🚀 go-pugleaf

"Paul J. Berg" <pjberg@webtv.net> wrote in message 
news:1154125529.374508.199770@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

> Is the destruction of property a legitimate form of political protest?

No.  In many cases, though, the perpetrator is so worked up, they feel that 
it's the necessary step after "political protest" has been gagged, ignored, 
or failed.

> Should the punishment be different for those destroying property as a
> form of political protest versus those doing it for pleasure, revenge,
> or financial gain?

Not really.  Vandalism is vandalism.  If you tag a truck or spraypaint ALF 
on it, it's still spraypaint on a truck.

> Yes, there was some violence and destruction of property, but it was the 
> peaceful
> civil disobedience of Martin Luther King that led the nation to see the
> injustice of segregation and discrimination.

Damned straight.  I wonder if it would have worked for abolition itself?

Snipped the bit about Newberry's.   A girl I dated who went to LSU --  
(previously a clueless white girl from Cottage Grove) -- discovered the back 
end of racism when she went to an off-campus function with a black guy.   A 
carload of black men rolled by, stopped in the road and threw something out 
the window at him yelling "Uncle Tom!"

Then, as a reported she was assigned to cover a Maya Angelou reading on 
campus.  When she was there trying to ask questions, somebody shoved her out 
of the way and told her she didn't belong there.  (ie, she was white.)

Another time, when I was visiting and we went to the zoo, some old boy 
hanging out waiting for it to open with us was delighted that we were from 
Oregon and liked Louisiana.  Had a great conversation until he whispered at 
us "You know, Baton Rouge was a great place until all these niggers moved 
in!"   I said something like "That was, what, 1700?" and he turned his back 
on us and walked away.

Not long after that, the Klan held a car wash in Gulfport.  Can only imagine 
lots of big-ass brothers in big-ass Caddies saying "Be sure to wash the 
windows.  Boy."

-c