Opinion: What’s the point of rioting and looting?

My age puts me in that time frame where I missed the social protests of the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights era. If there was rioting in my adult life, it was usually because a Philly team lost another chance to win a title or a Detroit team actually did win one. If people gathered angrily it was because the line at the DMV stretched down the block.

The closest thing I saw to social unrest was the moment doors were unlocked on Black Friday.

Basically, I don’t know much about protests. I’ve always found them either stupid or opportunistic or a combination of both. When people protested while Michael Jackson was on trial for child molestation, I wondered about those who had the time and energy to get worked up over such a thing. I mean, they pretty much thought the guy was innocent because he was a great musician and completely overlooked the pertinent details that he was a grown man who had sleepover with kids and his best friend was a chimp named Bubbles.

I had vinyl copies of “Bad” and a cassette tape of “Thriller” and had not one iota of thought to going out and venting my anger because I thought the guy was guilty.

I’m the same way today. There are very few things that get me angry at and frankly, I’m not sure what protesting over it would actually accomplish. The next time I’m cut off on Carowinds Boulevard, should I exit the vehicle and carry a sign berating aggressive driving? When I pay more for a gallon of milk than a gold bar, should I block the dairy case at the grocery store and demand they outsource production to Chinese livestock to lower their costs?

And that gets to the rub I have with protesting. Who really has their shorts in a bunch enough not only to assemble, but get violent about it as well?

I know there are certain things I can’t relate to, but I can’t imagine any story on the news prompting me to don a white tank top and a bandana and head to a city center hell bent on smashing up storefronts and looting drug stores. Especially for a person I don’t know and the circumstances surrounding a situation that’s murky at best.

I’ve been told over the past few weeks that people are frustrated that their voices aren’t heard, but what exactly are these voices saying as they are cracking the front of a 55-inch widescreen TV in a sports bar? Are they yelling “No Justice, No Peace” as they swipe a shelf full of cough syrup from the drug store?

There’s always a line that gets crossed from simply being angry to acting idiotic and/or criminally. The right to gather peacefully is protected by the Constitution, and I respect it. I don’t really understand it, but I respect it. I definitely do not respect the right to protest violently, especially when people don’t even know why they are breaking stuff.

And that’s far too often the case.

This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 6:28 AM with the headline "Opinion: What’s the point of rioting and looting?."