Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Protesters in East Cobb, Georgia Date:   6/4/2020 8:38:50 AM

So I live in the very affluent eastern portion of Cobb County and for the last several days there have been peaceful protests at the corner of Johnson Ferry Road and Upper Roswell Road.  Seems to be mostly white high school and maybe college age young people although there were some adults last night.  I was ruminating on this in light of the other protests that occurred around the country (excluding the riots and looting).  What does any of this accomplish?

If I were to talk to these kids I would ask them what holding up signs and asking people to honk their horns do other than making them feel good about themselves?  I can't imagine any racist driving by saying to themselves, "Hey, these kids have really changed my mind so I am no longer going to be a racist."  I also can't imagine any police officer that is regularly accused on misdeeds and never fired because of the influence of the police unions changing their ways either.  And I can't imagine any police union official driving by and saying that they need to stop opposing disciplinary action and the termination of police officers before they do something like what happened to Mr. Floyd.

I also have to wonder if all these affluent white kids really believe that black lives matter or are they just virtue signaling?  If black lives really mattered then 99% of their attention should be focused on black on black crime in large cities.  More young black men are murdered in Chicago by other black men in six months than are killed by police officers of all races in a year.  Think about that, more unjustified murders in one city in less than a year than justified and unjustified deaths by police in the entire country over the course of a year.  While I don't think we have an accurate number of unjustified police killings of African Americans I have to believe it is a very small subset of the total since pretty much every one of them makes national news.  And I wonder if they realize that in an average year 85% of inter-racial violence and murders are committed by African Americans who only represent around 14% of the population.

If these young people really wanted to make a difference, holding up signs on the side of the road in a very safe, affluent area is not the way to go.  They need to become a police officer and displace the racist.  They need to go to violent inner city areas and try to rectify the systemic problems that lead young black men to a life of violence and crime.  But I somehow doubt that they are all that committed and intend to go to college, get a nice job and take care of themselves and their families.  Holding up some signs for a few days might make them feel good but it won't change anything and is a worthless exercise in self aggrandizement that they can put up on their social media platform so everyone will think they care.......but they really don't care all that much. It is all about them.