Justice for Crispus

1 June 2020

 

Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

American Cities Burn

 

One is tired of living in historically significant times. In addition to a global pandemic and a worldwide economic slide, the cities of the United States burned over the week-end as protests against police violence grew. The authorities appeared more interested in controling territory than in addressing the legitimate grievances of the population, and this gave criminals and agents provocateurs room to loot and burn. The social contract has broken down completely in some cities, and the trust in the authorities needed for its repair is gone. The Trump administration has failed in a fashion America's adversaries could only have dreamed of when it began.

This journal takes the view that violence is a perfectly acceptable method of conflict resolution as a last resort. Pacificism in the face of an enemy prepared to use lethal force is merely surrender and cowardice posing as a virtue. Therefore, one will not condemn the burning of the third police precinct in Minneapolis. The day after the building burned, authorities arreseted the police officer who allegedly murdered George Floyd on video the whole world has seen. In other words, it worked when other options had left that man on the streets.

Had the killing of Mr. Floyd been a one-off event, there would be no nationwide rioting nor international protests. Instead, Mr. Floyd is yet another black American killed by those whose duty it was to protect and serve. The nation is still waiting for justice for Crispus Attucks, who was murdered by redcoats in the Boston Massacre and whose killers walked free thanks to the legal defense provided by future President John Adams. Forty cities have curfews suggesting that the situation is nationwide, or wider.

The recent concern over the destruction of property is problematic. Burning a liquor store hardly brings justice to anyone. By the same token, the social contract is supposed to protect both people and property. When people are killed by those who are supposed to protect them, does the protection still extend to property?

Trevor Noah of late night TV fame and a mixed-race South African (a man born a crime under apartheid) said rightly of looting, "What good doesn't it do? That's the question people don't ask the other way around . . . the only reason you didn't loot Target before is because you were upholding society's contract. There is no contract if law and people in power don't uphold their end of it." Pacta sunt servanda, or not.

Yet American squeamishness about the destruction of property in pursuit of political liberation is contrary to the founding of the nation. When the tea chests owned by the British East India Company hit the waters of Boston Harbor, property was destroyed in the name of liberty. If Target burns, it's insured.

It did not have to come to this. Political leadership from the White House could have prevented most of the ugliness. Instead, the president cowered in the bunker under the residence. There has been no presidential statement to the nation. Even his phone call to the Floyd family seems to have been a one-way lecture by him.

This is not going to end any time soon. The Floyd family has made an appeal for peace and justice. Eventually, there will be peace if only because the protesters will tire. Justice is a less likely achievement. It will require not only the trial of the four policemen involved, and a hefty sentence if found guilty, but also, it will require a purging of the police departments of America and a retraining of the "peace officers," who sadly, look like an occupying army.

His name was George Floyd. And Crispus Attucks. And legions in between.


© Copyright 2020 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.


Kensington Review Home

 

Google

Follow KensingtonReview on Twitter

 





















 
 
Wholesale NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys