The constitutional right to LAWFULLY assemble, demonstrate and protest is one of the most basic and important of the inalienable rights articulated and protected by the American Constitution. But we must recognize that even the most peaceful demonstrations are not always for the purpose of seeking some sort of impartial justice. Rioters take to the streets to influence the process according to their desires – just or not.
In the best cases the causes of protestors are noble and the desired outcome beneficial to society. As were most of the civil rights protests of the 1960s. In those cases, the Democrat regimes in the old southland and in many major cities launched the violence.
But street demonstrations that break the law are an effort to impose mob rule. And most seem to break the law. It is … do as we demand, or we will intimidate and terrorize.
It should go without saying that those who seek the cover of the crowd to loot, burn, destroy, maim and kill are not legal protestors. In fact, they are not protestors at all. They are rioters – common criminals who should be dealt with according to the law – no matter what the alleged cause they may claim to be espousing.
The fact that we coddle those rioters is the reason that so many so-called peaceful protests evolve into destructive and deadly riots. That is why we are seeing continuing insurrectionist rioting on a daily basis in Portland, Oregon – seeing it at least as far as the liberal media will report it. And that is very little.
Two of my more liberal friends – who only watch CNN or MSNBC — were totally unaware that there was ongoing rioting in Portland. That is the propaganda effect. But I digress.
Even the so-called peaceful demonstrations will often break the law, but at that level we culturally tolerate it. For example. protestors have no right to block roadways and walkways. Protesters cannot block access to businesses. Protesters cannot occupy public spaces for prolonged periods of time. They cannot defy curfews or orders that declare the gathering an unlawful assembly. They cannot attack counter protestors or law enforcement personnel. And they cannot deface with graffiti.
Federal court cases throughout the years have defined all the aforementioned limitations on the right to protest.
The reason so many protestors break the law is because protesting peacefully may draw attention to a cause. But it does not intimidate and terrorize. That is as true of the riot on Capitol Hill as it is with ongoing riots in Portland and scores of other communities throughout America. Folks who riots want to impose their will without consideration to the Constitution and due process.
The riots that are occurring in the wake of the death of George Floyd – and those arising from the death of Daunte Wright — are two examples. Protestors and rioters claim they only want justice — but do not want the due process that provides justice. They want to determine the punishment from the streets – not in a court of law.
There was anger when Officer Derek Chauvin was not charged with first-degree murder. Even though prosecutors – including Minnesota’s uber left-wing Black Attorney General Keith Ellison — did not call for such a charge. Why? Because under our justice system, it was clearly not first-degree murder.
In the George Floyd case, justice is being served. Police arrested and charged Chauvin with the most serious crimes possible under the law. The prosecution is putting on a powerful case that the news media is televising and supporting. The jury consists of several “people of color” – as we say today.
But there is a case for the defense. That is part of the American due process form of justice. Abolish that, and we have the sort of vigilante justice that Blacks suffered from in the old Democrat southland. It is no small irony that many of those in the streets are taking up that cudgel to impose similar street justice. A home in California – thought to be the residence of one of the defense witnesses – was vandalized with blood from a pig’s head. That is not protest. That is terrorism.
The rioters who came out after the shooting of Wright are demanded that the police officer be tried, convicted and sentenced for murder. But the bulk of the evidence indicates it was a tragic accident.
When California Congresswoman Maxine Waters went to Minnesota, it was not to seek justice. She warned that if the jury did not deliver a “guilty, guilty, guilty” verdict, people should “take to the streets” and be “more confrontational”. That is nothing less than inciting to riot. She knows that such commands will go to the extreme in these tinderbox tense times.
South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn compared the Floyd case to the kinds of trials in his home state during the days of Democrat segregation. That is an shameful absurdity.
It would appear that justice is being well served in both the Floyd and Wright cases. But not in the view of those violent rioters.
So, there ‘tis.