Few things scream ‘immature’ to me more than referring to police officers as ‘pigs.’ Especially when screaming it out at a supposed peaceful protest. Way to get your point across. Points like “We’re a bunch of uneducated jerks in need of attention – down with The Man! WhoooooEEEEE!”
It seemed it wasn't a happy-sparkler-waving day for two BART train officers on this 4th of July, when reports came in that a man was "drunk and wobbly" on the platform of the station. They arrived by train, and within one minute, the belligerent man rushed at them, smashing a bottle that he hurled at them, and waving a knife, all while unsteady on his feet. One officer shot and fatally wounded the man, who later died at the hospital.
As the protesters gathered at the San Francisco Civic Center
Only three? One of which was a criminal with drugs in his possession who resisted arrest, causing the squirmish to begin with. The shooting itself, accidental – the situation never would have happened, a taser never would have been needed, if he hadn’t resisted.
And now we have Charles Blair Hill, who, by many accounts, behaved in a way that put every other patron around him in danger. It doesn’t take much to knock someone from the platform, or to fall himself and cause train wreckage.
Why is this country so intent on protection of its criminals and the tearing down of authority? Are we nothing but a bunch of overgrown teenagers who want to take over and let chaos reign? Who desperately need and want authority but only so as to challenge it every time we don’t want to play by a certain rule?
My husband and I have different opinions on protesting. He’s more recently begun to value it, encouraging people to make noise and stand up to create change. I’m for taking a stand as well, but not when it disrupts the lives of those who didn’t sign up for it.
Thousands of people today just wanted to get home or to work or wherever they needed to be, and because the protesters didn’t keep their word of ‘peaceful demonstration,’ screaming barbaric chants at the security, climbing aboard trains, they put themselves and passengers in danger, much as Hill had done.
When will we learn that spreading hate is to our detriment and not conducive to creating the better world we claim to rally for?
Anger has overtaken our American society. Somebody else is always to blame for everything, consequences are to be protested, and responsibility is to be claimed by everyone else, but never ourselves.
Ultimately, it creates an uneducated, disorderly society – one I don’t wish to be a part of. I don’t have much use for those with closed minds and hypocrisy racing in their veins. Watching the video from today’s protest, many were almost daring the BART officers to arrest/detain/shoot them. If an officer did that to a civilian, it’d be called entrapment.
Like a fireball launched from hell, we are headed toward self-destruction at too rapid of a rate. The breakdown of our culture is becoming swifter every day, and if this isn’t worth protesting, what is? We can carry our anger up the mountain, but throwing ourselves down the other side won’t improve the view.
UPDATE:
Just a short week later, the protesters of San Francisco are at it again, bringing more mayhem and violence to the streets of the Bayview district, ironically to protest the violent death of paroled criminal Kenneth Harding, who was gunned down after allegedly firing his own weapon at officers who returned shots in pursuit. Harding was also wanted for questioning in the murder of a pregnant woman in Seattle.
© Kymberlie Ingalls, July 12, 2011
Video: KRON-4 News, San Francisco
KGO-7 News, San Francisco
KGO-7 News, San Francisco
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