The death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25 has sparked protests around the country. It was an ugly incident and appeared to be a terrible injustice.
Regrettably, we’re now seeing violence and riots occurring in big cities across the country, in which public and private property is being destroyed and other people have been injured or killed.
But the outburst of violence has been condemned by Floyd’s family.
“Tearing up things, it’s not going to solve anything,” Floyd’s son, Quincy Mason Floyd, said, according to Chicago’s WGN-TV. “My dad is in peace, and we have to be the ones to deal with all this stress. It’s going to be tough to get over this day by day.”
A free society requires the rule of law based on consent. Looting a Target store and torching a police cruiser are not the rights of peaceful assembly, speech, and petition protected by the First Amendment. Instead, those actions are assaults on the rights of fellow citizens and undermine legitimate authority bestowed by the consent of the governed.
We have a system, created following the American Revolution, that allows us to appeal to ballots instead of bullets when we want to make legal or political changes.
Unfortunately, the distinction between peaceful protest and anarchic violence seems to be lost on some people in high places in this country, including members of the media. Some reactions to the outbreak of riots from the national media have been irresponsible and downright corrosive.
One writer for Slate, a liberal commentary website, called the destruction of a police precinct in Minnesota a “reasonable response” to the death of Floyd.
ESPN reporter Chris Martin Palmer put on a master class of hypocrisy, or perhaps self-parody, first writing that protesters should “burn it all down” in a tweet with a photo of a burning building.
Palmer quickly changed his tune later when the violence got a little too close to home.
They just attacked our sister community down the street. It’s a gated community and they tried to climb the gates. They had to beat them back. Then destroyed a Starbucks and are now in front of my building. Get these animals TF out of my neighborhood. Go back to where you live.
— Chris Martin Palmer (@ChrisPalmerNBA) May 31, 2020
Again, it’s important to note that Floyd’s family—those most affected by his death—have been aggressively urging people to avoid violence.
Floyd’s younger brother, Terrence Floyd, has been pleading with protesters to avoid what’s become violence and mayhem in many of America’s cities.
George Floyd's brother forcefully calls for peace at a prayer vigil in Minneapolis:
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 1, 2020
"If I'm not over here messing up my community, then what are y'all doing?… That's not gonna bring my brother back at all."
"Lets do this another way." pic.twitter.com/8FUCAzPbN6
“Don’t tear up your town. All of this is not necessary because if his own family and blood is not doing it, then why are you?” Terrence Floyd told ABC News, adding:
If his own family and blood are trying to deal with it and be positive about it, and go another route to seek justice, then why are you out here tearing up your community?
Because when you’re finished and turn around and want to go buy something, you done tore it up. So, now you messed up your own living arrangements.
So, just relax. Justice will be served.
Terrence Floyd called his brother a “gentle giant” who was known in his community for his positive attitude and motivation of others.
“It’s OK to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way, because we’ve been down this road already,” Terrence Floyd said on “Good Morning America.”
Bob Woodson, the founder of the Woodson Center, a Washington D.C-based anti-poverty nonprofit, explained how riots invite only crime, not justice.
“The violent protests in Minneapolis and around the country are devastating the people in whose name they demand justice,” Woodson wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
Woodson said that peaceful protesters who are “truly concerned about addressing the tragic loss of black lives should look for proactive measures that could reduce the incidence of violence between police and civilians.”
“The killing of George Floyd was heinous, and justice must be served. But violent protests against police are not the answer,” he said.
Former President Barack Obama likewise said the violence is putting “innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods.” That’s true.
The violence and property destruction we’ve seen in recent days harms the country and ruins lives. It won’t bring back George Floyd, and it will only serve to devastate communities across the country.
The right of citizens to peaceably protest is protected by the Constitution. Rioting, looting, and arson are not.
The post George Floyd’s Son Calls for End to Violence, Saying Rioting Won’t ‘Solve Anything’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.
As states nationwide begin the process of reopening, Americans continue to battle over the methods governors and local authorities have used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, many states and localities have set up arbitrary and, in many cases, absurd rules that do little more than aggravate citizens and almost nothing to stop the spread of the virus.
For instance, some Americans have been pulled over and ticketed for merely driving. One Pennsylvania woman received a $200 ticket for violating Gov. Tom Wolf’s statewide stay-at-home order when she said she had merely gone on a drive to relieve her quarantine restlessness, the York Dispatch reported.
The York County district attorney filed a memorandum saying that the citation didn’t serve “the interests of justice,” and the system eventually dropped the matter.
If anything, driving in your own car is a far better method to prevent spreading COVID-19 than, say, using public transportation. As former California state Rep. Chuck DeVore has noted, states with a higher amount of mass transit generally have had a higher number of COVID-19 cases than other states, even taking into consideration urban density.
Perhaps we are lucky that the Green New Dealers didn’t get their wish to end car and air travel and force Americans to switch to rail.
Parks around the country have been shut down, which has rankled many Americans who now struggle to find an outdoor sanctuary at a time when most are trapped inside. Mental health, after all, is a serious concern, as so many people are trapped inside and struggling financially.
Even the left-wing website Vox noted how ridiculous it is to shut down public parks en masse, especially given little evidence that COVID-19 spreads in outdoor spaces.
And some park crackdowns have been utterly absurd. For instance, police in Brighton, Colorado, arrested a former trooper with the Colorado State Patrol for playing catch with his daughter in a park. The police department later apologized.
Americans are unlikely to tolerate, for long, nonsensical rules or enforcement policies that impede their day-to-day lives. It was, after all, a long chain of large and small abuses by governmental authorities that led to the creation of this country.
And given the Constitution and remarkable political system created from it, we have a great deal of power to end abusive laws quickly.
Certainly, some of the coronavirus lockdown measures have had more serious implications for civil liberties than simple park closures.
While our federal system gives broad power to states and local authorities to act in the way that best serves their communities, it is still essential that Americans be wary of violations of the Constitution and their fundamental rights.
This important point was made by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who directed U.S. attorneys in late April to be on the lookout for violations of civil liberties by state and local governments.
Barr said he didn’t want to “unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public,” given the nature of the pandemic.
“But,” he added, “the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis. We must therefore be vigilant to ensure its protections are preserved, at the same time that the public is protected.”
Being on guard for bad laws and law enforcement, petty or serious in their abuses, will ensure that Americans come out on the other side of the coronavirus pandemic with our health and liberty intact.
We have to find a way to suppress terrible rules and laws as well as clamp down on the spread of the coronavirus in places where it is still killing Americans in large numbers, such as in our nursing homes.
The clumps of sunbathers grab the headlines, but the nursing homes present the real health crisis that deserves more attention.
Our national push and pull over good laws and bad, the often-noisy debates over how to respond correctly to crisis, is the normal course of an American system created to handle both good times and bad.
America is not a democracy, but self-government and the democratic elements of our republic allow us to work through complex challenges far better than governmental systems with rigid, top-down control.
As tumultuous as our system may seem to the outside world, it gives us the best chance to beat COVID-19 and escape encroaching tyranny at the same time.
Originally distributed by the Tribune Content Agency
The post We Can Protect Our Health While Preserving Our Civil Liberties appeared first on The Daily Signal.