Rant #1,429: The Thugs of Baltimore

What has been going on in Baltimore, Md., is horrid.

We don't have all the facts in in this case, where a man--a black man--may have been beaten so badly by police that he died from horrific back injuries, and then we have the aftermath, where many in the populace have decided that it is time to destroy their own city.

I cannot explain either one. Both are horrific.

We have ineffective politicians running this city--namely, the mayor--saying that the thugs "should be given space" so they can go about doing what they are doing, and we have a governor who was late in doing anything about it because he was supposedly hamstrung by the mayor's indecisive behavior.

And we have a President in nearby Washington saying that yes, some people (using the term as opposed to what I and many others used) are wrong in looting and pillaging and destroying their own neighborhood, but ...

There is no "but" here.

Again, like in Ferguson a few months back, if you are upset with what has happened, you have every right as an American to protest.

But you do not have every right as an American to destroy things that do not belong to you, and there is absolutely no sane explanation for doing so.

And these rioters and thugs are destroying not only their own neighborhood, but businesses and homes owned by other people of color.

It makes absolutely no sense. None of this does.

All of this has completely gotten out of hand, and just look at what is happening on social media to see how out of hand it has gotten.

I put the following message up, because I felt that I absolutely had to after reading some of the reactions to the Baltimore situation that I had been reading.

I am going to put it up here, and it really sickens me to do so, but I am going to put it up anyway.

Read it, digest it, and try to understand why I wrote what I wrote.

"I posted this as a reply to several posts about what is going on in Baltimore, but now I am going to use this again as my own post.

I was prompted to do this by posts elsewhere, which justified the violence by likening it to "protests" by other ethnic groups, including the Jews, during their "protests" when they fought back against the Nazis during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and other similar situations where the Jews actually at least tried to fight back and prevent themselves from being sent to the gas chambers.

When I hear something like this, I have to cringe, and this is my answer to those who are justifying the actions of these thugs:

'If you give respect, you will get respect. I think some people believe that they automatically get respect by being alive. That is true to some extent, but not wholly true. It is something that has to be earned, whether at home, at school, or at work, or even in society.

What respect do the thugs deserve? NONE. They have besmirched the memory of someone, using the occasion to destroy their own neighborhood. What is the sense of that? And more importantly, it perpetuates the stereotype that perhaps others are protesting against. How can you prove your case when you have this garbage taking over a city?'"

There is really nothing more to say.