Destruction swings at the system, but the punch lands on peaceful protests

• A debate roils between supporters of the protests against racism and police brutality about whether or not vandalism and looting are morally defensible or strategically advisable.
• Almost three-quarters of Americans (73%) support the peaceful protests, while 79% feel that "property damage ultimately undermines the cause of the demonstrators."
• Some protests were marred by incidents of destruction in the wake of peaceful marches, but those have pretty much ceased. Still, conservatives are touting "riot porn" — re-using old images of looting over and over, which makes it appear to their audiences that the protests are unpeaceful.
• Supporters of the marches — including Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. John Lewis, and Killer Mike — have called for non-violent civil disobedience, in part because riots leave far more lasting damage to communities than just broken windows.
• The pain, anger, and desperation of the protesters is justifiable — but backlash always awaits the peaceful protesters the next day.
• This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

The massive peaceful protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin are righteous and necessary.

There is, however, debate as to whether some of the property destruction perpetrated in the wake of the protests ultimately hurts the cause.

There are intellectual defenses of looting and vandalism as a cry of desperation from the unheard. These posit that if peaceful protests haven't affected change, nor been received warmly by a majority of Americans (just ask Colin Kaepernick), why not just burn it all down?

A quote from Martin Luther King calling riots "the language of the unheard" has been cited repeatedly over the past two weeks to make this very case.

It came from a speech he gave in 1968, where he condemned "the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society … that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention."

But as King goes on to note in the same speech, this expression of frustration can ultimately harm progress towards the goals of those movements.

He condemned rioting and unequivocally reiterated his moral and strategic adherence to non-violent civil disobedience.

"I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non­-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt," King said.

And even in this latest push for equality it's clear how opponents of the cause can distort the property destruction to reject the underlying message of the protests.

As CNN's Brian Stelter noted, images from the few days when looting took place last week are now relentlessly circulated as "riot porn" by Fox News. Some viewers will inevitably interpret these events as ongoing. It's not right, it's not fair, it's not honest, but it will do its job, which is to fire up the "law and order" anger of its audience.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found that nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) support the current peaceful protests, while 79% feel that "property damage ultimately undermines the cause of the demonstrators."

And the violence perpetrated by police against peaceful protesters in cities across the country can be reasonably described as a riot of its own.

We're in the midst of the most meaningful civil rights uprising of our time. There's still an intellectual space that acknowledges people's rage and desperation are completely justified. But at the same time we must hold the idea that using peaceful protests as a cover for theft and destruction is actually violence perpetrated against the movement itself.

The anger is justified, and an uprising was a long time coming

We are in the infancy of what will likely be a paradigm-shifting time in our history.

We've been locked-down for almost three months. We are teetering on an economic depression.We have a president who is an unhinged liar, an incompetent executive, and a thin-skinned bully.

The sadistic killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis has ignited an anxious nation.

Spontaneous demonstrations continue to be held at all hours of the day all over the country. The anger is justifiable. The cause is just.

The looting on the peripheries of the demonstrations that occurred in the first few days of these demonstrations now threatens to drown out the message for those who need to hear it most — even though it has almost entirely ceased.

This early expression of outrage is now the greatest tool for opponents of the underlying mission of these protests to ignore the underlying cause and simply demand for so-called "law and order." Already we're seeing politicians and pundits opposed to the movement use this as justification for an even-greater militarization of police, even less tolerance for peaceful protests, and the end of prison sentencing reform.

To be sure, there are instances of violent protests leading to advancements in civil rights, such as the Stonewall uprising of 1969, where LGBTQ people violently resisted abusive police and demonstrated for days, sometimes causing property damage.

They broke windows, but they didn't steal merchandise. That discipline matters, because it showed their detractors that there isn't a price tag on their integrity and devotion to the cause.

It's harder to find an example of random destruction and theft affecting change that improves the lives of minorities and marginalized communities.

Some defenders of destructive action have noted that certain reforms have been instituted in their aftermath. There's no doubt that's possible, even if it's difficult to quantify how much violence was a factor.

What the smashing and theft of property typically does is spur a terrible backlash and destroys the livelihoods of small business owners in such communities, which in turn hurts the communities themselves.

And contrary to the belief of some, many lack sufficient insurance to sustain their businesses in the aftermath. For those business owners able to make it another day, they are left with a ravaged neighborhood likely to enjoy little future investment for some time. The violence they endure lasts a lot longer than the time it takes to replace a window.

That's how moments of desperation — which turn to moments of rage, then moments of opportunism — leave permanent damage on the people in whose name the violence is committed.

