And that's the way most Americans see it.
There is a "peaceful protest" scheduled for my county (*I was shocked when I read it on facegook). I'm fine with that. I support anyones right 100% for a peaceful protest. But, within 2 hours of it being posted, I saw some out of state people commenting about "road trip", and some not so nice looking fellows to boot. So, if they are just wanting to sight see and hold signs and sing and hold hands, cool. No problem. God bless them.
But, they are meeting at the main choke point for traffic in our county from one side to the other and I fully suspect the road to be blocked and impassable. And I sincerely don't see this ending peacefully. And if they work their way to my house (about a mile away), they better just pass me on by.
My son gets off work from the hospital at 10PM. After pulling a 14 hour shift and will have no alternative than to drive pretty close to there just in order to get home. Ordinarily, he would be on the same street, because like I said, it's the main road.
So, he and I talked last night about the only alternate route that very few people know about using back streets and alley ways, so I intend to be sitting many blocks to the east of all of that when he gets off work with the engine idling and being all chill and not protesting nothing, and will be in contact with my son either on the phone or by 2way from the time he leaves the hospital until the time I see his headlights and if he gets into trouble, I'm going in hot. I'm just going to say it. My plate carrier and Kevlar helmet is already sitting in the passenger seat of my truck, and if I have to go in and help him, play time is over and I'll assess the situation when I roll up on it and deal with it however I see fit. I'm not looking for trouble in any way, but I'm not having my son hurt or killed by a mob that is just there to cause pain and trouble. Nope.
The route he will be taking is as far away from all of that as possible, and as I mentioned to him last night, not many people even having lived here all their lives even know about it, but that's all we can do at this point is hope for the best but prepare for the worst.