

Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments
or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations.
---
And in almost every case, prosecutors or judges dismissed the charges
against the victims—if charges were filed at all.
<snip>
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the
repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself.
When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor
calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state,
while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con.

And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise,"
any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise."

Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law
and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.