We’ve witnessed the brutal crackdown on hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters across the country. Now think of DeRay Mckesson. DeRay’s name doesn’t bring warm and fuzzy feelings to the local protest community. That’s because many of the genuine participants in the Ferguson Uprising see McKesson and others like him as opportunists. But I think it’s a good time to connect two issues in one swoop.
The legislation is intended to undermine First Amendment rights, to stifle dissent, to criminalize protests and to unleash sanctions against citizens lawfully engaged in protests. Missouri’s HB 2218 is one such proposed legislation that must be stopped.
Mckesson was at the center of a legal battle that recently went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court’s door. A door that remained shut because the high court refused to hear McKesson v. Doe, allowing the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling to prevail. While the devastating decision did not eliminate the right to protest in the three states under the circuit’s jurisdiction, it added to the chilling effect orchestrated by the right-wing movement to criminalize all protests.
The case stems from a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mckesson parachuted into Baton Rouge to protest the 2016 shooting of Alton Sterling by police. He and others were arrested when they attempted to shut down a highway. He filmed his own arrest for promotion on social media. Many observers were dismissive and ignored the implications of the situation.
Then something happened, something that dramatically changed the way protests will be viewed in the future. At the Sterling demonstration organized by Mckesson, someone threw a bottle at a cop who suffered non-life-threatening injuries. John Doe is the cop in the lawsuit against Mckesson believing him to have engaged in “negligent protest” as the event organizer. The suit resulted in a volley of legal maneuvers over the last eight years.
No matter how one feels about DeRay Mckesson, this is no longer about him. I doubt if he planned an assault on a cop. I do believe it was inevitable that such a lawsuit would be contrived to justify conservatives’ agenda to suppress the righteous non-violent demonstrations of resistance.
Like most organizers operating under the right to assembly and free speech, the supporters of Palestine liberation plan non-violent protests. There are some protestors whose actions cause property damage and result in injuries. Scenarios like this happen. You cannot control disruptors or agents of law enforcement who have their own motives.
McKesson v. Doe asserts that organizers of protests are responsible for all actions, including injuries and destruction of private and public property. The case has added fuel to the wave of anti-protest legislation introduced by conservative lawmakers after the infamous George Floyd police murder in 2020.
The legislation is intended to undermine First Amendment rights, to stifle dissent, to criminalize protests and to unleash sanctions against citizens lawfully engaged in protests. Missouri’s HB 2218 is one such proposed legislation that must be stopped.
Let us get over how we feel about the DeRays of the world and focus on intensifying an organized resistance to the erosion of our constitutional rights. Our real enemy is the threat of creeping authoritarianism that is infecting our fragile democracy. Under authoritarianism, personal freedoms are the first to be sacrificed and organized opposition is crushed to the ground.
