OPINION - Editorial

OPINION | EDITORIAL: Agree to agree

Is sense becoming more common?

"The images coming from the Pacific Northwest are instructive, and not in a good way. The protests are needed and just. The violence is unnecessary and unjustifiable. But as long as the unnecessary and unjustifiable is condoned by those in authority, the lesson is delivered. And learned."

--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial, Aug. 1

Somebody once said: It may startle us to hear our own thoughts expressed by others--we are not sure enough of their souls. But it's a joyous day, anyway, when we can write a whole editorial about agreement with some of our friends on the left. Write this hour and day down, y'all, because it don't come often.

Unfortunately, it comes after protests in Chicago took a turn toward riots over the weekend. Several of the usual suspects on the opinion pages were heard from, along with some politicians of note. They said rioting was not a good thing. Among certain groups in this country, such a view isn't to be sneezed at. In Chicago over the weekend, somebody at the protest held a sign: "Our futures have been looted from us. Loot back."

And today they are still cleaning up.

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of people took to the streets in downtown Chicago Sunday night/early Monday to smash windows, loot merchandise and even try to get away with ATM machines. They were apparently inspired by social media after cops shot a man who opened fire on them.

Whoever organized the riot thought to direct people toward the shopping district. Businesses lost untold amounts of money, clothing and other goods. One guy was seen walking down the street with a cash register. (When the cops tried to arrest him, they came under fire from a drive-by.)

Dispatches say the riot lasted several hours, more than 100 people were arrested, and more than a dozen police officers were hurt.

The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, told the press: "This was straight-up felony criminal conduct. This was an assault on our city."

The police superintendent, David Brown, agreed with that assessment. He told the papers that the chaos was not a protest of a shooting, but instead "pure criminality." He also suggested that lenient treatment of previous protesters played a role in what happened Monday. As if people with bad intentions would be emboldened if arsonists and thieves--caught on video, not wearing masks--aren't held responsible for their actions.

As for the protests held this spring and summer in Chicago, Superintendent Brown said:

"Not many of those cases were prosecuted to the full extent. These looters, these thieves, these criminals [are] being emboldened by no consequences in the criminal system. They get released. Many charges get dropped."

And people learn things.

In this week's column, Clarence Page, who replaced Mike Royko as the lion of Chicago opinion, said We the People still have a lot of work to do on criminal justice, but ended his piece:

"There are a lot of fingers being pointed in all directions after Monday's mayhem. The buck inevitably stops with Lightfoot, but there is plenty of blame to go around during this hot summer in which protesters sometimes look just like plain old looters."

Couldn't have said it better. So we won't try.

Back in another era, the giant superstation WGN in Chicago used to broadcast Cubs games across the nation. We knew a young lady who called it the Cubs Station. Apparently WGN still has a newsroom, and its reporters put this out early in the week:

Looters were using social media to "coordinate" when and where to act. Social media like Facebook and Twitter have for years been places to organize protests, but now such mediums are being used to focus crowds on where the cops ain't. And where the goods are. And where to attack next.

Imagine how all this will look if these same protesters are successful at defunding the police for good. Or rather, for very bad.

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