The problem is you can’t give an inch. When you go above and beyond condemning the riots, the requirement is then that you have to call for an end to the peaceful protests. So you have 6,000 people marching in the street without violence or property damage. Then you have 100 or so (maybe from the protests, maybe not) who are criminals, who come out at night and set fires and break windows and steal shit. The request from the ‘other side’ at that point is more militant policing of the protests from the start or an end to the protests altogether. They won’t de-link the two.
I tend to be flippant, so perhaps I am rationalizing the riots. There were somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000 BLM demonstrations. About 700 had some degree of violence. The last time I put a number on the riots, hail got his panties in a wad, but we could say two dozen cities saw riots. Two dozen riots
caused about $3MM damage a piece. Millions of people were involved in the protests, tens of thousands involved in riots.
I guess what I’m getting to is what’s the end game? Using myself as the example, I opposed any and all violence, I wanted rioters caught and charged. What was the next step I was supposed to take? When I point out that the property damage was typically limited to a city block, if that, is that a problem because it’s insensitive? I’m a numbers guy; when I point out that $1bn in damage across that many incidents and that many cities and that many people really isn’t as much money as suggested, is that an insensitive thing, too? I’m not saying the riots were right or damaging property is nothing. I’m saying it’s not a catastrophic event no the level of the world watching our Capitol building stormed by lunatics, encouraged by the President of the United States of America. All eyes are on America always. Other countries see protests and riots; most don’t see the building that houses their legislative branch overrun. Then there are the deaths. A dozen or so, again across that many incidents and that many people. Tragic. Since we’re comparing two tragedies, one saw one person die per demonstration. The other saw .001 die per demonstration. I shouldn’t point that out?
It got to the point that I couldn’t call a protest a protest and a riot a riot.