Rodney King, Obama and the Looting of America

Riots are the exclusive domain of those who view themselves as outside the law. Whether they are outside the law because they are above or below the law is a matter of perspective. The rioters may see themselves as the oppressed and below the law, while their victims tend to think of them as above the law, with the power to rob and kill, without paying any significant price for it. All that is true whether we are talking about Russian peasants killing Jews, Indonesians killing ethnic Chinese or African-Americans killing whites.

The riot is usually directed at the authorities or some vulnerable group, sometimes both, but invariably one of them takes precedence. The authorities prefer that they direct their rage at a conveniently vulnerable group and afterward the vulnerable group takes the blame for the violence directed at them. The rioters treat those few of their number who were killed in the looting spree as martyrs, while the rioted-upon pick up the broken glass and try to reopen their stores again.

Minorities rarely riot against majorities for the practical reason that rioters are cowards and they want to have the numbers on their side. A riot is less often a symptom of injustice and more often a sign that they have the numbers and all they need is a pretext to go out for a fine day of looting and maiming. A riot isn’t a response to injustice; it’s a power play by people who believe that they are above the law and that their victims are outnumbered.

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