Life in the time of Wuflu, Part 19: Trading the pandemic for riots

I’ve tried to write this post 4 times since yesterday, gotten interrupted by something and come back to it only to find that the situation has changed so drastically that I have to rewrite the entire thing.

So the current insanity starts when a white cop kills a black man. Got that. Watched the video and the optics of the situation are pretty ugly. While it seems unclear exactly what lead to the knee on the throat, I don’t see how that’s justified at all, more or less for something like 8 minutes. I can’t find an instance of any cop, any level, anywhere, saying that this is a restraint move they were taught in cop school. I can, however, find a lot that are asking “What the actual eff?”

George Floyd is yet another person killed by cops who have, in my opinion, went outside the pale. He isn’t the first, and he’s not going to be the last. Until it becomes easier to strip the protection courts have historically handed out to government officials, this will happen again and again..

Was Mr. Floyd treated this way because he was black? Honestly, I doubt it. I don’t believe that cops who do these things really care about race. They care about power, and that power usually goes to their heads. Based on what I’ve read about good ol’ Officer Friendly, it’s been a problem for a while. He just finally got caught going too far on video-and this time, too far ended a man’s life.

I believe our problem here is people with the wrong personality types in jobs where they can indulge their worst impulses.

However, the media, along with other race-baiters, decided that this is all about racism. They screamed this to the rooftops, which thanks to their efforts, are now burning. The protests seeking “justice” (whatever justice might be in this situation) for George Floyd stopped being about George when the first act of vandalism occurred. For a while after that, it was about free stuff. I spent an hour watching Fox News Friday night, and I fail to see how stealing from a phone store, and office supply store and a liquor store are going to get “Justice for George Floyd!”

Hey, I’m just an old white guy. Maybe you have to be in your 20s or 30s, like most of the “protesters” I saw, to understand how that works.

What I am seeing is something that is categorically different from any rioting I’ve witnessed in my life, and that’s the involvement of a certain group or groups who moved in shortly after the Free Stuff Army was all liquored up and passed out in front of the new TV they had found just lying there at Target with the sign “free to good home” on it.

To me, it appears that the group known as Antifa, along with other groups of similar intent, are using this to their own ends, which seem to be causing a total breakdown of our society, for reasons that I believe are not as clear as many think.

It also appears they they are being aided and abetted by politicians at all levels, who are failing in their duties to protect the citizenry and their property. Instead, it sounds like they support the rioters, as long as they wear masks and practice social distancing while they riot.

Yesterday, my family abruptly canceled plans to go out to our first restaurant meal together since the Wuflu arrived. We did so because, right here in Podunk, there were real threats being made against retail outlets in the area. The difference between here and elsewhere is that arrests have been made and nothing actually happened. However, my children have been raised on “Don’t go to stupid places with stupid people and do stupid things”, and they were fully supportive of grabbing takeout and once again eating at home.

The supper discussion was, shall we say, interesting. And thanks to a deep stash of many things, I was able to send both young men home with items for which they suddenly found a need without a readily obvious way to meet that need. Holsters. Yes, we bought the guns, the magazines and the ammo, but apparently we didn’t think about holsters. They are now able to be up-armed from their normal carry pieces to some more substantial hardware.

Lord forbid they need it.

Today, I went to the range to wring out a new truck gun. I found that Lasik is not a perfect solution for all that ails my old eyes, and that, while I can still get combat effective hits with a pistol caliber carbine, I can’t do it with iron sights past 25 yards. I plan to mount a red dot sight and try again, hopefully tomorrow or the next day.

I also need to get a new pistol to the range and start working it up to replace my current carry gun, a Ruger LC9S Pro. The LC9 is a 7+1 gun, while the new Sig P365 XL is a 12+1 gun. Given current trends, I’m wondering if I wouldn’t be better with the 30+1 of an AR, but lugging that around all day would doubtless cause more problems than it would solve. Maybe next week the AR will be more in fashion.

In a week, we have went from living in interesting times to living in dangerous times. I fear where we may be in another week.