Emotional Outbursts and Other Activities?

In describing the rioting and looting in Baltimore after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a black preacher recently used the phrase “emotional outbursts and other activities” to a CNN reporter. Really? It sounds to me like he was attempting to downplay the reality and gravity of the situation. He was apparently trying to make excuses for the perpetrators. Their actions did not constitute “emotional outbursts and other activities.” Had they limited themselves to screaming, crying, and shaking their fists in the air, for example, then it could have accurately been described that way.

But what they did was criminal mischief. They were opportunists who took advantage of a sad set of circumstances and used it as a chance to wreak havoc on their neighbors. Those who participated in such criminality can rightly be described a thugs, no matter what the mayor and other enablers might try to say now. Political correctness should not be utilized to whitewash the crimes that were committed in the name of protest. Each participant should be brought to justice and punished to the fullest extent of the law. There were no mitigating circumstances, and no excuses should be accepted. It’s high time we started calling things what they really are.