Pax from over at “Cornered Cat” asks me what I define as violence that would qualify a city to be listed on the “Danger Zone” list. That is an excellent question that deserves a complete post on its own. So here we are:
The dictionary definition of violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. While that is a great starting point, we can expand upon that for some clarity. For that, I will quote Marko Kloos in his article “Why the gun is civilization.”
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
A group of people who are standing in the road, holding signs and chanting is attempting to convince a person that their grievance deserves to be considered. A person who is standing in front of diners who are eating at a restaurant while attempting to intimidate those diners through the threat of physical violence is committing violence.
The left claims that a man who refuses to limit a woman’s spending, or who spends money without his wife’s permission is committing financial violence. I disagree.
So what is the level of violence that gets a city added to the danger zone?
Use of physical force by a group of people motivated by political beliefs that results in damage to property, injury, or death to people. Note that the left believes that vandalism, arson, and other acts that “only” result in property damage are not violence. I disagree, and so acts like arson, looting, and other large scale offenses against property will be considered violence.
Also, the use of threats of violence against people that would make the target of those threats reasonably believe that they are about to be physically attacked. A great example would be the acts committed here:
This threshold is enough to get a city or area listed as a “Zone 1.”
In order to be moved to Zone 2, there needs to be further aggravating factors: government forces actively supporting the rioters, rioters using weapons, moving into residential areas, that sort of thing.
Zone three is where rioters have used deadly force against people in at least one riot.
Zone four is where deaths or serious injuries have occurred.
Zone five is where the violence has been frequent, long lasting, or not confined to one specific area.