COVID Diaries Pt. 11

Let Them Eat War

I didn’t really want to write this post, but I felt the need to document more of the shit that has gone down during this time.

Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Blake had some previous issues with the law and was currently charged, but not yet convicted, in the sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend who is mother to his three kids.   The kids were in the car as their Dad was shot seven times opening the front door to the vehicle.

It’s obvious that Blake was black.  White guys doing what he was on video are never shot seven times in the back.  The “law and order” crowd still find it justified.  “He should have listened to the cops”.  Yeah, you are right, he should have.  That doesn’t mean he deserved to be shot, much less seven times in the back.   He has survived but will probably be paralyzed from the waist down.

After this, predictably, protests erupted in Kenosha.  They then turned into riots and looting.

It’s the typical cycle.  A cycle that would stop if A. Police would stop shooting unarmed black men or B. Police would be held accountable for actually shooting unarmed black men.   That’s what it takes for protests to end.  It doesn’t take militarized police, or the national guard, or unmarked jackbooted thugs to come and squash it.  It also doesn’t take armed militia members.

Which brings us to a 17-year-old from Antioch, IL.  He was just over the border from Kenosha, so his Mom drove him across state lines to Kenosha where he was going to protect businesses with his AR-15.  Of course, when things got dicey (with both sides armed) he shot and killed two protesters and wounded another.   A TEENAGER with a rifle that was illegal for him to own took to vigilante justice.   Afterwards he walked towards police with his hands up and they drove right by him.  He actually went home and wasn’t arrested until the next day.

Before the murders, he got water bottles from the police and they thanked him for being there.

Think about that.  The local police were just fine with an armed, underage, vigilante with his gun there on the streets of a tense situation.  Then after he killed other human beings, and people were yelling to the police that he had done so, they just let him go.

If a black gentleman was walking down the middle of the street with a gun and people yelled that he had killed someone, he probably wouldn’t be alive to tell about it.  Now this kid is having money raised for him, and right-wing talking heads are praising him.  HE IS A MURDERER, who had no business being there to “protect property.”  If this kid gets off, it will take protests to a whole new level.

Next, far-right nationalist groups held a rally outside of Portland, Oregon and then turned it into a makeshift parade to drive right through downtown.  These assholes in their trucks were shooting paintballs and pepper spray into protestors.  This is assault.  They should have been arrested, but no, the police escorted them.

Then one of these assholes got shot and killed by a protestor. 

This protester should also be arrested and also charged with murder.  He murdered someone; he should go to jail.   But the police found him and killed him too.  He’s also a white guy, but he’s from the wrong side, so he gets shot to death while the teenager on the other side got to go home for the evening before being peacefully arrested.

They said he threatened them with a gun, but they didn’t think there was any body cam footage.  How convenient.   This man had given an interview to VICE and told them that his friend and him were threatened with a knife and that’s why he shot.  He was in fear that his friend was going to be injured or killed, so he shot the assailant.

He was wrong.  He shouldn’t have shot.  Just like the kid in Kenosha.   Both of them are claiming self-defense, but both should have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law.   Only now, one is dead and the other has had hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for him.

This is going to bring me to my most valuable point.   The fucking guns are the problem.  Nobody should be armed at a protest, on either side.   It’s too easy to take a life, and too easy for things to escalate.  People like to think a gun will keep them safe in those circumstances, but it only rachets up the danger.  The right always have guns at these things, but now those on the left are doing the same, and it’s leading to more death, and takes the focus off of the police brutality we see going on.

The thing is, this is what the White House wants.  It is ramping up the law and order rhetoric and painting all protesters as rioters and looters.  It doesn’t condemn the Kenosha kid, but the violent antifa are a problem.   He WANTS this conflict.  Every clash and every murder help him.  It riles up his base and scares the suburbs.  More death and destruction help his cause and help him seem like the badass that can prevent it, even though this is going on right now on his watch.   It’s throwing gas on the fire when the country could use a real leader.  It is evil.

Not to mention that a couple other unarmed black men have been killed since Blake.  Like I said before, STOP KILLING UNARMED BLACK PEOPLE OR AT LEAST FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR DOING SO.  It’s THAT fucking simple.  That happens, protests stop.  Seems pretty fucking simple doesn’t it.

But it’s not, and cops will still get off.  This teenager probably will too, and this cycle will keep repeating itself. 

Let’s break the cycle.