rioting and looting is an argument against the notion that the value of property is worth more than the value of human life; a big reason why many businesses have refused to speak against protesters is because they also believe this, on the grounds of property insurance existing
you can deal with property being destroyed because the system for repairing that is extremely easy and simple
you cannot do the same for human life, because not enough people are protected from harm or illness, and that is a big problem
this argument is directed not just at police, but definitely also them, as they are constantly positioned as protectors of peace and people, which is fundamentally false but nevertheless a lie perpetuated in media directed at everyone
rioting and looting, in the long term, prove that property and materialism can easily be restored; that void will fill very easily
the lives lost which instigated that rioting and looting will remain vacant, a void that cannot be filled again
it is easy to look at rioting and looting and go, "these people are awful, destroying stuff because they're mad" but the thing is, they weren't rioting and looting before this. it's only ever a consequence to something viewed as a problem --
-- and by refusing to view that problem, you are thereby positioning the unfair and prejudiced loss of human life as unworthy of comment, but the inconvenience of people's anger as an ill of society itself being worthy of condemnation
you can simultaneously be upset that property is destroyed AND believe the value of protests against the loss of human life due to a policing system that is fundamentally broken and corrupt, but the value of property is meaningless without the value of people
and when the looting and rioting is in response to the life of marginalized folks, of the imbalance toward black bodies in the context of violent policing, the idea of resistance against looting and rioting then becomes an inherently racist position
@Demosthenes what's logically lazy is assuming it really just boils down to respectability politics and assuming there's a nice way to deal with police murdering black folk in cold blood.
get some damn sense, ya dink.
@Demosthenes it really isn't when you actually unpack the reasons for the protests, the way police have verifiably been escalating the conflict with military material and techniques not even allowed in war convention in response to peaceful protest, and the kinds of people engaging in assaulting said protestors