A failed protest

By definition a protest should express a strong objection to a situation or decision. In my mind the protest last night in Oakland against the BART police was a failed protest. I think it started out in a successful way with people peacefully blockading one station, but it was all downhill from there. It seems that the mob mentality took over and people had an "excuse" to release their anger and frustration. The reason I think it failed is because the protesters started destroying personal property. Personal property of people unconnected to the BART, BART police, or the incident. I'm not saying that if the property belonged to BART or BART police it would be ok, but it might be somewhat understandable. If anything I think by destroying other people's property the protesters further alienated their cause and worked against themselves. If I was a store owner and protesters destroyed my store front I can say that while I may sympathize with the plight of the victim's family I would have a hard time joining the fight against the police. It makes me so angry that people can be swept up so quickly through mob mentality into becoming this destructive force. Of course it is likely that the media blew it out of proportion and that not as many of the protesters were being destructive, but I clearly saw one private vehicle in the pictures that was on fire. I keep thinking about what if that was my vehicle or my store, which is why even if it was just a few people that's no excuse.

One of the key opinions that is floating out there is that why does this happen now? Of course it is a tragedy that someone had to die for fighting on a train, but what about the skyrocketing murder rate in this town. The murder rate is so high that there is a complacent attitude with each new murder. Where is the outrage over those murders? The difference is that there is a video here and the responsible party was in a position of authority. If there was evidence that each of the murders in Oakland were committed by officials in positions of authority there would be a lot more outrage. Unfortunately that's not the case and as a result no one thinks twice for the other deaths.