The Revolution Continues
by J. B. Cash
Tonight the Baltimore Orioles will take the unprecedented step of playing a baseball game in front of an empty stadium. Aside from the ridiculous idea that a sports entertainment activity which exists merely to provide amusement to paying customers should continue when those customers are no longer allowed to be there, is going to be played, the symbolism of this astounding event cannot be overestimated.
This occurrence signals a complete lack of will on the part of the civil authorities to do what is necessary to maintain order in the face of violent rioters. Their refusal to perform the most basic function of government-ensure the domestic peace, is a sign that the looters, thieves and criminals have won.
Despite a police force that has militarized to the force of a standing army, with tanks, tear gas, and swat teams, the ruling government of Baltimore has declared surrender to the small amount of people that would break the law. This inability to confront those that would destroy them is similar to the fall of governments in the Middle East a couple of years ago, and the fall of communism as witnessed by the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It is not that the ruling authority does not have the power to resist, it does not have the will.
Make no mistake this surrender of legitimate authority is a revolution in process and will be followed in many places across the country. Of course a similar thing happened in Ferguson, but was limited in its effect to the local population. The signal that is sent to the people of Maryland is that there is no protection expected from lawlessness, the people in authority have surrendered and the best you can do is flee or avoid contact because you will not be protected.
Say what you will about the actions of governments across the U.S. in the wake of the riots of the 1960s, but those men in charge responded when the line had been crossed and seized back civil order from riotous chaos despite much unpopularity. Their will to oppose the forces allayed against them eventually brought some measure of peace in the cold civil war that has raged across the American landscape for almost 50 years. The first official white flag in that battle has been raised.
