Peaceful Protest Is Patriotic
A Special Martin Luther King Jr. Day Post
Today we honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement for their courage and success in making our country a more just place. King and his movement challenged us to abide by the principles set forth in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.
In addition to peaceful protests, King and his movement committed acts of civil disobedience, in which they broke unjust laws and suffered arrest and imprisonment to demonstrate the laws’ cruelty and illegitimacy. They freed Black Americans from the brutality and injustice of Jim Crow and saved white Americans from the moral injury of living in a country that oppressed so many people.
The current situation in Minnesota is different from the South during the Civil Rights era, of course; it’s obviously nowhere near as bad as the suffering that Black Americans endured under Jim Crow. Until ICE descended on the state, people in the Twin Cities had not been living under oppressive conditions, nor are they required to obey unjust laws. ICE agents haven’t turned attack dogs or high-pressure hoses on peaceful protesters in the Twin Cities (or they haven’t yet, she said darkly).
But the situation in Minnesota is plenty bad nonetheless.
As I wrote a few days ago, ICE is persecuting ordinary citizens because they are exercising their Constitutional right to free speech. They are violating citizens’ security in their persons, cars, and homes. Sometimes citizens are attacked not for protesting but simply because they are out in public in areas where ICE is operating. ICE agents are damaging, destroying, and confiscating people’s property (including an innocent US citizen’s wedding ring). They are roughing people up and holding them without charge.
They are using tear gas and stun grenades indiscriminately and have injured bystanders, including small children.
They trained assault weapons on two innocent senior citizens in a church parking lot.1
It’s important to separate the issue of our Constitutional right to free speech and peaceful protest on the one hand from that of immigration on the other. Many Americans are opposed to immigration and believe that illegal immigrants should be deported. But my topic today is ICE’s abuse of Minnesotans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights, not immigration.
A helpful analogy that might clarify for Republicans that Minnesotans have the right to peacefully protest ICE is anti-abortion protests. The Supreme Court has ruled that people have the right to peacefully protest outside abortion clinics, so long as they observe a buffer zone so they don’t interfere with and/or hurt patients. I am pro-choice, but I recognize that the Court ruled correctly in accordance with the First Amendment.
So imagine there is a peaceful anti-abortion protest, and suddenly masked government agents, who have been hired en masse with dubious qualifications and who have been granted absolute immunity (and impunity) by a Democratic president, come down like a wolf on the fold. Imagine these agents roughing up the protestors; grinding their faces into the pavement; destroying their property; gassing them; and detaining them incommunicado, indefinitely, and without charge—and also committing the same acts against random people who just happen to be on the street. How would you feel about that? Now do you see my point?
Yesterday I was messaging with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Candy, about how we can make our voices heard. Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly have introduced a bicameral bill to Increase ICE Accountability and Keep Communities Safe. This bill would
set clear use-of-force standards, increase transparency, and strengthen accountability for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations—protecting communities while ensuring officers can safely address public safety and national security concerns.
The Stop Excessive Force in Immigration Act ensures ICE enforcement aligns with current Department of Justice (DOJ) use-of-force standards by emphasizing de-escalation and limiting deadly force, and establishes an affirmative duty to render medical aid. The bill would also encourage allowing state or local investigations into excessive force incidents.
If you believe that ICE agents ought to be bound by the same principles regarding public safety that bind other law-enforcement officers, and that the First and Fourth Amendments confer the right of peaceful protest and the freedom from warrantless search and seizure on all of us, then please call your elected representatives. You can find your representative and senators here. Candy often makes these calls and has kindly allowed me to share her helpful instructions, as well as some inspiration:
Especially if your congresspeople are GOP, please actually call their offices and ask them to vote in favor of this bill. We need enough votes for a veto-proof majority. Many sources suggest that calling is more effective than mass emails with cut-and-pasted scripts.
All you need to do is jot down and practice a few talking points in your own words that you can voice in one or two minutes. You might want to mention that a clear majority of Americans are against what they see going on in the Twin Cities. Be sure to name the bill specifically.
Once you call in, you will either get a voice mail, or they will put you on hold to talk with staff. These staff are there to talk to citizens: It’s their job. In my brief experience doing this, they do a good job. They ask you to identify yourself and say where you live to be sure you’re actually living in their area.
This is an important part of being an active citizen. If you do not want to experience more of what we’ve been experiencing in the Twin Cities, then you’ll feel good that you took this empowering step. It’s never been more important in our lifetime that we know all of our rights, and it’s never been more important that we act to protect these inalienable rights.
Thank you, Candy!
I can think of no finer action on Martin Luther King Jr. Day than for all of us to raise our voices in support of our country and our Constitution.
How about you, readers? What will you do today to honor Dr. King? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
The Tidbit
Whitney Houston’s performance of our National Anthem is often called the greatest ever. But I believe that any time an American sings our anthem with pride and joy, that is the greatest performance too. The anthem begins at 1:10 in this video. Let’s sing along!
Here is a gift link to the New York Times article that details and documents these and other abuses.
Thank you Mari (and Candy) for the call to action.
I'm glad to see some in Congress begin to take notice of what's been going on.
Perhaps we can rouse the slugabeds into motion.
Thank you, Mari!
What if the law passes, and the federal government and ICE ignore it? That seems to be part of their playbook.
Honestly, I believe that until members of the so-called GOP in power decide to oppose trump, his administration will be given carte blanche to proceed however Stephen Miller et al desire.