Next year, 2022, will be the thirty year anniversary of the riots after Rodney King was mercilessly beaten by LAPD officers.
The THIRTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY.
And of course that's not when police racism and brutality began-- it's baked into America's apple pie. And of course that pie doesn't just include the bad police apples (to thoroughly run this metaphor into the ground), but the entire criminal justice system.
And nearly as long as that system has existed, people have been trying to fix it. Their efforts have been not only rejected but gotten them attacked by the very system they seek to correct.
Riots? Those of the visceral expressions of frustration, pain, and justifiable rage that result from the repetition of this centuries-old cycle. The voice of the unheard, as MLK said, in a passage white people don't tend to be as fond of quoting.
But more to the point in this instance, I am so very sick of people claiming that last summer's riots were merely about George Floyd. The same people who claim this often go on to accuse protesters of "worshipping" the victim of police brutality, and point out that the victim is "no angel," as if only angels deserve not to be victimized.
No, we don't worship these people. We recognize that they're neither angels nor devils. They are capable of moral and immoral behavior, acting wisely and foolishly, making good choices and poor choices. In other words....they are people. Like you and me. Someday they could be you or me. We could become them. The list is long, and it continues to grow.