Three miles away from my apartment, sirens, shouting, and smoke filled the skies of downtown Long Beach, Calif.
Earlier that Sunday afternoon, thousands of people crowded the city streets in a peaceful protest, nobly calling for justice for George Floyd, a black man murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
But as night came, so did the looters, as they did in many cities. They smashed windows of various stores, raided a grocery store and a CVS, and set a men’s clothing store on fire.
“I saw it all unfold last night, but being here, seeing it in person, this is horrible,” a property manager told NBC Los Angeles the following morning, choking back tears as he spoke. “You have a mom-and-pop shop struggling to just stay afloat… They’ve been closed for two months. Now, all their windows are broken... This is devastating for businesses, for the little shops. Everyone thinks that they have insurance and stuff. Some of them do, some of them don’t.”
When I heard the many sirens pass as police sped toward the riot, I prayed it wouldn't hit the street of boutiques and restaurants, many family-owned, just a few blocks away. Thank God the police kept our area safe, but the riots are expected to continue.
According to NBC Los Angeles and some who attended the Long Beach demonstration in the name of Black Lives Matter, the looters were never part of their protest. While protestors rightly demand justice where human life is not valued, rioters only cause more death and destruction, so it isn’t fair to assign the motives of the peaceful protestors to violent rioters.
This is why I cannot understand those who defend rioting, insisting that looters are simply fighting for justice in the only way they can be heard, or that it’s my white privilege preventing me from sympathizing with violent criminals. I think it’s my God-given conscience that finds burning buildings, destroyed businesses large and small, and trauma inflicted on business owners and employees so repulsive.
As a Christian, I am called to love and serve those around me. Long Beach is not my eternal home, but I am blessed to live here now and obligated to serve my neighbors. That's why I drove downtown yesterday morning with a broom, a face mask, and a purse full of trash bags.
So many people showed up to clean that organizers from the Downtown Long Beach Alliance sent many of us to a different part of the city that was also hit. I passed a pawn shop and a shoe store with broken windows and glass-covered floors before finding some neighborhoods where I picked up trash for a while. I spoke with a few residents who told me that they’d seen a car wash looted and cars broken into. One woman called me over to her market and insisted I take whatever I wanted from the refrigerator. I was encouraged by the hopefulness and love I saw for this city and the people in it.
We are all created in the image of God and he created us in many different colors. I am touched by George Floyd’s legacy of spreading the gospel and loving those around him. I grieve his unjust death and those of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
Please pray for my city and yours. Pray for peace, justice, and healing for our nation. Pray for safety for peaceful protestors, black Americans, and police officers serving and protecting. Speak out against racism and other forms of injustice and do good where you can.
Chandler Lasch is the editor of RealClearReligion. She is a graduate of Hillsdale College and a resident of Southern California.
