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Looting and Rioting Accomplish Nothing but Destruction

Rioting is futile and counterproductive. MLK knew this, so why haven’t today’s radicals figured it out?

By:  |  June 2, 2020  |    473 Words
Martin Luther King Jr. (Getty Images)

Martin Luther King Jr. (Getty Images)

Nearly every cable news station is running endless footage of mayhem and madness as riots spring up in urban centers across America. As usual, the American media provides plenty of news about the events, but very little in the way of explanation. Americans are right to dig deeper for answers. But if the past is any indication, these riots will end in little more than loud and angry voices – resulting in self-defeat.

MLK Said It Best

The establishment media loves to quote Martin Luther King at such a time as this. Leftists generally fall back on the infamous civil rights leader’s statement: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” But what they don’t seem to understand is that Dr. King wasn’t saying riots were good. He later said, “Riots are self-defeating and socially destructive.”

What did Dr. King know that today’s neo-Marxists have not figured out yet? If the purpose of a riot is to bring about change, King could find no evidence of it, and neither can we.

In 1965, a massive race riot broke out in Watts, the mostly black suburb of Los Angeles. It was big. It was bad. And nothing good came of it. Today, Watts is still an area filled with poverty and crime. Several other similar riots took place across the nation over the next few years, but it all led up to the largest of all race riots after Dr. King was killed in 1968. Rioting and looting took over many cities, and the National Guard came out in full force. People were killed, and millions of dollars of property damage resulted. Once again, the rioting led to nothing but destruction.

Vanity Thy Name Is Riot

The evidence is beginning to show that the riots going on right now aren’t actually about racial justice. Many of the rioters shown in videos are from Antifa, a group of far-left anti-capitalists, Marxists, and anarchists (even though they call themselves anti-fascists), many of whom came from out of town just for the looting and the destruction.

It seems obvious that what began as a protest against the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis is rapidly morphing into an opportunity for radical socialists to engage in nothing more than a feel-good moment of vanity.

These riots will only serve to stir up bad blood between the black community and the police. It is entirely possible – if not probable – that the civil unrest we are witnessing will result in more rather than fewer people dying like George Floyd. For, in the end, the lawlessness and violence of riots only increase tensions between police and the communities they are supposed to serve.

Once again, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. may have said it best: “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

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