BLM protests in North Carolina: This is how it should be done

Particularly in the Eastern part of the state, the BLM protests were very small and despite the agitators that are the media attempting to convince the entire USA population that it is completely normal to loot and riot very little of that ever happened. In the nearby college town of Greenville, home of East Carolina University and the largest city over in these parts, only a few hundred people participated in the protests and only one police car was damaged. There was no rioting or looting and I have a number of theories as to why that was the case.

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I don't want to say that NC media was disappointed it didn't turn riotous in Greenville but the national news certainly tried to paint it that way by saying that the protest turned into a riot, but this was a flat out lie. I live here, there was no riot. They marched, they were heard, they went home. One idiot who damaged the police car in the police parking lot, was arrested and will no doubt face well-deserved charges. I don't know if he had hoped that the mob would turn violent with him, but there were reports of those in the crowd actually telling him to stop.

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I was actually quite pleased with my fellow North Carolinians for not taking the bait as far as calls to violence were concerned but to be fair to law-enforcement, Greenville has a long reputation of the police being quite friendly in the communities regardless of skin color. I wouldn't say that there is much animosity towards police here now, nor was there when I was a student at ECU. They kind of let us do whatever we wanted as long as we didn't hurt anyone else, which is what I think it should be like.

I have one other theory as to why it is that things didn't get out of control anywhere in North Carolina and that is the fact that we have around a 30% gun ownership rate. Imagine if you were someone intent on looting a neighborhood and you know that 1 out of 3 of the houses is packing heat? You gonna take those odds? While other states have significantly higher rates of ownership such as Alaska where it is more than 60%, North Carolina also doesn't have very many massive cities that have special restrictions on gun ownership. For example, New York state doesn't have huge gun ownership restrictions, but New York City does... the same is true with Chicago and Illinois. Charlotte, our largest city, has the same laws as the rest of the state and that is to say, they are very relaxed. Open carry is allowed without a permit and there are 700,000 concealed carry permits issued in statewide.

Charlotte would be a likely candidate for riots simply based on its liberal stance and dense population yet despite the fact that protests went on for 7 days, there was very little violence and compared to other states, the reaction by the police wasn't terribly strong because it wasn't necessary. The crowds didn't have to be dispersed for the most part, and there was very little property damage.

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As you would expect, a few bad apples spoiled the barrel when some protesters began throwing rocks and fireworks at police officers, and the response was quick by the police. 11 arrests were made and at that point the protest was deemed unlawful. This is the way it should be in my opinion. Most of the crowd was not behind these attacks and actually helped to turn over the perpetrators to police in a few instances.

It might be worth noting, that George Floyd was actually born in North Carolina. I have to congratulate the people of North Carolina for not allowing this to spiral out of control. I am proud of my state right now.