People Have Reached Out to Help

The recent criminal actions coming on the back of initial peaceful protests in Minneapolis remind me of the heinous 9/11 attacks on America. I was shocked and angered back then. This time I am angered but not shocked. I have seen far too many protests hijacked over the last several decades. This one has been the worst, spreading throughout America and handled poorly by governors and mayors in several states.

When I viewed the news this time, the first thing I saw were people robbing and devastating a Minneapolis Target store. The live broadcast spotlighted a black man pushing a pallet cart with several large flat-screen TVs, while dozens of other criminals fled the store pushing Target’s red baskets stacked high with various pilfered items, leaving the store in shambles.

Seeing this led me to feel to some degree the way Jesus must have felt when (as recorded in John 2:13-16 and Matthew 21:12-13) he took a whip to the crooked money-changers in the Jerusalem Temple and chased them out of the House of Prayer.

My heart then went out to black Minneapolis firefighter Korboi Balla who was reduced to tears while telling about investing his life savings in a restaurant he and his wife Twyana had planned to open in March, but was put on hold until June due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Looters had now burned and destroyed the restaurant, leaving behind nothing but rubble – and Balla had not yet insured the restaurant.

Stories similar to the Ballas' have sprung up nationwide. Thankfully, in the midst of it all, people have reached out to help Balla and others suffering at the hands of hoodlums and thugs. One example is when Long Beach, California black business owner Zahalea Anderson’s place was destroyed, Marie Hosepa, a young white woman from Michigan, started a GoFundMe page that has raised over $100,000 for Anderson.

Meanwhile, Richmond, Virginia Police Chief Will Smith choked back tears during a press conference when telling how rioters burned a home with a child inside and then blocked firefighters from responding. He said, “When you take a legitimate issue and hijack it for unknown reasons, that is unacceptable to me, it’s unacceptable to the Richmond Police Department, unacceptable to the city of Richmond.”

Chief Smith went on to say, “We have people from across the country who have traveled many states to be here. We know that this is an organized effort. We’re committed to try and identify those that are behind it. And we’re doing our very level best to arrest those that are perpetrating the violence on our community, and our city, and our citizens.”

We know what happens. Peaceful protests begin. Local thugs join in to ransack and destroy. Organized anarchist groups like Antifa with paid leaders travel in by bus, train, airplane and car to agitate, plunder and devastate in order to cause upheaval and unrest across the nation. President Trump has now named Antifa a domestic terrorist group, and rightly so. For years, they have openly terrorized American citizens.

As of Wednesday, June 3, various sources detail how 11 people have been killed during the riots triggered after 46-year-old George Floyd died when a white officer jammed his knee into the black man's neck.

The majority of those murdered in the riots are blacks who have tried to protect businesses or other people. This includes 77-year-old David Dorn, a retired black police captain who was trying to protect a friend's St. Louis business. I wonder if there will be any protests over the deaths of these citizens?

It is my feeling that too many of the protesters, local criminal elements, organized anarchist groups and clueless onlookers will view these deaths as collateral damage.

? 2020 by Carl Mays, National Speakers Hall of Fame member and author of over a dozen books, including A Strategy For Winning (foreword by Coach Lou Holtz). Email: [email protected].