re: Baltimore

1. There’s no such thing as a peaceful protest in the eyes of a government. You either ignore or accept state violence or you’re considered an aggressor. Period.
   
2. Gang violence and riots do not spring from a vacuum. They are responses to institutional and systemic discrimination, oppression, and abuse. What you see on the news is not an isolated story; it is simply another chapter in a very long series of unfortunate events against poor black people who are trapped in a cycle of violence that they did not start, nor do they perpetuate. 
   
3. Do not invoke the Civil Rights Movement and/or MLKJ in any of your anti-riot arguments. First of all, see Point 1. Second of all, if you’re using that same tired argument, I guarantee you that you are (a) not on the front lines of these protests, nor behind the scenes organizing them, NOR putting yourself on the line via social media or any other medium in support of the peaceful protesters or the ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬ movement in general, AND (b) you would not have done any of that in the mid-20th century, either. 
   
4. The police will be fine.
   
5. The police deserve it.