Last night, I tried to stay off social media, but felt the urge to Tweet about how looting and destroying local businesses does nothing to harm corporations, the police, or the legal system, but it does harm community members who are working hard to put food on the table for themselves.

No matter how you feel about how justice was or was not served last night, it does not justify the wanton destruction of other people’s property. It’s not even an effective tactic for expressing outrage at the state. As anyone involved in civil disobedience, past and present, knows, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lennon, to name just a couple, police and media understand how to deal with violence. It’s non-violence they don’t understand.

That said, one of the strangest visuals to come out of last night’s riots is this, from Reddit. I can’t substantiate the veracity of the photo itself, but according to multiple sources, it appears to be the owner of the market Michael Brown was accused of robbing before he encountered Officer Darren Wilson

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It is unclear whether many of these local businesses will be able to rebuild because their insurance policies may not cover damages sustained from civil unrest.