By Chris Mann
“Richie McGinniss threads a visceral tapestry in his firsthand account of the 2020-21 riots, guiding readers through the pepper-spray haze to reveal the humanity at the heart of the turmoil.” -Amazon review
Spirits, smokes, and weed, the diet of riots. Does Riot Diet refer to consuming riots? Or does it refer to what the author ate while embedded in the riots? Either way, it’s not a diet recommended for the faint of heart.
I read Richie McGinniss’s book about covering the 2020 protest-riots because of the impression he made when he testified as a witness in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Wielding no weapon other than moral fiber, he demonstrated a commitment to facts and protecting human life in the face of political turmoil and at his own potential peril.
As a ragtag Gonzo journalist on the ground, embedded with all kinds of uncommon characters, he and others of the same ilk took great personal risk at limited reward in order to understand and document the historic events of 2020. Without those brave or foolish souls, stealthily armed with cell phones, we would have had minimal access to knowledge about what happened on the streets. Legacy media would never have been able to embed themselves the way the squad of young videographers and journalists from the fledgling independent media outlets did, and who sometimes crossed the lines a typical journalist would maintain.
More bad boy Boy Scout than the Boy Scout-like character of his namesake Richie Cunningham on the Happy Days TV show, as narrator and protagonist, this Richie is a complex character who shows us his patriotism, spirituality and humor. Like a muddled cocktail, it’s through the kaleidoscope lens those qualities produce that he channels Hunter S. Thompson as he riot surfs the U.S. protests. The son of an emergency room doctor and Saturday Night Live staffer who grew up near New York City, the author is a former bartender who skateboards, surfs, and plays hockey. As a young man in a post 9/11 world, he pursued an education in Middle Eastern studies and learned the Arabic language because he wanted to make a difference for his country through the military, but instead landed in the media.
Forging a journalistic pioneer path, Richie formed his own publishing company so that he could tell this ambitious story on his own terms without artificial bias. He offers periodic criticism of the policies and institutions, including the media, that brought us to this juncture. He highlights the media transition from news to info-tainment, reflects on how he has contributed to it as part of the media and what types of content is consumed by the public as diet, defined by what gets the most hits.
As he tells his story, he juxtaposes chapters with snippets of literature and history, provoking thought about our past and why it culminated in chaos and division. This journey across the world and our country is also a personal journey for Richie. Rest assured though, that there is plenty of riot porn for those who aren’t compelled to understand the comparisons.
Richie takes us on a moving and fast-moving tour of his post-college career trail through his three-month tour of the protest-riots in Washington D.C, Seattle, Portland and Kenosha. He was accompanied across the U.S. by the riot squad of The Daily Caller, Shelby Talcott and Jorge Ventura. Join Richie as part of his twisted travelogue while he describes the chaos, violence, absurdity and humanity:
*Get a fish pedicure in the desert with an Israeli war veteran, sip tea with a member of Hezbollah in Lebanon and buy a Star Wars Trilogy from a Palestinian street vendor in Jordan. The vendor compared the U.S. and Israel to the Evil Empire and the Palestinians to Luke Skywalker’s rebel group (references to Star Wars). Yet when Richie asked him if he would move to New York if he could, the man didn’t hesitate to say yes. We’re still the best option, as the author states, “…America may not be perfect, but she’s the best we got.”
*Don your black bloc and hockey helmet, and receive “baptism by pepper spray” in front of St. John’s Church in Washington D.C. The news outlets that used his footage would present a different version of the events depending on their political biases.
*Wander the streets of CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) in Seattle, coffee klatsch at the Conversation Cafe and shop at its open-air grocery, the NO COP CO-OP. It is at CHAZ that Richie begins employing his bartending skills by offering White Claw and IPAs to protestors as conversational ice breakers. He likened CHAZ to The Lord of the Flies, a novel about British boys stranded on an island attempting to govern themselves. Following the riot squad’s departure, two young Black men were murdered near the self-manned CHAZ security checkpoints and the city shut CHAZ down shortly thereafter.
*Witness the shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. At New York’s more-party-than-protest version of CHAZ (City Hall Autonomous Zone), things were decidedly more chill between the protestors and the police than what they would later see in Portland. Richie interviewed a Black person, apparently a trans-woman. The individual said about the police “…they gotta provide for their family too.” And about the protest group, “They wanna go get high, and steal money, and party all night long.” Standing between lines of protestors and police, a Black trans-woman in a red wig was able to express an independent opinion in our country.
*Attend a surreal nightly volleyball game between protestors in black bloc, called “the umbrella gang” in the book, and federal officers in Portland, which would begin when the umbrella gang served Molotov cocktails and fireworks. Federal officers returned fire with such non-lethal munitions as pepper balls and synthetic chlorine tear gas, which “hits different” than other tear gas, according to Shelby. The opposing teams wielded ordinary leaf blowers like firearms to repel tear gas against each other and the umbrella gang broadcasted The Imperial March (also known as Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars) every night to announce when federal officers were on the move from the courthouse. How the nightly dance between these opponents advanced the cause of Black Lives Matter was as clear as the tear gas haze.
*Watch a man futilely sweeping hundreds of water bottles and rocks in the Kenosha streets with a flaming broom. Graffiti on the courthouse read “BE WATER, SPREAD FIRE,” and spread like water the fire did in the city’s downtown area, causing estimates of up to $50 million in private property damage in addition to public property damage. The standoff, again at a courthouse like in Portland, had some similarities to the Portland dance between rioters and police. Prominent politicians and media had substantiated the view that the shooting of Jacob Blake was unjustified and these words were lit matches to kindling.
The Kenosha story is also an intense, moving and personal account of the moments leading up to and including the shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum by Kyle Rittenhouse and the aftermath in which Richie, as a first responder and the sole eyewitness, frantically attempts to save Rosenbaum’s life but sees that life fading away. The story of the shooting would be distorted by national media without input from its key witness.
You’ll keep turning the pages of this compelling book, which provides an independent and human account of the 2020 protest-riots that enables you to interpret the events through your own lens. It’s a dynamic, insightful and thought-provoking portal into a significant period of our history that’s barely in the rear view mirror. It reads like a novel or an autobiography and stays with you like that Portland tear gas. When you get to the end, you’ll be left wanting more. The author’s chaser, Riot Diet II, is coming later this year.
See the Q&A with the author for more information.
