With the final four now deduced to two teams for the NCAA championships, supporters and fans of the Kentucky Wildcats took to the streets and "rioted" by burning articles of clothing as an expression of their displeasure for their team's loss. To say that they were "rioting" is a bit of journalistic sensationalism, which wouldn't be beyond CNN.com, in my opinion. More importantly, and as we have seen not just in Ferguson, MO, riots have become part of culture and trace back their roots mainly to social injustices. We know of the Watts riots and the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after police officers were cleared of any crime following what pretty clearly was an outright and malicious assault on Rodney King. Rioting may be one way to address social injustices, but it certainly isn't right nor ethical as it leads to criminality and destruction of property, typically in the rioter's area that they dwell. According to sociologist Christian Borsch, riots create irrational behavior rather than rational people driven to rioting by social injustices as has been argued in yesteryear. This phenomenon seems to be reflective and an outlet specifically among low-income and impoverished cities or neighborhoods in America, and continues to trend towards increasing as the middle-class shrinks and government assistance continues to be harder to obtain as our jobs in these neighborhoods too. Rioting too forces police to take a militaristic and paramilitary stance to protect citizens and property, thus reinforcing more negative views of the police and resistance to them when they engage in tactics generally reserved for the most violent situations. This blog doesn't seek to address the social injustices endured, whether perceived or real, but rather that certain segments of our population have no other outlet to release their frustrations at their circumstances that is generally driven by some event as a catalyst for this expression. To me this is a national security issue as we have a severe fracture and departure of our overall general values as we all make up the social fabric of our great nation, and we must start to look at providing better education to our youth and adults to ensure a better quality of life. Education and a reemphasis on hard work is the only way we can lift our fellow man (or woman) in these areas. We must all seek to change the cultural paradigm towards this, otherwise the fabric will continue to rip and we will not stand "indivisible" and together as a people.
References
Silver, J. (2015, April 5). Kentucky Fans Riot After Loss. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2420624-kentucky-fans-light-fires-in-the-street-after-final-four-loss-to-wisconsin?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial
Borsch, C. (2013, April 15). Søg / Search. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2013/2013.4/riots_create_irrational_behaviour/
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