I'm Living In "Interesting Times" and I Hate It

Yesterday was a little scary - the riots about the George Floyd killing moved from Minneapolis across the river to St Paul, and into the southern portion of my shop's neighborhood. It was a tense afternoon, and we locked the door, leaving a sign on it to knock for entry. We have bars across our windows and solid doors, and we're a mile north of where the major riots and property destruction was going on, but it was uncomfortable. 

At 5:30 pm, I made the decision to close early. We brought the cloths back up and covered the display cases, just as we had while we were on stay-at-home. We're basically a bead store, but why tempt fate? I was out of the shop by 6:00 pm, normally when I would be locking the doors. My landlord texted me later hoping that we were all away from the shop and to let him know if anything happened (break-in or similar) and he would go over. He lives quite close to the shop, so he could get there faster than I. Fortunately, as of now (6:30 am on Friday) nothing happened. I hope we haven't been spray painted or such, but I think we survived the night. 

For those of you who are overseas and might not have heard about this clusterf__k, here's some bare bones details. A grocer in Minneapolis called the police about a suspected thief. Four police officers arrived and accosted George Floyd, wrestling him to the ground and holding him down, forcibly, one officer by kneeling across the back of his neck. Despite numerous requests to "Let me breathe. I can't breathe", the policeman kept his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, causing his death. 

The Minneapolis mayor was incensed about this, as were a LOT of people. Since Floyd was a black man and the police were not (they were a variety of non-black people), race and the problem of race relations and black dignity raised its head. We give a lot of lip service to equality in this nation, but a lot of times that's all it is - lip service. 

Riots happened because people were angry. The four policemen were fired, but have not yet been arrested (which they certainly SHOULD be, for murder and accessory to murder), and the people are angry about the lack of action by the authorities. As of this writing, we've had riots for three nights now and also looting and violence during the days. 

UPDATE - Chickie just sent me a Twitter video that shows the pharmacy, kitty corner across the street from me, engulfed in flames early this morning at 1:30 am. (it's a 100-year-old building and I just love the people there). I'm seriously considering doing the bare minimum at the shop today and staying locked until next week. What a mess. 

I think I don't like living in "interesting times". Stay safe and I'll be back tomorrow.