Perspective: Paul Revere, the NAACP and the First Amendment

When I learned last week that the NAACP was organizing a march to Jefferson City, my first thought was that the organizers must have missed out on those ubiquitous MoDOT highway maps. The route's about 120 miles, it's cold, and there aren't many places to stay along the way. I wondered how many people could make it because I'm in good health and am not sure that I could.

My next thought was that I would not attend the concluding rally. This was for several reasons. Most prominent in my mind was that I disagree with most of the NAACP marchers on what justice in Ferguson means.

In August, I noted there were far more questions than answers and that we should not jump to one side or the other. Instead, justice requires a blind eye to both the status of the accused and the potential consequences of choosing not to bring an indictment. A badge is not an unmitigated license for violence, and officers who abuse their powers must be subject to the same laws as everyone else.

I asked at that time whether there was any history of racial animus or abusive behavior by the officer involved. It turns out there wasn't. I asked how many witnesses there were and whether any disputed initial reports that Michael Brown had been shot in the back. It turns out there were several witnesses other than Dorian Johnson, and neither the physical evidence nor those other witnesses agreed with those initial reports.

I still do not know what happened that fateful Saturday morning. I was not there. But now I do know that most of the eyewitness testimony tended to corroborate Officer Wilson's version of events more than Dorian Johnson's. While a grand jury has a lesser standard, the ultimate burden for conviction in a criminal case is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Jurors already tend to give police officers the benefit of the doubt. That's for a good reason. Police officers keep society safe. The majority of police officers are great people who do not abuse their power.

In this case, Dorian Johnson's testimony would have been on one side and Officer Wilson and several eyewitnesses would have been on the other. Where the weight of the eyewitness testimony lines up on the officer's side and the star witness on the other side has a history of lying to police and has even slightly changed his story, the officer is going to win in court.

Prosecutors should not bring charges because of political pressure, public spectacle, or general calls for justice unconnected to the physical evidence and testimony. I believe it was the right decision that Officer Wilson not be tried for a crime.

The second reason for my initial decision not to attend is that, while I agree on many points of policy, including prosecutor recusals, municipal court reforms, recruiting minority police officers, revising Missouri's unconstitutional police use of force statute, and defending Missouri's strong laws against discrimination, I disagree with the NAACP on many of the causes and cures for continuing inequality in America.

That said, I still empathize with the heartbreak, anger, and hopelessness felt by black Americans after the grand jury's decision. In one of the great lines from To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch explains, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Black Americans watching the grand jury decision may justifiably wonder when the last time someone with their skin color was given the benefit of the doubt by a prosecutor. They are angered with the knowledge that, even with recent fixes, federal and state laws still penalize possession and distribution of crack much harsher than cocaine or even meth. Same crime. Different time. The drug used in black communities gets the heavier sentence. They are likewise angered by disproportionate use of the death penalty in black on white crimes in comparison to black on black or white crimes.

I didn't think about attending again until Thursday night when I decided to go because of three events that happened this week.

On Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Keith English suggested in a Facebook post that marchers should march right through Jefferson City until they reached Mexico - the country. I guess Rep. English has missed a few history classes in his day. What's more American than exercising the right to petition government for a redress of grievances - particularly grievances about alleged abuse of governmental power? And I hate to be the one to have to break this to him in a public forum, but NAACP marchers weren't the problem in Ferguson. Rioters and looters don't march 120 miles on hilly, rural roads when its 35 degrees outside.

On Thursday morning, the Columbia Missourian reported counter-protestors in Rosebud greeted marchers with fried chicken, a melon, and a 40 ounce bottle of beer. Then they shouted for marchers to go home, displayed a Confederate flag, and yelled racial epithets as the group passed through town. If they wanted to prove the marchers' larger point about the continued existence of racism in America, I'm not sure what else the counter-protestors could have done short of violence.

Third, on Wednesday, a grand jury in New York chose not to indict an officer in the stranglehold death of the late Eric Garner. Unlike Ferguson, Garner's deadly encounter with police was videotaped. Garner was unarmed. He resisted arrest by telling an officer "don't touch me" and by moving his hands when the officer tried to cuff him. He was then immediately placed in a chokehold and taken to the ground as he was swarmed by five police officers. When he's down on the ground and surrounded, a few of the officers say, "Alright, he's down, he's down." Then Garner starts gasping, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe." And still, the officer maintains his chokehold as the four other officers lay on top of him, one on his head. As Garner dies on the sidewalk, no one attempts to administer CPR. Watch the video for yourself.

Garner's crime? He allegedly sold a loose cigarette without a permit or paying a tax. Seriously, can you think of a more petty crime? What would Sam Adams or Paul Revere have had to say if a British soldier strangled an American colonist who refused to pay a tax on his tea? What would the reaction have been if federal officers in Nevada had raided Clive Bundy's ranch and killed him in the process?

After these three events this week, I decided to attend the culminating rally. Not because I agree with everything or even most of what I believed would be said. Nor was it in a quest for racial "tolerance" - a word that is demeaning to both the one doing the tolerating and those allegedly being tolerated. Instead, it was to show respect for fellow Americans who marched 120 miles in the dead of winter to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and to petition government for a peaceful redress of grievances.

State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 60th District.