VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

Posted on 07/11/2016 | About United States

Thousands of demonstrators have flooded the streets of major US cities throughout the weekend, protesting the recent police killings of two black men, Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Demonstrators in St. Paul hurled Molotov cocktails, fireworks, rocks, glass bottles, concrete slabs, and bricks at riot gear-wearing police officers. They forced the closure of Interstate 94 and some allegedly threw objects and dropped liquids from overpasses on officers below. Others directed laser pointers at police.
In Baton Rouge, according to police, demonstrators knocked out an officer's teeth.
Protesters said they were pepper sprayed by officers and suffered unnecessary violence at the hands of police.
Among those arrested in Baton Rouge was prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson. It was unclear why he was arrested, but he was released on bond Sunday afternoon.
There were protests across the country, with demonstrations against police brutality in New York, San Francisco, Denver, Florida, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Rhode Island.
President Obama addressed the recent spate of protests that have taken place across the country during his trip to Spain, praising the legacy of free speech in America, but warning that violent rhetoric aimed at police officers could result in the Black Lives Matter movement "losing allies."
"America over time has benefited from free speech," he said, listing civil rights, union, and environmental movements as examples of how protest has helped to shape America in positive ways.
In religious services throughout the country, Americans mourned the deaths of Sterling and Castile, as well as the five police officers who were slain by suspect Micah Johnson during a protest that took place in Dallas on Thursday night.
Perhaps the most profound speech ever on violence was delivered by Senator Robert Kennedy after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in April 1968 in which he referred to "the mindless menace of violence." What he said is as valid today as it was then. Two months later Bobby Kennedy was dead. Shot as he left the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after celebrating his victory in the California Presidential primary.