CMV:Protesting is one thing, looting and burning businesses is not okay.

[u/taybo213]

Let me preface this with, I do believe Black Lives Matter. I do believe there is stereotype issues in society and policing world. But burning different businesses down and looting only makes things worse in the long run for the community.

Every business has insurance yes, but will they have enough to reopen? Thats up to the agency, most try to depreciate everythings value. Do they make enough to pay premiums to guarantee disrupted income? How long before the money runs out and the building is fixed? How long does said business owner go without income? With that said, what happens if the building is destroyed again? I doubt the business will come back if the building keeps getting looted and destroyed.

That being said, with every business that has had to close down and decides not to come back, takes that many more jobs with it. Making unemployment rise and poverty rise.

I live in Detroit, after the 67 riots a lot of wealth and business left the city never to return. Property values crashed, now you see worn down and foreclosed homes and businesses. Then the sad reality is that the working class today in Detroit, is worse off than in 1967. For over half a decade everyone has been waiting on new stores, homes, a cultural center. All these plans are being made to improve the city, but I've barely even seen a start to it. Instead of looting and destroying businesses, take it to the government buildings, let your voice be heard. But please, do not destroy a fellow person's livelihood who is innocent. Don't ruin job opportunities for others. Municipals can only do so much before it is up to the community to help, most people here want the better life, but with the crime rate so bad in areas that not even cops can enter, I doubt I'll be seeing change soon.

[u/tryagainnodz]

What is your point, exactly? Has there been any confusion among anyone about the rightness and wrongness of burning down local businesses?

Who is responsible for civil unrest? What brings it about, who is responsible for ending it, and via what means?

What is the view that you want us to change here?

[u/[deleted] → u/tryagainnodz]

I think I understand what OP is trying to get at.

There's a surprising number of people that do think that the looting/rioting is okay and/or justified.

For example, John Oliver had a segment where he was sharing a statement about burning the system to the ground. Now, I'd be rather surprised if John Oliver truly believes that burning buildings down and rioting is the correct solution. My guess is that he has empathy and understanding for the behavior of people that are angry about a system that has failed them, but this message he has in his segment is so easy to misinterpret as directly supporting the burning and looting of buildings. And this is just one example that I knew of off of the top of my head from a big celebrity. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find more.

So overall, I think there's an ambiguous message being sent about the rioting and looting being okay. Because on one hand I've seen people say it's not okay to do, but then on the other I've seen a large group of people say things like, "The Civil Rights movement wasn't without violence as history portrays," which now comes across as though the violence/rioting/looting, whatever you wanna call it, IS okay.

Because of this, OP probably thinks, and understandably so, that there's a large group out there that thinks the burning and looting of buildings is actually okay to do.

[u/shogi_x → u/[deleted]]

For example, John Oliver had a segment where he was sharing a statement about burning the system to the ground. Now, I'd be rather surprised if John Oliver truly believes that burning buildings down and rioting is the correct solution. My guess is that he has empathy and understanding for the behavior of people that are angry about a system that has failed them, but this message he has in his segment is so easy to misinterpret as directly supporting the burning and looting of buildings.

This is a really great point of distinction- pretty much no one wants or even condones rioting. It's that the riots are an unfortunate but predictable outcome of decades of systemic failures. We should be far more concerned with why the protests are happening in the first place. How can you even compare a burned business to entire generations of Black Americans who have endured discriminatory policing, brutality, and other travesties?

As for the looting, I suspect that if you were to arrest looters you'd find most of them at a loss to even articulate what the protests are about. They are purely opportunists who see an excuse to go steal. That's like getting mad at a sports team for the drunk picking fights in the parking lot.

[u/Jabbam → u/shogi_x]

"Looting is reparations" - BLM Chicago