"Marchers would advance, fringe groups would hang back, and then the shattering glass would begin"

I walked alongside thousands of people in New York City on June 1. The crowd was diverse, mostly young, masked, loud, sad, angry, and completely peaceful.

We were all breaking the law by marching in the streets of Manhattan during what was once known as "rush hour," but which now finds a metropolis eerily still.

As the protesters walked west, cars that were traveling east honked in support and New Yorkers both young and old waved and clapped from their apartment windows.

At one point on Houston Street, the marchers up front spontaneously knelt. Like dominoes, the rest of the march knelt as well, then without a word fell silent.

These were undeniably powerful messages. Marchers showed a focus on the message, discipline in the execution, and a willingness to remain pacifistic even in the face of grave injustice.

Later I followed another peaceful demonstration in another part of the city as the sun started to set. As it wound its way downtown, the police went with the demonstrators, removing their barricades and vehicles from the area.

Almost on cue, glass shattered.

The first broken window I saw was a vape and smoke shop.

Then a designer clothes store's boarded up door was breached and its wares stolen.

Around the corner, a group of about 20 people ripped at the plywood covering Nordstrom's storefront, while another whipped a metal pipe at the Duane Reade window. None of them chanted George Floyd's name, or Black Lives Matter, or I Can't Breathe.

The New York Times reported this same dynamic happening a day earlier: "The scene repeated itself as protesters moved through Lower Manhattan. After the main marchers would advance, fringe groups would hang back, and then the shattering glass would begin."

Critics of the protests have said it's the responsibility of the peaceful protesters to stop the looting. But that's unfair to the peaceful protesters, because the looters weren't truly a part of the march.

They waited for the march to pass, with the police in tow, then they took advantage of the vacuum.

And the backlash always awaits the peaceful protesters the next day.

But that doesn't mean peaceful protesters, civic leaders, and veterans of revolutionary marches haven't tried to bullhorn the idea that this sort of destruction is not the answer.

Voices of non-violent disobedience

Many of the voices of non-violence are not wishy-washy advocates of the status quo. They're highly political, radical even. And they know how a relatively small amount of property destruction can be twisted to undermine a righteous cause.

Run The Jewels' Killer Mike spoke with heartbreaking emotion at the mayor of Atlanta's press conference Sunday He said that after watching the video of Floyd's death he understood "why children are burning it to the ground. They don't know what else to do."

But Mike implored demonstrators to feel a responsibility for their neighbors and to take meaningful action rather than burn their communities:

"I am duty-bound to be here to simply say: That it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize."

No less an authority on the success of nonviolent resistance than Rep. John Lewis — a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. and who maintained his pacifism even through unspeakable police brutality and legalized racism — pleaded with the younger generation.

Lewis released a statement reading in part: "To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve."

Rep. Ilhan Omar — who represents Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd's killing — is not known for taking timid political stances.

Of the people destroying property as an act of protest, Omar said: "Those are not our people. Those are not the people who are grieving in the ways that we are grieving. Those are not the people who are interested in helping to get justice for George Floyd. Those are not the people who are interested in making sure our communities continue to thrive."

She specifically called out looters who damaged property on a street which she had fought politically to secure government backing for minority-owned business development to take place.

Omar continued: "If you care about Black lives, you can not set a fire in Minneapolis risking Black lives. I don't know how more clear we can say that. We can be angry, we can ask for justice, we can protest, we can take it to the streets, we can blow up the phones of the people that represent you. But what we can not do is start a fire that can take lives."

All over the country, peaceful demonstrators put themselves in the path of destruction to prevent theft and vandalism.

It's not because they have an emotional connection to a Walgreens or a Target store, but because they share the conviction that the movement will be judged by the worst behavior attributed to them, and that violence almost always fails.

A better way

A viral video from over the weekend demonstrated, with heartbreaking clarity, the struggle to balance anger and constructively.

A 31-year-old Black man in Charlotte, NC, pleads with a 46-year-old and a 16-year-old to "come up with a better way" than destruction.

After absorbing (and sharing) the older man's anger, the 31-year-old grabs the arms of the younger man, looks him in the eye, and through screaming tears says, "What you see right now is going to happen ten years from now. At 26, you're going to be doing the same thing I'm doing...What I need you to do at 16 is come up with a better way, because how we're doing it, it ain't working...Putting yourself in harm's way is not the way."

In another instance, a Minneapolis protester spoke into a CNN camera, calling out destructive "opportunists."

"If you cannot stand up and fight the good fight, and you want to be a cheater and go ahead and take what we're trying to do, something is wrong with you...We're trying to stand up for the basic rights of humanity. And we're trying to do it in a peaceful way."