U.S.—The grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, has yet to announce whether true bills or no true bill of indictment have returned against Darren Wilson, the cop at the center of the Michael Brown shooting back in August.
However, organized protests are ramping up in response to the situation, in advance of any announcement. And it appears there’s going to be a national backlash, no matter whether there are true bills returned, or no true bills.
Chicago’s organized event
The grand jury is attempting to get to the bottom of the shooting and decide whether or not Wilson acted in self-defense or if his actions had criminal intent. Many are hoping that the officer “faces the consequences of his actions,” however, and won’t take a no true bill for a response out of authorities. So there are organized pockets of protestors being arranged right now, “demanding justice” and apparently ready to raise hell (“bring megaphones,” declares one of the cities’ links) regardless of what the outcome is.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We will be among the first to sound the battle cry in favor of protesting (seeking redress with our government entities) as provided by the First Amendment (protest peacefully). Even stupid causes deserve peaceable protests; I mean, look at Brian James O’Neill, right?
But this one is just a little over the top.
Missouri organized event
We went to St. Louis on Tuesday, a business trip and something that had to be accomplished on the day that it did. There was nothing going on in the area, nothing like what the world saw the second weekend of August 2014 when riots and looting broke out after Brown’s death. But we heard people at places of public accommodation, worried about whether the grand jury announcement was going to be made while they were there, telling their family “Cmon, let’s get out of here before it’s announced and things get bad.” And why would it “get bad”? It’s a matter of course of the way the court system works; grand juries are held the country over, every day. Why should the citizenry live in fear of one announcement or another?
THAT, my friends, is terrorism: Creating a condition of perpetual fear as to what “someone” is going to do next. And that’s what we’ve got, with the Tumblr-based Ferguson National Response Network. This is where those who are going to protest, either by peaceful means or by raising hell, are announcing their plans. And in doing so, it’s “catching on,” and those whose motives are something considerably less than seeking redress with their government now have a platform to make their frustrations public.
Looking at some of the tags on these events, you can see “racism” popping up once in a while. There are still people who are determined to make the whole matter one of race. But as you saw when we went to check things out in Ferguson, that’s not the point at all. There is an entire contingent who are taking up this cause as one of cop violence…and it isn’t even that, either. This, according to everything we have been able to learn about it, was nothing more and nothing less than a cop reacting to being manhandled in his police cruiser by a thug, and unfortunately, that thug is now dead…something that would’ve happened anyway, if he continued on the path that he was. The grand jury may be convinced otherwise. There might be things we as the public will never know. But is it worth all THIS:
Carbondale organized event
This is a grand event…but not necessarily with a grand purpose. Why can these people not protest like this about bad prosecutors or judges who subvert the law in the courtroom, or refuse to punish certain criminals while going particularly harsh on others? Why can’t these people protest the fact that certain precincts in Ohio having 181 percent voter turnouts during the last presidential election? Why can’t these people protest the fact that our currency is fiat and the federal reserve is a private banking group holding the public hostage? Why can’t these people protest the fact that Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, John Shimkus, Dick Durbin and hundreds of other elected representatives have been in office FAR TOO LONG and that there are no term limits on these dweebs? Noooooo. The Marching Morons have to protest stupid things like Occupy movements and the death of a nothing thug who’s been turned into a “something.” They’ve reached the liberal strongholds in every portion of every state, including downstate Illinois, where, of course, Carbondale with its whiny entitlement students (for the most part; there’s a conservative group on the campus) are going to “protest” too. They HAVE to. It’s part of the program, guys.
It’s a stupid idea. I have to say it, because few others are. Somebody had better. We don’t need more division in this country. We need uniting…and not around a stupid cause. We are a country that follows the rule of law. If you don’t like the law, you change it, by getting involved in your local government, attending meetings, running for office, becoming a lawmaker….not leaving it up to “someone else.” You ARE “someone else.” Get off your asses and do soothing, but do it right, not with futility. Otherwise, true democracy—mob rule—is going to be the order of the day. And that’s what we need to avoid.