Oh, grow up.

First and foremost, I know that I have been uber lame about not updating this blog more often, unfortunately, there just aren't enough hours in the day a lot of the time these days. My musical life has been even more hectic than usual, I'm still adjusting to "work mode" after the holidays, and since I usually end up writing these later at night or immediately before I go to sleep, I have been dedicating that time to something I don't do enough of: sleeping. Still, I've had this one brewing for a while, and I finally need to put it all out on the 'net.

As most everyone knows, there was a fatal shooting at a local BART station (that's a rapid transit train for you non-Bay Area folks) in which a twenty-two year old man in custody was shot by a BART police officer, which means his jurisdiction is strictly what happens inside of the station and it's surrounding area. There are arguments on both side of the issue, and I feel both are valid. In my personal opinion, there are no "right" answers - simply put, it was a regrettable situation all the way around. It's something that should have never happened, but it did, and as a result a man who had done nothing wrong outside of struggling while in the process of being cuffed by law enforcement officers lost his life. He should not have been shot, but from everything I saw the shooting could not be called intentional. My heart goes out to his family, as well as the family of the officer who pulled the trigger; both will certainly be haunted by this incident for years to come.

But I'm not here to debate that or get into the politics that go into our criminal justice system or anything like that. I'm not here to assign blame or even to take a stance one way or another. What I'm here to do tonight is to get something off my chest about the morons who are protesting something they don't understand or have any personal connection to.

Before anything, take a moment to read the accounts of the riots in Oakland, where the shooting took place, right here.

So how do we highly evolved people express our displeasure in what happened? We riot. We set cars on fire. We throw bricks through storefronts. We hurl newspaper stands into the street. We jump on the roof of cars while smashing their windows with a baseball bat. We get arrested. We make death threats to a man who is not yet proven guilty of a crime (double standard much?) and what's worse, we make death threats to his wife and his weeks-old baby. And why do we do this? To express our displeasure with police oppression, of course! As one man who was arrested for vandalism claimed "I fight because I still can; the victim can't." What the fuck are you fighting for? The officer discharged his weapon in the line of duty, which means by law he is given a certain amount of exemption. Are you fighting because a verdict hasn't been handed down in time? Shouldn't you be happy that officials are taking their time and making sure that everything is done right? Why are you destroying property in your own city, destroying businesses run by minorities to protest the death of a minority in your city? The police officer was a BART police officer, NOT by an Oakland Police officer. He could have just as easily been stationed anywhere else throughout the Bay Area, but he happened to be in Oakland that night. And what's the result? Based on two nights of riots, forty five business have already filed damage claims. Which, fortunately, is much smaller than the initial estimate of three hundred damaged businesses.

Call me crazy, but do we not live in a society of laws? Is there no accountability for lawlessness? See, here's the thing: these people know damn well that they can do whatever they desire, since they have the police over a barrel. The police can't use any force, knowing that someone will capture it on a camera, and then they have a lawsuit. Imagine if some delinquent who was hopping up and down on the roof of a car happened to be pulled off the car and they broke their leg. Whose fault is it? Not the jackass who is destroying property; no, it's the fault of the officer who is doing his job.

I have always felt that we are too hung up on being p.c. and worrying about people feeling good about themselves. Why is the use of force a bad thing? Maybe it's just the threat of the abuse of power. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I'm just saying that maybe we could put a little more power back into the hands of the law enforcement. Maybe we could prove that there are consequences for breaking the law. I know it's crazy, but I can tell you, with the threat of imprisonment or worse, you might just think twice about hurling that brick or lighting that Molotov cocktail.

It's time for people to grow up and take accountability for their own actions. On this point, I'm not even limiting myself to criminal actions. What ever happened to the good old-fashioned apology? What ever happened to "Sorry, I will do better next time." or "That was my fault."? Why is it that when people are corrected, our knee-jerk reaction is to say something that starts with "If someone had told me..." or "well, okay, but I was thinking..." What happened to the days when direct responses were a commonly accepted form of communication? Nowadays it's all "Could you do me a favor?" Or "If you have time..." or the "Hey, if you wouldn't mind too much..." Look, if you are working with someone, and you need them to do something for you what ever happened to "I need you do to something" or a direct answer to questions. When did answering a yes/no question with just the word yes or no seem like you're giving attitude or something? If I wanted to give attitude, you'd ask a yes/no question and I'd inform you to perform lewd acts upon your mother or to remove your head from your sphincter and leave me alone.

Yeesh, I guess I rambled a bit tonight. Maybe it was a little off topic, but hey, I feel like I can rest a little easier now that I got that off my chest.