Nothing Positive About Riots

Someone at the Fairfax County, Virginia Democratic Party tweeted on the organization’s account, “riots are an integral part of the country’s march towards progress.” The tweet was deleted, but not before it was noted by Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal. This is utterly abhorrent.

There is absolutely nothing positive about rioting, looting, and burning. They do not contribute in the slightest toward progress. They serve only to feed animosity and push already troubled neighborhoods further downward. Robert Woodson has this op-ed in the WSJ:

The devastation will likely continue after the ashes cool and the remains of shops and other businesses are swept away. A pattern known as the Ferguson effect has emerged across American towns and cities racked by antipolice protests in recent years. To avoid charges of racism, officers have stepped back from fully enforcing the law. In this state of “police nullification,” entire neighborhoods have descended into free-fire zones, where street violence and homicides have skyrocketed.

After the 2015 police shooting of a black man in Cincinnati, civil-rights activists descended on the city to decry the institutional racism of law enforcement. When officers subsequently declined to enforce the law aggressively, there was a significant increase in murders in one crime-ridden black district. The civil-rights advocates who had led the protests didn’t have to live with the consequences of lawlessness when they returned to the safety of their neighborhoods.

Animosity toward police also makes some blacks reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement. In St. Louis last spring, 18 children under 14 were killed by gunfire, but many residents withheld information from police, and only one arrest was made by the end of the summer. Last year 86% of police chiefs nationwide said recruitment had declined since 2014, and in many cities law enforcement hasn’t been able to respond even to desperate 911 calls. Communities like George Floyd’s will feel the greatest impact of this dearth of law enforcement.

The single most important change that is needed is to build respect for the law as a fundamental cultural value. Removing the bad apples from police departments is a part of that effort, to be sure. Far more important, though, is instilling in our youth the importance and the rightness of abiding by the fundamental laws of our society and respecting the rights of others. Looting stores and torching buildings is never right. There was a time in our history when peaceful civil disobedience was justified, but even that is long behind us.

In today’s America, every positive change can be and should be pursued within the law. When we vote this November, criterion number one should be to strike from consideration any candidate who has praised or made excuses for lawlessness. Oust them all.