Lawlessness Is Lawlessness

While I am working on a totally unrelated post I wanted to stop and interject something here.

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

(EXODUS 23:2) KJV

It is never right to destroy someone else’s property, no matter what. Rioting and looting and following mob behavior is evil. You can be angry. In fact, in this country, you CAN organize a protest. It’s a right. What’s not a right is to damage and destroy another person’s property and/or steal it. Destroy a police station over it‽‽‽‽ One of the more ridiculous things someone said is that those stores have insurance. You really want to try to justify looting and mayhem and a lawless mob mentality with that‽‽‽‽

I think everybody has seen the video or had it described to them. There is no excuse for the officer’s actions. Period (or Full-Stop for my readers across the pond). You are watching a murder, plain and simple. The officers standing there are equally culpable. I don’t believe any moral person with an even sub-normal brain in their head can deny that. But it’s too big of a jump to say that that allows you to smash and burn and steal. That is a perversion of justice. In the scripture quoted above, the King James English is not really clear but what it boils down to is that you should not assent or lend your voice to a manifest perversion of justice. In fact, some other translations do render it that way. The ESV has it as, “…siding with the many, so as to pervert justice…”

Probably the worst thing you are doing is selfishly drawing attention away from the case and away from the change that should come about and focusing it all on you. For shame! You would take this twisted scene of violence and pervert it to your own desires to steal and destroy. You should realize, of course, that whatever legacy this man’s name would have had, you have destroyed it. When the name George Floyd is spoken, you will bring to mind rioting, burning, and looting.

17 Comments

  1. I agree. I lived in the Twin Cities for years, and I have many close friends who still live there, one of whom is a cart attendent at the Target that was destroyed. Seeing the Cities burn strikes a real chord for me. A lot of people I know from there think that a lot of the violence is coming from white supremacist groups who are embedding themselves in the protests. Hard to say, but there seems to be a modicum of truth to that.

      • For sure. My suspicion is that radicals on both sides of the political spectrum are driving this. I was there in 2016 when Philando Castille was shot, and living through those protests was crazy enough.

  2. I agree and my heart goes out to the people in these cities!

    There’s nothing wrong with a peaceful protest. But when the protesters cross over into violence, they cease to be protesters and become RIOTERS! And there’s a difference between a protest and a riot.

    Fighting hate with hate is like trying to put out a house fire with a flamethrower. It work work!

  3. I’m not sure I agree with talking absolutes in this case. While I agree there’s no excuse for looting and rioting, I also think it’s not fair to discredit a whole cause/protest because of it. As pointed out, mass gatherings of people are often used by extremists on both sides for their agenda and they’re usually the ones who incite the rioting (seen it happen first hand here in Slovenia during one of our only riots). And when protesting sensitive topics tempers can run high, which is bound to boil over the top, so some people are bound to act stupidly or turn to violence. I think it’s easy to focus on the bad and ignore the point the protests are making, but that’s exactly what we shouldn’t do if we want to understand and fix the problems in a society (every country has them). It’s also hard for an angry man to remain calm and respectful when explaining an issue, particularly if this issue is repeating problem, so I think sometimes we need to cut people some slack and try to understand where they’re coming from instead. After all, no one is perfect. 🙂

    • Thank you for the well thought out comment. I do understand that some people are bound to act stupidly when their anger is up, but when the anger turns into a blind, raging mob mentality then no one can reason with anyone. Destroying property, stealing and even murder are not acceptable and I really do think that whenever this poor man’s name is mentioned it will forever be associated with mindless violence rather than groups of protestors effecting change.

      • That part I absolutely agree with. It’s just sad that the importance of what they’re saying is overshadowed by some idiots.

        • Yes ma’am. I agree with you on that as well. What they have to say is important, vital, to understand but extremists on either side fear it. Partly, perhaps, because they would have no power.

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