“There’ll be a burnin’ and a lootin’.” — Bob Marley

The widespread looting and rioting that has visited too many of our cities in the U.S. over the last week has enabled one of my pet peeves to surface — binary thinking.

Virtually no one supports the wanton destruction or the killing of an unarmed black man, yet there are some among us who seem to want to put the entire issue into two camps, good and evil. This kind of thinking likes to explain everything that comes up as a struggle between black and white, good and bad, left and right, and Republican vs. Democrat, etc.

My take on all of this is based in the study of history and the notion that the truth lies in nuances in between to different degrees.

None one can condone violence, but understanding why it occurs can be helpful in effectively dealing with it. As The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

To be sure, King was the apostle of non-violence, but when he uttered this quote exactly a year before he was murdered, he was beginning to realize that protesting peacefully without results had its shortcomings. Some historians have said that King by 1967 was talking and acting a little more like Malcolm X.

Colin Kaepernick proved that non-violent protest can be a career-ending event and the cause of a lot of very caustic commentary, leaving me to wonder if we really appreciate non-violent public displays of opinions.

Another important part of this story is the comment by an eyewitness in the Grand Rapids riot: “The protestors are not the rioters. I repeat: the protestors are NOT the rioters.”

This distinction is crucial because many want to associate the protesters with the damage and wreckage of the riots. But those in the know say the protests were peaceful until about 9 p.m., when all hell broke loose and somebody else took over the scene.

Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump insist the trouble was caused only by Antifa leftists. Others, such as this quote from a news service, maintain:

“… ‘accelerationists’ who are encouraging their neo-Nazi followers to go to the protests and carry out acts of violence against black people — all with the goal of ‘exacerbating the ethnic tensions’ and sparking a ‘race war.’

“Accelerationists promote violence to speed up the collapse of society. An eco-fascist Telegram channel wrote to its nearly 2,500 subscribers on Thursday that ‘a riot would be the perfect place to commit a murder.’ “Accelerationists often seek to exploit moments of political or civil unrest, and the widespread protests that have unfolded across the country fit the bill. “Similarly, 4chan is full of racists cheering the violence and saying that they hope it’s the beginning of a ‘race war.’”

So this isn’t a battle between either right or left, but the possibility it is both. And let’s not forget that riots and couch burnings occur too often on college campuses after basketball and football games.

Then there is the issue of whether cops are bad actors and bullies. The answer is that some are, most aren’t. But it has been shown too often that good cops protect bad cops with their “Wall of Blue.”

There were three cops who were very close to Derek Chauvin during the tragic George Floyd incident and did nothing to stop it, in fact, they may have aided and abetted. Furthermore, authorities were slow to have Chauvin arrested and the other three still remain free. The charge of third-degree murder is a lot less than Joe Citizen would have gotten.

There’s a horrible history in the past decade of unarmed blacks being killed with the cops (or pseudo-cops) who killed them not being held accountable. Think Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Philandro Castile, Brianna Taylor, and the list goes on.

Many black people rightfully come to the conclusion that the system doesn’t work for them, that there is no justice. That makes too many of them feel worthless and expendable. And that can lead to things such as rioting.

The destruction of property in the riots is inexcusable, but understandable. The biggest question is what we as a society intend to do about it. It’s been 53 years since the Detroit riots, yet it doesn’t seem like a lot has changed.

In 1967, it was just a few years after Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed. Since then, the same U.S. Supreme Court that gave us the Citizens United decision overturned the Civil Rights Act, saying it is no longer necessary.

That’s the kind of explanation that Frank Zappa refuted as far back as 1965 when he wrote “Trouble Comin’ Every Day,” his thoughts about the Watts Riots in Los Angeles:

“You know we got to sit around at home and watch this thing again.

“I’ll bet there won’t be many live to see it really end.”

“Cause a fire in the street ain’t like a fire in the heart.

“And in the eyes of all these people don’t you know that this could start,

“On any street in any town, in any state when any clown,

“Decides that now’s the time to fight for some ideal he thinks is right?”