Editorial
The West’s self-righteous support for Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters by deliberately turning a blind eye to their rioting and vandalism reminds me of one of the best-known utterances attributed to Jesus in the Bible that I learnt during my two years of religious lessons as a Lutheran confirmand in my teens: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
I have been an agnostic for decades now, but some of what Jesus is said to have said still influences me.
The current race riots in the US have been triggered by a shocking case of police brutality that resulted in the videotaped killing of a black man by a white cop. Both – race riots and police brutality – are nothing new in the US. They have erupted again and again for decades and often end up in vandalism and looting.
Violent protests have also sporadically occurred in other Western countries such as the recent Yellow Vest riots in France, the Inner City riots in England in the early 1980s, the clashes during the Troubles in Northern Ireland between the late 1960s and late 1990s, as well as the riots by extremists during the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. The list of riots in Western countries seems to be endless, and many – if not most of them – involved allegations of police brutality.
Tackling riots, vandalism and looting is certainly one of the most difficult challenges any police force in the world faces. Activists tend to be very quick in accusing the police confronting rioters of all kinds of alleged wrongdoings –and they also tend to completely ignore the violence committed by the protesters.
The crux of the problem is that some in the West are very eager to point an accusing finger at countries and regions with different political and social systems facing violent protesters such as in Hong Kong. At the same time, they prefer to downplay their own violent protest situations, brushing them aside as isolated incidents.
The truth of the matter is that quite a number of protesters in Hong Kong have resorted to violent means to pursue their political goals which increasingly include the call for the special administrative region’s independence. One of the most moronic actions by rioters in Hong Kong has been the destruction of traffic lights and MTR ticket vending machines and turnstiles. Some do-gooders have tried to “explain” their action by pointing out that many of them are teenagers. Sorry, I don’t buy this argument. I am sure that even a kindergartener knows that it is, for instance, completely wrong to destroy traffic lights.
Incidentally, artist-cum-activist Ai Weiwei told the Associated Press (AP) in an interview released over the weekend that Hong Kong’s protesters were “very pure” and “rational”. I think no comment is needed.
I sincerely hope that the US will be able to end the current race riots as soon and as peacefully as possible without further loss of lives and damage to property.
And I also hope that US politicians from both sides of the aisle such as Nancy Pelosi and Ted Cruz reconsider their support for Hong Kong’s rioters (because that’s what they have done at least implicitly by blatantly ignoring the violent aspects of the anti-government protests). And, perhaps, they could spend more time trying to solve the centuries-old race problem in their own country and remember the biblical citation: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
And I also hope that Hong Kong’s protesters finally realise that the US is not the “Promised Land” that some seem to think it is. The US is a country like many others facing a plethora a problems, perhaps a bit more than others, on the race front in particular. But, of course, the US also has some of the brightest minds on this planet – one can only hope that they will play a more prominent role in Washington, DC.
– Harald Brüning
