"We need to be asking why: Why are people that poor, why are people that broke, why are people that food insecure, that clothing insecure, that their only shot is to step though a broken glass window to get what they need?".
If you've been wondering from the comfort of your couch why some distort the potential of a purely non-violent protest, Kimberly Jones has a pretty simple answer: "Because they are so hopeless that getting that necklace, getting that TV, getting that bed, getting that phone, they see looting as their only opportunity to get it."
She observes that there are three types of people on the streets right now. "The protesters are there because they actually care about what is happening in the community, and they want to raise their voices in protest. You have the rioters who are angry, who are anarchists, who really want to fuck shit up. And then you have the looters.
"And the looters are almost exclusively there to do just that, to loot. Now, people are like, what did you gain, what did you get from looting? I think as long as we are focusing on the what, we are not focusing on the why, and that's my issue with that. As long as we're focusing on what they're doing, we're not focusing on why they're doing it. And some people are like 'well, those are not people who are legitimately angry about something, they are just people who want to get stuff.'
"OK, let's go with that. Let's say that's what it is. Let's ask why in this country the financial gap between poor blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel that their only hope and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash at them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it.?"
Video: How Can We Win