Senseless Violence

The attorney general of Maryland, a walking buttcan, has described the riots in Baltimore as "senseless violence." Most people, black or white, agree with that, but we all understand what brought on the riots. They aren't senseless. 

How many times have we seen an African-American community, occupied by a militarized white police force, explode when the police kill a young black man (or woman or child) in a fit of, yes, violence? In these episodes, reminiscent of lynchings, the dead African-American is sometimes guilty of a minor crime like selling loose cigarettes or looking unhappily at an officer or playing in a city park while black. Next, young black people, dealing with a system that will not yield justice, burn down their own apartments and so forth.

These riots are a failed attempt to communicate. They aren't senseless, but they are futile. The leaders of the nation, the state, the city don't get it. For elected leaders, a riot is their opportunity to strut around demanding a return to the old passive order (called Jim Crow).