Lots of talk about how idiotic the looters and arsonists are, but this video reminds me of the pressure-cooker we rubbernecks built by staying downtown to watch.  There were a lot of good-hearted faces being lit by those car fires, and we need to act differently next time.  

2% there are actively breaking shit, and 98% are just there to check it out.  But passivity implies consent, and everyone standing there with their phones, projecting their attention at the active wreckers, are the non-cutting edge of the same knife.  If you’re not there to stop it, you are it.   

This modern explosion of citizen journalism is obviously pretty exciting, and we shouldn’t/aren’t going to quit filming altogether, but let’s set an unwritten rule going forward that journalistic objectivity doesn’t apply to us amateurs.  It’s a sexy prerogative that we don’t get to enjoy, because if everyone’s a journalist, who’s left to be citizens?  Citizen journalists need to be citizens first.

Video by Christine McAvoy