Following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, many people – especially Black Americans – said they were fed up.
They felt there had been too many deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police, too much jailing of Blacks, too many stiffer sentences for Blacks compared with others, and in general too little progress for Blacks in some areas.
Some of it was demonstrably true, and all Americans who could separate the real from the rhetoric were sympathetic.
Protests over the perceived injustices ensued first in large cities, then in smaller ones. People massed, signs were displayed, activists marched and demands were made. Meanwhile, statues and monuments were illegally brought down, buildings were looted, cars burned and innocent people killed.
Too often, it seemed as if there were some kind of tally sheet – 10 statues pulled down equal one death at the hands of police, one innocent child sacrificed for demands met in five cities.