When I heard Governor Hogan say
"lawless gangs of thugs roaming the streets ... we’re not going to tolerate that", I thought finally someone is going to reign in one of these out of control, violent thug, often racist police departments. I only wish that I were surprised to learn that he wasn’t speaking of the police that the sentence so well described. I am not defending the rioting, because even if there is a legitimate reason for such actions, surely they should only be directed against the police and city officials who perpetrate and defend the murderous actions that one is supposedly there to protest; and surely any legitimacy quickly fades when one begins to destroy the very communities which were wronged in the first place. I am however noticing once again, that rioting sparked by unpunished (AKA condoned) police murders is performed by lawless gangs of thugs, but the actual murderers are not described that way. Is it only because they wear a uniform and stick to mostly victims of color?
Who can we citizens call in to protect ourselves from these violent thugs in uniform? We don’t have a national guard at our back. To me, any crime committed by the police is worse than the same crime committed by non-police, because we have no-one to hold them accountable. But if one wants to speak of lawless gangs of thugs in the context of such an event, doesn't that title make an equal or better fit for the murderers who instigated the problem than it does the rock throwers or even the arsonists of empty cars and buildings. The Tea Party and other right wing groups claim protection against an out of control government as one of the justifications for their gun ownership, but I don’t see any of them out there protecting those who are actually wronged by the police. But rather they sit back and defend the police, and use to riot to point to "lawless gangs of thugs roaming the streets" as the real criminals here, and take attention away from the murders they so hoped we wouldn't notice.
When the police commit our most heinous crimes, they are shielded by those in power. Mayors and governors pretend to care, but without real action. District attorneys either choose not to press charges, or like in Ferguson they lie to the grand jury to avoid putting a police officer on trial, or they undercharge them so that it can later be tossed because what they are charged with is not the crime they committed like the prosecutor did in the Dante Servin case, etc. Who will prosecute the police, the district attorneys, and other officials who commit and cover up these murders. I am guessing no-one since no-one in charge even has enough decency to call the police perpetrators of these crimes what they are; "lawless gangs of thugs roaming the streets."