JUSTICE AND REACTIONS

     First I will make a disclaimer. My personal opinions on the decisions are just that and are probably misinformed as I did not sit through the hearings or read all the stories so any decision or opinion is just that - incomplete and not worthy of publication. I do believe with every fiber in my soul that our system of justice and fair play is perverted by media which publishes biased pieces, skips or creates "evidence" and then apologizes in a buried section somewhere that does not really matter nor change what people will say they read and "know" and the only people who really know the truth or truths are the victim(s), perpetrator(s) and the jury which will see all evidence allowed to be presented on both sides, hear the arguments and then deliberate.
     What I do strenuously protest here is just that - the protests. No, not the ones that are orderly, that are dignified, and that eventually make more of an impact than the noisy and disorderly ones, the rampant rioting and rampaging through the streets, the arson and the looting. What do these actions have to do with the case in point?
     I believe that people who could care less about justice are the ones doing the rioting. They are using it as an excuse to go wild, to do holiday shopping cheaply and on the down low and I believe that whatever the verdict, there would have been this group that would have rioted anyway, claiming the charge was too minor or some other reason.
     We cannot have justice that is governed by fear of violence in the streets or else there will be no justice for anyone, only power and the truth in reality of might makes right. Through the 60's and 70's it was the protest that spoke loudly but with calm, with dignity, with appropriate expressions of anger, that finally broke through. The riots of burning, of arson and riots gained nothing except for damage in one's own neighborhood and the loss of livelihood for members of one's own community.
     Again, the verdict here is not the point of this posting, only the violence that erupted - AND THAT WAS NOT SPONTANEOUS. This violence had been planned for, had been prepped for and we then had a self fulfilling prophecy. We must move away from this behavior and into more sane methods of protests and even perhaps learn to accept verdicts that do not go our way and then protest them through the system. Remember - Al Capone went to prison for taxes, not criminal activity - but to prison he went. There are many ways to gain one's wishes and all through the system and by changing the system, but not through violence.