It was here in Germany, and the new euro bills with the signature of Jean-Claude Trichet were just out. He was the second president of the European Central Bank. The first was Wim Duisenberg of Holland, whose signature was all on all Euro bills prior to that.

I had a new bill and tried to pay with it in a health food store here in my town in Germany. The saleswoman started ranting about my trying to pass a phony bill because she had never seen one with that signature before. She started calling me epithets akin to "dirty foreigner," saying, "I don't know in what country you can get away with passing such a bill, but not here in DEUTSCHLAND" and not here in HER health food store. It's pretty demeaning, and I have seldom felt such rage. For the first and only time in my life, I walked down to the local police station to swear out a complaint over Nazi-style behavior, still illegal here in Germany. She received a visit from the cops and a lesson about working a retail job and her responsibility to know if there is new paper money out with a new signature or not.

the riot in Des Moines. Put it somewhere else.

There was a peaceful protest in DM that I attended.

After that ended the teenagers and young adult white men (mostly) out for their Friday night fun ruined it for everyone. They broke windows at the federal courthouse, a hotel, a tire store and other places. They threw bricks and jeered the cops. They yelled for disbanding the police.

There was no responsible voice among the rioters and it was a perfect combination of white privilege and young males (black and white) looking for trouble. It had nothing to do with social or criminal justice and watching the media coverage made me feel sick.

Of course, social media ran wild and a Target store miles away was boarded up when threats were made to destroy the store because Target was covering up the death of one of its employees who disappeared after his shift ended in January.

Violence begets violence and there are a lot of instigators and agitators among the real protesters that may succeed in causing harm to the communities that are hurting.

I was pointing out the difference between what happens here and what can happen back there when such a situation arises.

You people back in the States seem to be all on hair trigger at the moment. Every comment is an attack, every observation a put-down begging for a fight. No wonder our media here in Europe is asking WTF about the whole country back home.

In Germany, a store owner accused you of passing a counterfeit bill. She harassed and demeaned you. You reported her to the authorities, who then verbally reprimanded - and educated - her.

In the U.S., a store owner accused a black man of passing a counterfeit bill. Here, when the authorities were called, the black man was murdered in the street by those same authorities.

You are correct: WTF indeed.

I wondered if this was the case.

I am tweeting out your eyewitness account, (just the text, not your name.)

I have seen reports from most of these cities stating the exact same thing, that white youths are starting the vandalism and looting and then the cops are brutalizing the black protestors in response. Seems awfully fishy.

and it's Des Moines Iowa. Gives you an idea of just how far the problem extends