Protests continued in St. Louis suburbs throughout the weekend. Activists and Black Lives Matter groups say the acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting of a black man proves the system is racist, and they see the need to change the system and save black lives. Unfortunately, their methods and arguments speak more to an inchoate rage. This drowns out thoughtful measures that might actually lead to progress.
The protest against the justice system itself is misguided. The increasingly violent mobs in the street are demanding the justice that they want. But with a sense of history, black people should realize that the justice system is what saves everybody, including them, from mob rule. A justice system that can be overturned by a mob to prosecute a supposedly racist cop can also be used as judge, jury, and executioner of blacks.
The judicial system is filled with all sorts of things that seem unfair and unjust, but all the others have been tried. From the summary execution by the Persian emperor Xerxes to Hanging Tree Road by my former house in Texas, Americans know about lesser forms of justice that abuse minorities and should want a system that has rights in place for everybody.
On top of that, protestors increasingly believe in making their actions as pugnacious as possible. Kayla Reed of the St. Louis Action Council said, “I don’t think racism is going to change in America until people get uncomfortable.” This has led to them shutting down highways, invading coffee shops, and shutting down traffic in suburbs.
I don’t know anybody who looks at a noisy mob and concludes they are correct. People’s minds are changed after careful study and diligent persuasion. (In the age of angry Facebook rants, that’s not very popular, but it’s the right way to do it.) I’m only convinced that these people are deranged when I see them screaming at students trying to study in the library.
Above all, these protests arise from an unverifiable worldview that promotes victimhood. With a black president, secretary of state, Supreme Court justice, and so much more, it’s a basic fact that the world is a less racist place then when Patton’s Panthers fought with distinction during World War II. There are a variety of problems in black America, but it’s not due to an increase in discrimination, cosmic injustice, or deliberate targeting by whites.
In fact, it’s more due to a breakdown of the family (predicted by the Moynihan report over 40 years ago) and government policies that subsidize counterproductive behavior and even reward violent behavior with grants to groups to stop violence.
Regardless of the anger of people such as Black Lives Matter and protestors in St. Louis, the facts remain the same. The justice system is vital in protecting the rights of the accused. Without it, we are left with the same kind of vigilante violence that was used against blacks for so long.
The goals of protestors are counterproductive and often convince people to ignore them, and they are based in a victim narrative that doesn’t hold up, especially when past generations of blacks accomplished so much more.
