I Was Just Thinking…

by Kevin Devlin

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”

(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

It may have started out as a peaceful protest, but their “Night of Rage” which was aptly named for what eventually transpired told the real story, as angry activists, dressed in all black (Antifa anyone) intent on causing havoc and destruction, rioted. They threw rocks, lit fireworks and shattered large glass windows in the building housing the Atlanta Police Foundation. Windows in two police cruisers were smashed and one was torched, more building windows were smashed, and walls vandalized with anti-police graffiti at several other nearby locations. This riot occurred last Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia in response to the death of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who after shooting at and wounding a Georgia State Policer, was shot dead himself. Teran along with others were protesting the construction of a new public service training center which they called “Cop City”.

Six of the violent protesters were arrested and I hope they throw the book at them. Only one of those arrested was from Georgia. The others were from Tennessee, Washington, Maine, Michigan, and Nevada. Pictured in police mugshots, three of them were smiling and the other three were stone-faced.

Sadly, a freelance writer appearing on CNN tried to sell the lame argument that burning police cruisers, along with vandalizing and destroying property is not violence. That it should be regarded as a peaceful protest.

Well, the American people are sick of this. We have already sat in our living rooms during the summer of love in 2020 and witnessed nearly 160 riots across the nation, the destruction of $2 billion in damages, at least 30 deaths related to riot violence, 14 being police officers. And thousands of injured police officers.

Most Americans are law-abiding citizens. We follow the rules. We adhere to laws. We pay our property, excise, sales, and you name it, taxes. We want law and order. We desire law and order. And we abhor disorder, chaos, and anarchy.

We don’t want to see any more courthouses under attack. Police Stations stormed and burned to the ground. Properties vandalized and destroyed. Lives wrecked and dreams shattered.

It would only be the beginning of the end if circumstances aren’t rectified, and mindsets altered in a positive manner, so we call all thrive in a healthy fashion.

Because it’s not the way a vibrant Democracy can continue to exist. I believe in peaceful protest, but they must be peaceful in nature.

A riot is a riot and riots are unlawful and destructive, and don’t try to convince otherwise while buildings are burning to the ground in the background.

In our democracy the First Amendment allows “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It gives us the right to protest to effectuate necessary change and by doing so we preserve the fundamentals of a viable democracy where law and order prevails over chaos and disorder.

But those who use violence to further their ends obviously embrace lawlessness.

They want to destroy and not create a better America because they don’t respect our democratic way of life.

They only want to destroy it.