Guest Post by Mrs. Q

From your host: Ok, this is technically a Comment of the Day on the post, “Let Us Call the George Floyd Freakout What It Was.” I decided that it warrants guest post status for several good reasons. 1) We haven’t had a guest post for a while, and I am still seeking submissions. 2) The George Floyd aftermath disaster is one of the signature ethics outrages of my life, and is certainly worthy of more than one post saying so on its 5th anniversary. 3) I’m slyly trying to entice Mrs. Q to revive her featured column on Ethics Alarms, and 4) not for the first time, I like her take on a current ethics topic better than my own.—JM.

If anyone hasn’t had a chance to see this documentary, I’ll link it here: The Fall of Minneapolis | A Crowdfunded Documentary.

As some longtime readers here may remember, I am from Minneapolis and grew up literally at ground zero, where the Third Precinct, Auto Zone, and Minnehaha Lake Wine and Spirits were burned to a crisp. For three days and nights I watched others livestream on multiple cameras everything I knew from 4-14 years old go from vandalized to looted to burned from May 25th-28th. The first building they burned, was ironically, the last place I ever saw my black father work (it was a Snyders Drug Store then). I’d wait for him on the sidewalk in front of our four-plex, watching as he would step out the door of the building and head a half block home. Now that memory is infused with flames.

Then the riots went global.

What so many forget is that it was quite literally a war zone in Minneapolis. The documentary linked above illustrates what I witnessed. Areas were under siege and neighbors were trapped in their homes for days. It wasn’t just that crime increased, it was that the police could not help anyone. There were neighbor reports of rioters putting accelerants around neighborhoods, so people had to patrol their areas while putting themselves at risk for being attacked physically. I spoke with friends who had to flee in the early morning to get their families safe. And those who thought their BLM or Biden yard signs would save them were met with the same violence as everyone else.

The many businesses that were permanently lost or took a longtime to recover were often owned by working-class minorities and immigrants. The liquor store was owned by Jewish Americans who had family members die in the Holocaust, for example. Some store owners even put signs up saying they supported the cause but were ignored and their businesses were burned anyway. In the aftermath, many citizens had food deserts in their areas and had to travel to St. Paul, suburbs or much further than usual just to buy groceries. This was a bigger challenge for those who primarily used public transit. Many still have burned out buildings near them and live in fear to this day. My extra gay friend and his hubby live only blocks from Cup Foods and say they don’t feel safe inside their own home and there aren’t enough cops to help should they need it.

The media called it “fiery but mostly peaceful” which only drove home the message to those left to deal with the fire and violence that what was happening to them didn’t matter, even if they were black or any other minority. Day after day I watched the legacy media coverage go from whitewashing to non-existent. While January 6th is all the partisan left want to focus on, May 25-28 is what truly damaged our country. Some citizens came to understand what false justice and false peace look like. We also got to see how the media will try to tell you what you’re seeing is a lie and that a lie is all you should see.

My life and my psyche have not been the same since that horrible summer. My heart still aches for the city I used to know and the citizens who still feel like they can’t speak honestly in public.

I pray to forgive the rioters, the media, the “supporters” in and out of government, and those who still refuse to see the pain and sheer terror that was caused, first in Minneapolis, and then in so many cities. Not because they didn’t know what they were doing, but because they did not care while pretending to care, which is one of the sickest kinds of evil.

And it was all for NOTHING. The unethical and chaotic behavior didn’t result in anyone “rising up” or having more equity or more financial success or emotional well-being. No one cares about black men (hint…they never did) or black lives in general anymore. They were the cause of the moment, like the whales or the environment or Palestine or Ukraine. All that money BLM got barely went to the families they claimed to advocate for. No one is better off and no one is any wiser. It was all bullshit. But at least it was fiery but mostly peaceful bullshit.