Chambana Sun

Since the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery this year by police, protests and riots have happened in many cities throughout the nation. 

While some advocated for these actions, as well as looting, local business owners did not entirely agree.  

In an Aug. 27 NPR article, Natalie Escobar spoke with writer Vicky Osterweil, who had authored a book defending the act of looting, claiming that it was a powerful way to send a message and bring about societal change.

Illinois Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur). | Photo Courtesy of Dan Caulkins

"When I use the word looting, I mean the mass expropriation of property, mass shoplifting during a moment of upheaval or riot," Osterweil told Escobar in the NPR interview. "That's the thing I'm defending."

Chambana Sun spoke with Illinois State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) about the proposition that there may be a reason for looting or destructive demonstrations and asked his opinion.

"There is never a time or place where arson or looting is OK," Caulkins told Chambana Sun. "For any 'reason' or circumstance."

Osterweil said that there are several misperceptions about looting and rioting and that plenty of recent events show essential distinctions.

"But looters and rioters don't attack private homes," Osterweil told Escobar in the NPR interview. "They don't attack community centers. In Minneapolis, there was a small independent bookstore that was untouched. All the blocks around it were basically looted or even leveled, burned down. And that store just remained untouched through weeks of rioting."

Osterweil said that sometimes it is necessary to experience scary events to make the needed changes, and looting may provide the lighter fluid to make those changes. 

"We have to be willing to do things that scare us and that we wouldn't do in normal, 'peaceful' times because we need to get free," Osterweil told Escobar in the NPR interview.