OnProtest

Quora Answer : Are riots and looting the right response to George Floyd’s arrest and subsequent death?

May 31, 2020

In principle, it doesn't seem a very good response. I don't think anyone, even the rioters themselves, would prefer this course of action.

In practice, the problem is what else is there?

There has been no protest made about police killing black men that hasn't been dismissed as illegitimate or wrong headed or counterproductive.

When Colin Kaepernick made peaceful protests he was vilified as unpatriotic and disrespecting the country and its armed forces. If celebrities speak out, they are accused of seeking attention for themselves. If politicians speak out they are accused of just politicking. When large groups go out to demonstrate peacefully, the police start with the assumption that the protesters will become violent, and go in in full body armour and start firing tear-gas to disperse the crowds anyway.

Once the police decide to clear an area or break down a barrier, they make no distinction between peaceful and non-peaceful protesters. Police in NY were literally driving their cars into crowds who were simply standing, attempting to block the road yesterday.

When a black man was elected as president of the US (which you think might have put him in a position to resolve the situation), the first things that happened were :

Mitch McConnell declared a campaign of non-cooperation and obstruction from the Republicans in the senate, aimed at preventing Obama successfully passing any laws and being re-elected.

The Astroturf Tea Party movement sprang into existence to ramp up protests against the government and provide a new vehicle for right-wing criticism.

And the man who would go on to become the next president started a campaign of undermining Obama as an illegitimate president, based on a conspiracy theory that he was not a wasn't born in the US.

In other words ... what "acceptable" mechanism exists for people to get the problem fixed?

Electoral politics doesn't work. Peaceful mass protests are violently suppressed. Public figures speaking out are attacked and monstered in right-wing media.

How do we get anyone to listen?

Well ... that's not a rhetorical question. It turns out that there is some evidence that rioting "works" :

Thread by @Austen: I spent a lot of last night looking at the history of major riots in the United States and what happened afterwards. Riots are undeniably...

Update : on looking at the referenced paper in full, while it clearly supports the idea that protest works, it doesn't actually seem to support any claim that "violent" protest or rioting work. Instead it looks like violent protests increases support for the repressive state. So unless someone can offer some other evidence for violent rioting to work, we should add it to the list of "failed strategies" too.