Week 4 Post

Rioting Through The Six Freedoms

 

The question posed for this blog post is to look at the Black Lives Matter protests through the lens of our 6 freedoms, which are freedom from religion, of religion, speech, press, (peaceably) assemble, and petition. For the matter of context, I will be using the news source cited here. 

As one can see, on September 5th, over $100,000 in property damage was done to private property in lower Manhattan. Larry Celona points out how protesters were lighting trash cans on fire, using burglary tools to break into shop fronts and loot the store, as well as spray graffiti on shop fronts. Causing any form of destruction to anyone, whether it is a private individual or the government, is NOT protected by the first amendment. Hurting a person/property is in no way, shape, or form a type of artistic expression, free in a religious context, and obviously not peaceably assembling if there is chaos and destruction. Similarly, there is a small section in the article that talks about how a counter-protester rammed their car into the crowd of BLM protesters in Times Square. This action is also not protected under the first amendment, or at all, since it is violent and criminal vehicular assault. Both parties need to be held accountable for the actions they are taking, and incriminated accordingly. Violence is solely an action, and that is the end of that.

If both parties wanted to protest, and counter protest, here is how they could go about it so it would be protected under the first amendment. First, stop the looting and destruction of property (if that already was not a given). Second, continue to gather in only public places to voice their opinions, coupled with marching down sidewalks as it is public space and they are free to do so. If the protesters trespass on private property, then the owner has all of the right to kick them out or silence them since it is the owner's property. Third, do not block access to any government building. Since they are using a public forum, they are required to follow traditional public forum rules set by the government. Lastly, get permission/certification to have a march parade that will block streets, use sound devices, or a large amount of people. If both sides of protesters followed these rules, then their actions would be protected under the first amendment.