The ugly scene of racially-motivated violence once again has rocked the nation. This time, it followed a Grand Jury decision in Missouri not to indict a white police officer who killed a black teen in the line of duty.
Despite pleas from the victim’s family as well as from the president of the U.S. to resist violence and lawlessness, radical protestors and instigators were able to turn a protest into a battle zone. This is deplorable and must be condemned by all people of good will.
We are a country of laws. In this case, almost three months of testimony and a myriad of witnesses were heard by 12 citizens serving on the grand jury. They came to the reasonable decision that there was no evidence to suggest that a crime had been committed by the police officer.
The protestors in Missouri have set back the search for justice. The greatest advances in the quest for racial equality in this country came during the 1960s when the Rev. Martin Luther King led a series of nonviolent protests across the nation. Nothing is solved when mobs take to the streets and burn homes and businesses and intimidate the general welfare with bullet shots. Violence begets more violence and widens the gap between the races. Why haven’t we learned this lesson?
In New York City, the protests against the decision were mostly peaceful with only one newsworthy incident disrupting the peace. In Times Square, the Police Commissioner, on the scene to help maintain the peace, was splattered with fake blood. What a disgrace to an otherwise peaceful demonstration!
The relative calm in New York is a tribute to the savvy professionalism of New York’s Finest.
People have the right to express their opinion in public. But no one has the right to disrupt the peace. Reason and debate must replace emotional outbursts if we are ever to make progress in achieving the common good.
To be sure, the protests that came out of Missouri are the work of anarchists who latch onto emotional issues. The rioters in Missouri probably had never set foot in the state before now. There are those who will do whatever they can to disrupt the American way of life. Unfortunately, those meddlers had their way once again. May cooler heads prevail!