Note to the Chattering Classes: Riots are not Street Theatre
By Alan Wain and Leslie Butler
Something embarrassing has happened to America’s self-proclaimed leaders now that the mob has burned down a police station and several police cars. The usual suspects — professional experts and elected officials — have dutifully lined up again to give us their expert commentary on how we ought to feel about the “performance” of violence in the streets. Yet it is the strangest thing. They all, whether white or black, young or old, sound so alike now. Whatever these commentaries start out to say, it somehow all comes out as “blah, blah, blah”.
Their commentary feels like a theatre critic’s or actor’s critique of some play. But their reviews are not interesting, helpful, innovative, insightful or relevant. They keep trying to interpret for us what message the performers of the violence are trying to convey to the audience, and especially to the proper authorities. But their reactions to what they are seeing are filled with stale ideas, empty clichés, implausible, discredited propositions, phoney sounding sentiment and obligatory affirmations of political correctness for the edification of those tuned in.
Because these experts have devoted their own lives to performing and critiquing political theatre, they seem unable to view street riots through any other lens. So, for example, they assume the mob could benefit from feedback on what they, the members of the privileged class of opinion molders and policy deciders will and won’t condone. We will never condone property damage, the chattering classes warn. So if you expect our sympathy and help, control your temper and stop burning and breaking things.
Reform at the ballot box…?
Often there is a scolding tone from the experts, and a snippy defensiveness from those now running society. The black mayor of Atlanta, for example, angrily chastised the mob in her city for damaging property when, she explained, voting is the proper way to effect change. Ditto for former President Barack Obama who just today wrote, “we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.” Really? Voting? Why hadn’t the silly mob considered that? Imagine how quickly and easily they could end police brutality against blacks if they would just, say, elect a black mayor or president..er…or something.
Others in the chattering classes have suggested that peaceful protest is the proven way to get the ears and hold the sympathy of those running society. Just look what 60 years of peaceful, orderly, polite protest has achieved. Okay, it didn’t stop the murder of George Floyd. But it has won the murdered man the sympathy of we liberal, right-thinking elites. Isn’t that nice, feeling so affirmed and morally supported while your people are being murdered by cops?
Those in charge, like the governor of Minnesota, often claim an ability to identify who the “real” protesters and “real” issues are. They apparently know who is an illegitimate or fake protestor and really just a troublemaker, or that perennial villain of dissent — “the outside agitator”.
There is a lot of: “let’s start a conversation”, “begin a dialogue”, rap. There are offers to study the situation, review policies maybe even pass new legislation. Who wouldn’t like that? A little more of same because to do the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the definition of…don’t say insanity…say, giving the system yet another chance to work.
The arc of history is not infinitely long
Martin Luther King Jr. gets quoted to the mob a lot now. He had his famous dream of racial equality that he acknowledged might not get realized in his own lifetime. He offered hope by claiming that though the arc of history is long it bends towards justice. But he only said the arc was long, not infinitely long. Patience can’t be infinite either. He was assassinated more than fifty years ago and it seems like a distortion of his hope to suggest the mob should settle for a perpetual postponement of the realization of his dream.
Many among the chattering classes mean well. They sincerely want to help the mob. But they are not humble enough to see their own limitations as clearly as the mob does. If those reforming the system from within were able to solve anything, they would surely have already done so by now. So the mob has stopped waiting for the chattering classes to rescue them. They are not trying to impress the chattering classes with street theatre. They are desperate for justice. A few of them are just trying to help themselves by becoming vigilantes.
It is not theatre when a mob burns and breaks police property. It is a form of self defence, a warning expressed by the victims of police brutality directly to the front line cops. It is a community that has suffered from state sponsored violence telling their bullies and murderers that they, the victims of violence, are capable of violence too. It is a clear warning to the police that continued police brutality may come back and bite the police because victims can retaliate.
Issuing direct challenges to the police is a dangerous and desperate thing to do. It is undertaken as an act of nearly last resort by a group feeing it has run out of viable options. But it is not the final act of desperation. Things could still get worse.
Stay focussed on police racism and brutality
Few in the chattering classes are likely to ever fully admit they too have let the mob down, that they too have no solutions to offer so that the mob, therefore, has a good reason for having given up on them. Feeling criticized and unappreciated, many liberal intellectuals, including black intellectuals, will change the focus of the story. More and more of them will join in shifting the topic to condemning violence, vandalism and anarchy. And even though they are the ones doing the talking, the chattering classes will blame the mob for changing the focus on events.
But the truly dangerous moment will come when the chattering classes, from the left as well as from the right and including blacks as well as whites, give the state their approval for unleashing renewed violence against the mob in the name of restoring order. If protesters or looters then get killed by the police or national guard, the mob will face a horrible choice — accept more deaths or return fire and try to kill some of those who have killed their friends and family.
This is not the time to roll the dice on hoping to intimidate an angry mob with renewed violence against them. It is not the time to take the focus off the mob’s grievances. The elites don’t have to make this current crisis be, yet again, about them and their authority. Police brutality is wrong and out of control. There is plenty to do if we stay focussed on that one problem.
