Our troubled times and protest, are they unprecedented?

Shannon Bohrer

(7/2020) Prior to this world pandemic, we heard numerous stories of fake news and conspiracy theories from our "Very Stable Genius." For example, the corona virus was created by the Chinese and they hid the fact that it was released, so we can’t trust them. Oddly, in February our stable genius told us that he trusted the Chinese. It was only later in April when he decided they lied.

The public listens to the news for information as to when can we go outside, when can we go back to work and when might the pandemic end. When dealing with a virus that we just discovered, there is a lot we don’t know and even more importantly, the experts and the politicians don’t know either. In making a decision about when to reopen society, how do we know if it is safe to do so? Maybe we should use the science and facts that we do know.

In the middle of our troubled times we have experienced re-opening demonstrations, people and groups urging the governors to re-open their states. The re-openers believe their constitutional rights are being violated, the freedom to move about, the freedom to carry weapons and the freedom to not wear a mask. Many of these individuals wear military garb and carry weapons. The demonstrators also carry Trump signs and some even display confederate flags. When interviewed, it is apparent that they believe themselves to be patriots.

While we may think these are unique times we are living in, they are not. We have experienced pandemics before, including the 1918 Spanish flu. We have also experienced demonstrations and riots, starting with the Boston Tea party. Since the tea party we have experienced protest and demonstrations on a somewhat regular basis. Anti-war protest, strikes and demonstrations for working conditions for coal and steel industries, prohibition, voting rights for women and civil rights for minorities, are just a few.

In the late 1960’s I was a young State Trooper and was present at many of the protests and even a few riots. The protesters were categorized as primarily liberal and they felt the government was not being honest. Sound familiar? They believed our involvement in the war was not necessary and their goal was to end the war. The war and the protest divided our country and many of those divisions still exist.

Now we are experiencing protest and riots over the death of George Floyd. Mr. Floyd was arrested, handcuffed and then placed on the ground, face down. As a former law enforcement officer and a trainer, it was predictable that Mr. Floyd would die. The position he was in is called positional asphyxia, because it inhibits breathing. I was not surprised the officer was charged with homicide, I was surprised that it took some time for the other three officers to be charged.

While Mr. Floyd’s death sparked the protest, the incident was one of many that contributed to the protest and demonstrations. Prior to Mr. Floyd, Mr. Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in Georgia, by two white men, saying they were making a citizen’s arrest. In New York’s central park Mr. Christian Cooper was bird watching when asked a woman to leash her dog. The women became irate and threated to call the police, saying a black man was threating her.

In my former duties as a police academy instructor I had a minority recruit that experienced several felony stops, (the police believe the person committed a felony) while driving a vehicle. The recruit lived in an upscale neighborhood and his parents were professionals and drove high end vehicles. When people in the area saw a young black male driving a nice vehicle, they called the police.

In a large Midwestern city, a 28 year old black man, driving a nice vehicle was also stopped because the police were called and told the vehicle might be stolen. Again, a felony stop, the driver is placed on the ground and handcuffed. The 28 year old man was a graduate student at a university and it was his vehicle. If the person driving the vehicle had been a white woman, would the police have the police responded similarly?

When the Michael Brown shooting happened in Ferguson Missouri the attorney general submitted a report on the Justice Department’s investigation of the city of Ferguson. After reading the report the city became the poster child for bigotry and prejudice behavior by a judicial system. A quote from the report, "Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement both reflects and reinforces racial bias, including stereotyping. The harms of Ferguson’s police and court practices are borne disproportionately by African Americans, and there is evidence that this is due in part to intentional discrimination on the basis of race." Five years later the city of Ferguson elected its first black female mayor. And when the citizens of Ferguson marched in protest over the death of George Floyd, the police chief was marching with them.

The protesters in favor of re-opening on the country were criticized for gathering in large groups during a pandemic. The protesters over the death of George Floyd have also been criticized. Both groups say their constitutional freedoms are being denied, one for the right to free speech and the other for the right to equality. While the frustration with both groups is real, each has a different agenda.

Participating and/or witnessing demonstrations where groups of citizens complain about the government is an American tradition. We should embrace the right to complain, but even that right has limitations. Looting, setting fires and inciting one to riot, is criminal behavior and those actions detract from the legitimacy of any protest. You may not agree with one side or the other, but the constitutional right to protest does exist.

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." Martine Luther King, Jr.