Incidents like this, where a young Black man is shot dead when out on a grocery run by a paranoid wannabe cop who is not even arrested because he claimed it was in self defence, are why I said yesterday I’m actually more pessimistic than I was at the time the War on Iraq got started. It’s just depressing to realise these can still happen in 2012 and even more so to realise there some people — liberal, well meaning, smart — are willing and even eager to minimise the outrageousness of this murder. For the first time I’m glad Sandra isn’t here to see this; this sort of thing would’ve broken her heart.
As would’ve the dismantlement of the NHS int he final teardown of the welfare state, something she has fought again her whole life. We thought New Labour was bad, but she knew that the Tories would be even worse and she was right.
Sandra was worried that chances were no longer possible without serious violence; I’m more and more convinced she was right and wondering why more explosions of outrage like the London riots haven’t happened yet.
Robert
March 20, 2012 at 4:41 pmMost of us have more to lose from rioting than we would gain. Even attending a legal protest march runs the risk of getting assaulted by the police (G20 anyone?) and finding one’s freedom curtailed. (Once arrested, even if not charged, certain jobs become impossible to get.)
And it’s also pretty damned obvious that those responsible aren’t inconvenienced by riots, just as they aren’t inconvenienced by the security theatre that is making a flight like a trip behind the iron curtain when I was a lad.
I fear things will have to get a lot worse before most people will take take action to change the system. I wish I could believe otherwise, but I can’t.