Editorial
Leave Rioters and Protesters Alone
The greatest trick the devil ever played, according to Charles Baudelaire, was convincing the world that he did not exist. Here, it does not matter which devil we speak of – trickster, Loki, Satan, Beelzebub, the Goat.
What matters more is the entity’s capacity for chicanery, chaos and an uncanny ability to always be two steps ahead of you.
Which is why we are always taken aback whenever governments react to protesters. Turkey has been harassing people out on the streets in the same manner as China tries to quell civil disobedience. Uganda uses tear gas and pink water to disperse marauding groups of demonstrators while Greece faced its own public management issues during the global financial crisis.
A few days from now, do not be surprised to hear that Brazil has reacted with unnecessary force to those protesting the president’s public management abilities.
But to come to the heart of the matter, when was the last time you saw a major crisis with protesters in the U.S.? Of course, we could speak about the chaos that engulfed the World Trade Organization Summit in Seattle in 1999.
However, that was a long time ago, and save for the police brutality and trigger happy incidences, one could even make a case for the toothlessness of American law enforcement.
And yet how wrong would they be? When one passes by the White House – like we do on a regular basis – they may not necessarily see it or feel it, but the devil is really in the details, so to speak.
