By Sheri Reda

Trevor Noah released a video the other day describing how looting illuminates the brokenness of the social contract: If George Floyd can be murdered, publicly and deliberately, by police—and if this is not an aberration but part of a pattern—then there is no rule of law.

Just in case it was too subtle, let’s revisit recent events moment by moment, using building blocks to understand Noah’s explanation. Call it The Social Contract for Dummies.

George Floyd lived and worked in Minneapolis. His taxes underwrote the police force, whose stated mission is “To protect with courage, to serve with compassion!” (The exclamation point is part of the quote.) He helped to pay their salary.

One day, a store clerk suspected Floyd of knowingly or unknowingly passing a fake bill. This is a non-violent crime—what is commonly known as a “white-collar” crime. In accordance with the social contract, the clerk called the police. In accordance with the social contract, the police showed up, quickly.

But according to the social contract, the rule of law, Floyd was presumed innocent until proven guilty. If he were to be found guilty, the social contract would require him to pay for his crime.

Instead, Derek Chauvin, Too Thao, J Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane preempted the social contract and decided that their might made them right.

In fact, they played out the anarchist charge that the State is a criminal organization. They battered their suspect. They threatened witnesses, who, believing in the social contract, tried to reason with them, to plead with them, or at least to record their transgression. And they killed a non-violent citizen for inconveniencing them.

They shredded the rule of law.

What happens when there is no rule of law? Chaos. Not the anarchist utopias promoted by Taoism, Sufism, or Tolstoy’s Christian pacifism, but the fiery violence of rioting. Everyone gets hurt. This is a change from the status quo. Mostly, in the status quo, only the powerless get hurt. 

When everyone is getting hurt, power finally pays attention. For better or worse, the issues get air. It’s a horrible way to get someone to take their knee off your neck. It shouldn't feel like the only way.