ARE THE PROTESTORS THE TRUE PATRIOTS?

Vince Warren, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, recently declared that, despite the demonization by some in Mainstream Media & police reps/supporters, the current anti-police demonstrators are, in reality, "Pro-Democracy Protestors." (DemocracyNow, 11/25/14)

However, for the validity of Mr. Warren's statement, & the elan vital driving these protestors, only one has to peruse that DOCUMENT created by the U.S.'s original "Pro-Democracy" Patriots:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes NECESSARY for one PEOPLE to DISSOLVE the POLITICAL BANDS which have connected them with another, & to assume among the POWERS of the EARTH, the separate & EQUAL STATION to which the LAWS OF NATURE & OF NATURE'S GOD entitles them....

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, that they are ENDOWED by their CREATOR with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are LIFE LIBERTY, & the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS....That WHENEVER any Form of GOVERNMENT becomes DESTRUCTIVE of these ends, it is the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to ALTER or to ABOLISH IT, & to institute NEW GOVERNMENT... as to them SHALL seem most likely to effect THEIR SAFETY & HAPPINESS.... when a LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES & usurpations, pursuing invariably the same OBJECT evinces a DESIGN to reduce them under ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM, IT IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY TO THROW OFF SUCH GOVERNMENT, & provide new GUARDS for their future SECURITY.

.... The HISTORY¹ of the present King [i.e., U.S. JUDICIAL SYSTEM (IT)] is a HISTORY of REPEATED INJURIES & usurpations, ALL having in DIRECT OBJECT the ESTABLISHMENT of an ABSOLUTE TYRANT over there [PEOPLE OF COLOR, & INSOLVENCY]. To prove this, LET FACTS BE SUBMITTED TO A CANDID WORLD.

[IT] has REFUSED [ITS] ASSENT TO LAWS, the most WHOLESOME & NECESSARY FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD....
[IT] has OBSTRUCTED the ADMINISTRATION OF [EQUAL] JUSTICE....
[IT] has made JUDGES dependent on [ITS] will alone,.... sent hither SWARMS OF OFFICERS TO HARASS [sic] OUR PEOPLE....
[IT] has combined with others... giving [ITS] ASSENT to Acts of PRETENDED LEGISLATION:
For Quartering large bodies of ARMED TROOPS AMONG US:
For PROTECTING THEM, by a MOCK TRIAL [i.e., GRAND JURIES], from PUNISHMENT FOR ANY MURDERS which they should COMMIT on the INHABITANTS of these STATES;
For DEPRIVING US in many cases, of the BENEFITS OF TRIAL BY JURY [e.g., ALL THE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS]...
For... ABOLISHING our MOST VALUABLE LAWS, & ALTERING FUNDAMENTALLY the forms of our Government [e.g., HABEAS CORPUS, via AEDPA²]

[IT] has excited domestic INSURRECTION AGAINST [i.e., the ZIMMERMAN'S of the country]....

In every stage of these OPPRESSIONS We have PETITIONED FOR REDRESS in the most HUMBLE TERMS: Our repeated petitions have been ANSWERED ONLY BY REPEATED INJURY. A Price whose CHARACTER is thus marked by EVERY ACT which may DEFINE a TYRANT, is UNFIT to be the RULER of a FREE PEOPLE.

.... We have APPEALED to their NATIVE JUSTICE & MAGNANIMITY,.... They too have been DEAF to the VOICE OF JUSTICE & of CONSANGUINITY.³ We MUST, therefore, acquiesce in the NECESSITY, which denounces our SEPARATION, & hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in PEACE Friends. (Declaration of Independence, July 1776)

In order to fully appreciate the SPIRITUAL-BOND between this illustrious document (that has inspired many Freedom Fighters/Revolutionaries since⁴), & the current "Pro-Democracy" Demonstrators, we must go back in HISTORY, to 1770, & examine one of the major events that compelled the necessity to create this Declaration: The Boston Massacre.

