NY Times did a nice job documenting the first nights damage after the GJ decision. 25 buildings gone.
My biggest reaction is the rioters are destroying their own backyard. I read Dorian Johnson’s GJ testimony. (he was the guy with Michael Brown) The residents in his apartment complex and another one nearby used that store all the time. Its probably the main source of food and snacks within walking distance. Little Caesars delivers food in that area. Walgreens is where they buy their medicine. Even McDonalds (next door to that market) was targeted.For lower income people without cars these are critical resources. Dorian said in testimony he got up every morning and walked to McDonalds to pick up breakfast for his baby momma and himself.
It’s their own backyard. They will suffer the consequences. Getting fresh food is often a problem in blighted areas because the big grocery stores are hesitant to operate there. The residents depend on the small convenience stores for whatever junk food they sell. Who do they think is employed at these businesses? Minimum wage workers that live in that same area.
The stupidity of it is stunning. I saw the identical reaction in LA after the Rodney King verdict. A blighted area just destroyed itself and then had nothing. It took years to rebuild and coax businesses back.
I suspect the majority of the rioters do not live there. From arrest reports, we know that people from St. Louis and even Illinois had been part of the demonstrations.
A lot of the damage was captured in a single 8 min video. at 1:15 Papa Johns manager confronts a looter. A brave woman defending her store and her job. http://www.papamiket.com/?p=77153
couple photos outside papa johns. Sure hope she gets a promotion. She deserves it.
Granted. But it still follows the trend of most “race riots” (for lack of a better term) that has held true since the 60s ---- burn the ghetto. OK, that means you may have to travel 10 miles for groceries in the future or a mile for gas for your car. But its your neighborhood and if you want to burn it down, by Lord you will.
And that leaves a lot of us going “huh?” Why not go burn some gated community or suburban mall? Why not the neighborhood where the cop lived?
Yep - 9 of those arrested were from Chicago and apparently had gone down there to cause trouble. (Which is also a slap to anyone from Chicago who went down to protest peacefully or help out in any way.)
OK, once more - quite a few of those burning things down were NOT from the neighborhood! It’s NOT the locals causing the destruction, it really is people from outside who will not have their lives negatively affected.
Who are these people?
some jerks just want to cause trouble and burn things, so arsonists and agitators of all sorts. People who get into fights for no good reason, that sort.
if professional thieves can orchestrate elaborate smash-and-grab robberies and scams it would not surprise me if some of the looters were professional thieves/opportunists taking advantage of the situation.
people with an agenda. There are some folks who feel they will profit from conflict.
As for gated communities - they’re better defended and harder targets. Malls? Over the past couple of years there have been attacks on malls so while it’s not common it does happen.
A ghetto is typically lightly defended (few or no walls, little private security) and with riots going on the misbehaving jerks run free. They burn, loot, and destroy then move on to somewhere else.
I wonder how many businesses won’t rebuild or they’ll maybe rebuild many miles away?
I’d guess the Convenience Store and McDonalds will. They were getting steady income from those two large apartment complexes.
I was struck reading the GJ testimony when Dorian said each morning he asked his baby momma what she wanted for breakfast. Then walks to McDonalds. I’m like what? what? It’s so much cheaper to fry up a couple eggs and toast. Or a bowl of cereal with milk. Even at my income level McDonalds is a luxury. We try to go when they have the 2 for 1 specials on their Bacon Egg Cheese Biscuits. Two costs $9 when they aren’t on special. I know because I just bought two Monday and wasn’t happy seeing what it did to my $10 bill. It’s unthinkable to eat there every morning but people in those blighted areas do it.
I know they get taken advantage of. I’ve had to buy eggs and bread at my local Convenience Store. Heavy rain and I didn’t want to get soaked twice. They charge nearly double what Krogers or Safeway charges. The little store near me even has a few bananas for the people without cars.
Make that almost $8 for two bacon egg and cheese biscuits. I forgot that I splurged Monday and got a hash brown. <Slaps hand> almost a buck and a quarter for that little thing. I know better than to order one of those. McDonalds has nearly priced themselves out of breakfast. Not when we can fix something at home for a $1 or 2.
If you don’t have a car, and live in a “food desert”, living off fast food can be an easy habit to fall into, especially if you’re poor - things like pots and pans, and utensils, and even basic ingredients for home cooking like spices and oil and flour and so on, are all relatively expensive and every dollar you spend on those is one you can’t spend on something you can eat right away. I know this from experience because it’s how my family often lived when I was little - breakfast was a donut or two, lunch was a cheap hamburger or half of a Subway sub, and dinner was much of the same (or, if we could make it to the store, some frozen burritos or canned soup.) Even now as an adult with a car and good salary it’s a habit I have to fight to stop from falling back into, and there are many more places to buy affordable groceries here than in Ferguson.
Places like the 2 auto parts stores will probably relocate to better neighborhoods, and the burned-out buildings will remain until someone eventually tears them down. Likely many of the looted stores won’t reopen either, or will do so somewhere else.
It is sad, because as others have said, the actual Ferguson residents probably did little of the looting or arson. There most definitely are people who flock to incidents like this because it gives them an excuse to cause trouble.
A lot of people these days grow up without knowing how to cook, even something as simple as breakfast. Sad, really. Time in the kitchen with parents learning to cook was a bonding and educational experience for me growing up (I learned fractions by using them in cooking measurements), and for my nieces and nephews all of whom cook quite well.
A frying pan can be had cheaply from Goodwill, resale shops, or even dollar stores. Eggs are a relatively cheap food. If you don’t want to make biscuits from scratch either get ones of the rolls of dough in a tube or by some English muffins or bagels. Or just toast some bread and have eggs and toast.
Alas, if you don’t have that experience growing up you are unlikely to have it as an adult. There’s also the problem that some people don’t want to bother with clean up from cooking and are willing to pay a financial premium for that.
ETA: That’s why everyone knew there was going to be a riot, regardless of whether the police officer was indicted or not. The shooting was an excuse, not a reason.
We live on the fringe of a low-income area. One low-income apartment building recently opened a quarter-mile from here and another nearby is close to completion. The one that is open is attached to a community center; across the street is a strip mall with three different fast-food outlets (a fourth will open soon) and a drug store, across the other street is a 7-Eleven.
Money is an issue for low income people. Seems pretty obvious since they don’t have much.
Heck it’s an issue for my family too and I have a good job. We set a firm food budget and stick too it. That’s the only way to keep spending under control. Trips to Fast Food places eat away at that budget quickly.
Being in the Detroit area it is extra depressing considering how the Riots here were the biggest thing that lead to the city’s downfall. There are still ruins from it today. Obviously the scale was magnitudes bigger, with thousands of building burned, people arrested, and dozens killed.
But yeah, the city burned, the people with means left, and the city may never be completely rebuilt. Certainly does nothing to promote society wide “justice”.