The rioters can\u00a0and should be held culpable\u00a0for seizing on an excuse to indulge in an orgy of burning and pillaging. \u00a0Attempts by those analyzing the violence to recast it\u00a0as a racial struggle or a freedom fight or a revolution must be resisted. \u00a0A recent CNN commentator went a bit over the edge when he said that the rioters are engaged in \u201crighteous rage\u201d against \u201cpolice terrorism\u201d and that the city is \u201cnot burning because of these protesters. The city is burning because the police killed Freddie Gray and that\u2019s a distinction we have to make.\u201d (Marc Lamont Hill on\u00a0Breitbart.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n Unfortunately it is in the moments when those we trust the most let us down, that the opportunity arises for such opinions. The police should not be completely let off the hook here. \u00a0As a component of the public service, they should not brutalize those they are charged with protecting. \u00a0Of course, as long as the uniforms are filled by humans, there will be corruption within the ranks, but as an entity the police force\u00a0should be vigilant in fighting against it. \u00a0They should avoid arrogance, remembering that their role is to be public servants, not public lords and masters.<\/p>\n Is this a sign that our civilization is decaying? Of course, the answer is \u201cyes\u201d, but it is no more than the same primordial decay that has afflicted humanity from the beginning.<\/p>\n We call this series \u201cReflections of the Fall.\u201d<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There seems to be a growing tide of stories about police excesses, followed by ugly destructive riots. \u00a0Baltimore has followed quickly on the heels of Ferguson, MO. \u00a0The mysterious death of Freddie Gray while in police custody has caused an explosion of violence that took the city by surprise. The rioters can\u00a0and should be held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[136,139,137,138],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections-of-the-fall","tag-baltimore","tag-freddie-gray","tag-marc-lamont-hill","tag-police-brutality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}