This gives effrontery a bad name
The “Don\’t Shoot” coalition, which purports to represent something like 50 different protest groups which have operated in Ferguson, Missouri for the past three months, has issued a series demands relating to the upcoming decision on whether to charge police officer Darren Wilson with a crime for shooting and killing Michael Brown.
They call them their “Rules of Engagement”.
You can read them all by clicking here. But let me show you a sampling:
Rule 3: Police will give protesters 48 hour advance notice before grand jury is announced (Translation: We get special treatment – two days to set up whatever we feel like doing…and if you don\’t give it to us, whatever goes wrong is your fault).
Rule 7: Police will wear only the attire minimally required for their safety. Specialized riot gear will be avoided except as a last resort. (Translation: We want control over the police, and we want them as vulnerable as possible).
Rule 8: Crowd control equipment such as armored vehicles, rubber bullets, rifles and tear gas will not be used. (Translation: Read translation for Rule 7.)
Rule 11: Safe houses shall be considered sacred ground and only entered by police if called upon or if extremely necessary. (Translation: No matter what we do, if we can make it to a safe house no one can touch us. We are above the law.)
Rule 14: Strategically, police commanders will allow protests to take and occupy larger and more disruptive spaces than would normally be tolerated, and will allow occupation of those spaces for longer periods of time than would normally be tolerated. (Translation: We are in control. We\’ll do whatever the hell we want wherever the hell we want for as long as we want, and we demand that you don\’t do a thing about it. You\’re not in charge, we are.)
Rule 15: Police will be instructed to be tolerant of more minor law-breaking (such as thrown water bottles) when deciding whether to escalate the use of force. (Translation: We are above the law – and who cares if a cop gets hit with one of those bottles.)
Let me say this plainly: Any person in authority who agrees to these “Rules of Engagement” in any way, shape manner or form, should be fired, and charged with a felony.
These people are NOT in charge, even if they\’ve decided they should be.
If the investigation shows that Darren Wilson did not act improperly, and should not be charged – which it seems virtually certain will be the case (not that this bunch gives a damn about what the investigation uncovered) – that ends it right there.
If they want to protest, and do so legally, that\’s fine. If they protest illegally, however, they risk arrest and criminal prosecution – which the police should, of course, handle as diplomatically as possible.
Running through the streets and running off their mouths for three months – with no interest at all in justice, only in frying a cop whether or not he did a thing wrong – does not make them ubermenschen. They are not better than anyone else. They are not above the law.
End of story and end of blog.
