Check out the above video. It’s some amateur footage captured by someone last night in Oakland, Calif., where citizens (and I use that term loosely) protesting the shooting of an unarmed man by a transit police officer turned their peaceful demonstration into a violent riot, smashing cars and storefronts all along streets in the downtown area.

Why were they so outraged? Oh, because the victim was black. And whose businesses and cars were being attacked? Um, black-owned ones.

This violence didn’t comprise calls for justice or acts of vengeance against “the Man.” It was simply a bunch of morons taking advantage of a volatile situation. Look at the video again. Those are white skateboarders smashing in car windows indiscriminately. Who are their oppressors — the people who install skate stoppers in public parks?

So if the response in an American city to a single wrongful shooting death is wanton violence and disregard for fellow people, is it really any surprise that decades-old conflicts endure in places such as the Middle East?