In a riot, there are no friends

I’ve never been much interested in head shops.

As in drug paraphernalia. 

Never been a druggie — wrong generation.

My drugs were tobacco and alcohol, both legal.

At least for now.

My interest in the coming closing of Wonderland, near Rittenhouse Square, was just academic. I know the store because it is in my neighborhood, but had never been inside. 

The Inquirer story told me owner Michael Katz had been in business as long as I had been at the Daily News — 47 years.

But here’s the line that jumped out at me: Wonderland didn’t “recover from the pandemic and the 2020 demonstrations in Philadelphia triggered by the killing of George Floyd.”

I note the word “demonstrations,” rather than “riots.” 

There were peaceful demonstrations, but this was not one.

“Crowds broke one of Wonderland’s front windows and looted the store, tossing merchandise to the sidewalk.”

I note the word “crowds” rather than “rioters” or “looters.”

It’s all in your world view, I guess, like MSNBC’s Ali Velshi pathetic downplaying of protest as a torched building blazed behind him.  

The sad thing about Katz’s loss is that, without much question, the old hippie would have been on the same side of the rioters demonstrators.

But when you are all ginned up on righteous indignation, your friends wind up as collateral damage.