To burn or not to burn, that is the question. The death of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman during an arrest for passing a fake $20 bill shows the mole hill to mountain progression of the events. Passing a fake bill is not a capital offense, and it would be difficult to prove the person with the bill was guilty of knowing it was fake. He may have received it without realizing.
During the arrest Officer Derek Chauvin held him down with his knee even though Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. The guy should never have been a police officer in the first place. Add to the mix the refusal of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to arrest Chauvin. Protests went south and turned into riots. The next day Chauvin was arrested.
Success or no? Riots do bring attention to issues. Peaceful protests do too but not to the same degree. They are also very polarizing events. TV footage of a wheelchair bound senior getting blasted in the face with a fire extinguisher does not help the cause of anti fascists. The racial profiling, brutality and downright murder of blacks by police is a continuing problem. The looting will cause more polarization. Like the video of the attack on white truck driver Reginald Denny during the Rodney King riots actually stimulates racist attitudes towards black people.
Romans used Gladatorial games as entertainment to route the energy of anger in the masses. The citizens, hating their jobs and bosses but hopeless to do anything about it could go have a big violence orgasm. Once out of their systems they could go back to their mundane existence serving a society that nominally returned the favor. Riots are similar, everyone has a big show and gets the energy out – then it’s gone. The racists hiding in their suites and uniforms laugh at that shit. They could care less if peasants die, white or black. Anything that stimulates and justifies more racism helps them keep society divided and easier to exploit.