The protests

I have a riot of emotions…

This morning I intended to write about baseball in Korea, but over the weekend America caught on fire.

As I’ve explained before, but will again, this blog was originally started so I could write important stuff like family stories, essays on baseball, why golf sucks and the poor fashion choices of elderly men, but then three things happened:

1. I decided to start posting my political cartoons for subscribers because I wanted the people who have been nice enough to support this blog financially to get a little something extra for their money.

2. The coronavirus hit the fan and changed everybody’s life.

3.  I decided to make everything I post free because I wanted to contribute something during a national crisis and maybe help entertain people stuck in their homes.

Those three things made this corner of the internet a lot more political than I ever intended it to be. Now it feels like I write and draw about COVID-19 and Donald Trump just about every day which was not what I set out to do, but you play the cards you’re dealt.

Ignoring nationwide protests sparked by George Floyd’s death, police brutality and systemic racism so I could talk about the evils of adjustable baseball caps just felt wrong, so here we are.

Warning: I’ve got way more questions than answers, but if that doesn’t bother you keep on reading.

The first rough draft of history

That’s what former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham called journalism (supposedly…history may have revisions) and I reminded myself of that while I watched footage of the protests.

TV viewers were getting a very limited view of a very big event and I figured it was a good idea not to over-react to anything I saw; I didn’t have enough information to put some things in context and before I’m done writing today we’ll return to the subject of reserving judgment.

Both sides now

My dad was a cop, I’ve met a few cops and liked pretty much all of them. On the other hand, not one of those cops tried to put his knee on my neck.

I once did a cop ride along and we spent the night dealing with liars, drunks and wife beaters and in just one shift I saw how easy it would be to develop an us-against-them mentality. Cops spend a lot of time dealing with screwed-up people and it seems like an excellent way to develop a dark view of humanity.

None of which excuses police brutality.

While watching footage of the protests I saw some cops do stuff that was making the situation worse. According to the Kansas City Star, the cops here in KC used tear gas and pepper spray on a bunch of peaceful protesters; a good way to turn a peaceful protest violent.

On the other side I saw acts of aggression and vandalism and while it may be personally satisfying to set a Japanese restaurant on fire, I’m not sure it’s the best way to convince Middle America that your cause is just.

You can’t put everybody in the same bucket; plenty of the protesters were peaceful and in some cities the cops joined in with peaceful protesters to show sympathy for their cause.

Fake news fallout

Over the weekend I heard several claims about the people committing violent acts and looting: some said it was extremists from the far left, some said it was extremists from the far right, some said it was both and there was even one story floating around the internet that is was out-of-uniform policemen giving authorities an excuse to crack down on legitimate protesters.

All those rumors demonstrate the problem with destroying the credibility of legitimate news organizations, medical experts or anyone who dissents from your point of view – a tactic the Trump Administration has used consistently.

Make sure nobody is trustworthy and then anything might be true and people can be excused for believing the worst or whatever fits their political agenda.

And knowing our government is willing to lie about stuff like the Vietnam War, Watergate and Weapons of Mass Destruction makes one more lie about violent protesters seem entirely possible.

We once considered assassinating Fidel Castro with an exploding sea shell, so what’s too crazy to believe?

Cell phones

A lot of the protesters had their cell phones out and my first thought was damn Millennials can’t do anything including protesting for social justice without taking a selfie.

My second thought was we wouldn’t know what happened to George Floyd if someone hadn’t gotten a cell phone out. My third thought was about all the bad shit someone got away with in the past because there was no video proving their version of events was a lie.  

So, yeah, go ahead and get those phones out.

Hyperventilating reporters

At some point or other just about every reporter covering the protests said they’d never seen anything like it.

My first reaction was: of course you haven’t – you’re 16 years-old.

Like a lot of other businesses news organizations have figured out it’s cheaper to fire experienced workers and hire recent college grads or use unpaid interns.

Then I remembered Dan Rather going into a war zone and dressing like a Lawrence of Arabia extra and people calling him “Gunga Dan.”

And whenever an experienced anchor decided to go into the field it seemed like their first stop was Abercrombie & Fitch so they could pick up a safari jacket to wear on air which would make them look like they’d just finished shooting a charging rhino before delivering the nightly news.

So I guess even experienced reporters can get a little overwrought.

At one point in the live coverage a camera swung around wildly and ended shooting up at the sky while the anchor asked if everybody was OK out there and if they could get to a safe place.

Having seen it happen in real life, I suspected the cameraman was walking backwards so he could get a dramatic shot of the reporter striding through the carnage and while walking backwards, tripped over something.

When the cameraman stood up and re-established his surroundings he was on the corner of a street and the reporter reported everybody was OK and never said Bob fell on his ass when he tripped over a curb, which seemed like the most logical explanation for what I witnessed. If the cameraman had been attacked by a police dog or was tackled by a protestor, I’m guessing they would have mentioned it.

When a situation is already dramatic we don’t need reporters trying to squeeze even more drama out of it.  

Reserve judgment

OK, back to where we started.

I once read something by a very smart guy (and I’m not smart enough to remember his name) that said if we didn’t have enough information we could always do the one thing within our power – reserve judgement.

These days it seems like everybody has to have an opinion and they have to have it right now and all too often that includes me.

At this point, I’d like to know more about what will happen to the cops who killed George Floyd, who was committing acts of violence and what their motivations were, but I do have enough information to know one thing for sure right now.

I read a column written by Eugene Robinson – a black man – and he said if people wanted to stop the protests and rioting it would help if cops and self-appointed vigilantes quit killing unarmed black men.

And right now that seems like a pretty good place to start.

Stay safe, everybody.