It was bone dry this winter and spring has been no better. We know what that means for California: a trailer dragging a chain, a lightning strike, a downed power line, or a carelessly tossed cigarette and the next thing we know half the state will be in flames.
All that fuel just needs one little spark.
That’s what happened when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in full view of the world: Spark met fuel and cities burned from New York to Santa Monica.
Our history is punctuated with seemingly spontaneous explosions of violence, from the January 6th assault on the United States Capitol all the way back to the Boston Tea Party. In reality, these events are anything but spontaneous, rather, they are the inevitable consequences of years of unaddressed grievances.
In 1848, almost every country in Europe was shaken by violent revolutions. In some cases, the spark that lit the fuse was almost comical.
Back then, Austria controlled large portions of Italy. The government in Vienna (to pay for previous wars) raised taxes on tobacco. The citizens of Milan organized a tobacco boycott in protest. Austrian soldiers patrolling the streets of Milan took to baiting the Italians by lighting up big cigars and blowing plumes of smoke at passers-by. One Italian gentleman finally had enough and slapped a cigar out of a soldier’s mouth. Punches were thrown. A crowd gathered. More troops arrived. Shots were fired. Nobody was laughing now. 6 were killed, 50 wounded. The riots spread. 36 more killed in Palermo. Naples burned. Riots spread. The Austrians shelled Venice with canons.
Everybody heard the news via the new technology of telegraphy. Long oppressed peoples poured into the streets. Governments were caught with their pants down. From Paris to Vienna to Berlin (where 900 were killed) barricades went up as leaders struggled to respond. King Louis-Phillip abdicated his throne in France, fleeing to England. The great Metternich was forced out in Austria. Constitutions were promised and hastily written to placate the mobs. In Spain, Russia and Sweden, despotic governments simply crushed their rebellious subjects, piling more dry tinder onto the pyre of future fires, ending with the biggest, baddest of them all, the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The violence that tore apart Italy and Austria was about a lot more than a slapped cigar, just as the eruption of violence after George Floyd’s murder was about more than Mr. Floyd.
The jury in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin got it right. With the killing of Floyd captured on multiple cameras from multiple angles, they had no difficulty returning a guilty verdict on all three counts, sparring the country what would undoubtedly have been days, if not weeks, of serious unrest, in other words, rioting and looting if you prefer. Because the verdict was guilty, we’ll never know for sure what would have happened, but let’s face it, everyone was bracing for the worst.
That is, “White America” was bracing for the worst. For “Black America,” the worst would have been a “not guilty” verdict.
And that’s the problem. Half the country was worried about the spark; while the other half is worried about the fuel.
Today’s internet leaves 1848’s telegraph in the dust. Events now travel in real time, with live video streaming confrontations with police wherever and whenever they happen. Geography is obsolete. In the cyber world, what happens in Minneapolis happens here. And what happens here also happens in London.
Our instantaneous world rarely allows for the mythical “cooler heads” to prevail. Those inclined to demonize cops are quick to condemn the police. Those who fetishize the badge are quick to absolve them of blame. Trial by Twitter has become the digital equivalent of witch burning. Fortunately, the good citizens of Minneapolis showed up for jury duty and performed their civic obligations under difficult circumstances and showed us and the world our system can work.
The challenge now is to prove it works when the cameras aren’t around.
This won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen with exploitive politicians threatening violence or calling to “defund the police.” We need cops. Duh. The police save lives. They are tasked with keeping order, which is essential to every civil society. They are not fascist storm troopers.
They are also not above the law.
Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. He can be reached at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com.
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