Tired of being subjected to authoritarianism, a multiracial crowd took to the streets, taunting the MILITARIST AUTHORITIES of their day, the British soldiers. This primitive version of our modern-day police, subsequently, fired upon, & killed dome of the protestors. The FIRST PERSON KILLED WAS A BLACK MAN, CRISPUS ATTUCKS!!! The paralells doesn't end there, the perpetrators, then, as in the present, were also ACQUITTED OF MURDER!!! Knowing this shines an acute light on the following passage in the Declaration:

... [having] large bodies of ARMED TROOPS among us. For PROTECTING THEM, by a MOCK TRIAL, FROM PUNISHMENT FOR ANY MURDERS which they SHOULD COMMIT....

The unjust killings of the populace, which included Blacks (see, Crispus Attucks), drove the Founders in the creation of this Masterpiece, just as today, similar circumstances are galvanizing marchers against the killings of UNARMED people of color.

By following in the spirit of the Founding Fathers, the demonstrators are likewise, carrying out the mandate set by their President, to "continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more JUST, more EQUAL, more FREE, more CARING & more prosperous AMERICA." (Obama, 2008, [Sharpley-Whiting, 2009, p.238])

It is also noteworthy that 2 of the signatories of the Declaration went on to become presidents: Thomas Jefferson & John Adams. Especially, the latter, for Adams was the defense attorney whom won the acquittals for the British soldiers. Perhaps, he was, intermittently, trying to right this horrible injustice?

With that said, it is only fitting to end with the ominous warning Adam's wife, Abigail, gave him in March 1776, BEFORE the completion of the declaration:

... in the new code of laws... be more GENEROUS... than your ancestors. DO NOT put such UNLIMITED POWER in the hands of husbands. REMEMBER, ALL MEN WOULD BE TYRANTS IF THEY COULD. If particular CARE & ATTENTION ARE NOT PAID to the ladies, WE are DETERMINED to FOMENT a REBELLION, & WILL NOT HOLD OURSELVES BOUND TO OBEY LAWS IN WHICH WE HAVE NO VOICE OF REPRESENTATION. (Zinn, 2005, p.110)

As Ms. Adams astutely noted, "Tyranny is Tyranny let it come from whom it may." (Zinn, p.75) Therefore, it does not matter whether the culprits are British troops, or Storm troopers wearing American patches, if their "CHARACTER[S] [are] thus marked by EVERY ACT which may DEFINE a TYRANT, [they are] UNFIT to" POLICE OUR NEIGHBORHOODS!

So, which side are you on? The REAL patriots, or the tyrants'?!!

Lastly, some Food For Thought for those who, no matter their race, or station, are still apathetic towards this issue:

First, they came for the Socialists, & I DID NOT SPEAK OUT-
Because I WAS NOT a Socialist
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, & I DID NOT speak out-
Because I WAS NOT a Jew.
Then they came for me-& THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK FOR ME. (Nazi-resister, Martin Niemoeller)

INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE!!!
(Martin Luther King Jr.)

NOTES

1. If we let HISTORY speak for us, its lucidity will inflame the most timid of souls, & bring to ruin the most depraved.
2. For more on AEDPA (Antiterrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act), see preceding posts, Knowledge is King (p.3); & A Tale of Two Injustices (pp.4-6)
3. Today, with our knowledge that we all have blood-ties to Africa, our common ancestry was truer than they even realized! :)
4. E.g. the Declaration of Principles, adopted at the 1st Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY; Vietnamese Proclamation of Independence; Venezuelan Declaration of Independence; Liberian Declaration of Independence et. al. Also, Dr. King's, "I Have A Dream" speech: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." (1963)

SOURCES

Declaration of Independence. (1776). Retrieved, 5/3/10, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Declaration_of_Independence&pri...
DemocracyNow.org
Harding Vincent & Ikeda, Daisaku. (2013). America Will Be! Conversations On Hope, Freedom, & Democracy (Cambridge MA Dialogue Press)
H K W
Sharpley Whiting T. Denean, ed. (2009). The Speech: Race & Barack Obama's A A More Perfect Union (New York Bloomsbury USA)
Zinn Howard (2005). A People's History of the United States. (New York: HarperCollins)