Riots Provide Much Needed Break

Sadly, after a couple months of the Stay at Home order and the pandemic where day in and day out the news continuously feeds us the grim statistics of death and suffering, the public wants a much needed break. Unfortunately, this wish was granted in the form of brutality, protests, and rioting.

Sad that I was low key glad to hear about something other than how many people have died due to the coronavirus and found this in the form of news about rioting. What happened in Minneapolis was tragic, sickening and so very sad. Video of that cop with his knee slammed down on George Floyd’s neck, his hand in his pocket, and without a care in the world as Mr. Floyd slowly dies. Heartbreaking at best.

The world needs to change. But the rioting is a joke. Even back after the Rodney King beating the rioting that followed may have started out as a fallout of frustrations but soon it became nothing more than a grab-fest for looters. Somehow I get the feeling that this was going to happen and the George Floyd incident was just the trigger. But, forcing our nation into record unemployment, quarantines, and hour after hour about death and suffering, we were sitting on a geyser that was about to blow anyway.

I blame the news. The news loves news. And bad news sells. Tragedy sells. Death sells. We the people love it and soak it up. But the mental aftermath and toll is more than we understand. Personally, I am desensitized to death. Today, after months of death tolls, I don’t even bat an eye when the news reports the new coronavirus death toll. In fact, I stopped watching the news all together until the recent George Floyd incident. To think, I somehow found a reason to “tune back in” to the world and was almost “happy” to hear about anything other than the coronavirus.

I hope justice will prevail. I hope that the cop that killed George Floyd spends the rest of his life in prison, the other policemen that stood around and did nothing be charged as well, and the Minneapolis Chief of Police fired for even allowing a police officer with multiple disciplinary actions to remain at large in the public.