No room for lawlessness

The Michael Brown Coalition, apparently a self-appointed spokes-group for protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, has issued a list of 19 demands on law enforcement to follow once the grand jury decision is announced.

Yes, you read that right.

The group wants law enforcement to agree to a laundry list including -- but not limited to -- ignoring "minor" lawbreaking, abandoning police riot gear and giving the future looters advanced notice of the grand jury announcement.

In a normal society, this list would be fodder for late night comedians and water cooler laughs.

But normal no longer exists.

I strongly suspect law enforcement will reject these outlandish demands outright. But they most certainly should not stop there.

Police should issue their own list of "demands" starting with, "If you break the law, you will be punished;" "If you bring harm to property, you will be punished;" and most of all, "If you harm a member of law enforcement, the gates of hell will open wide and you will be ushered in."

If any civil society allows lawlessness to occur without a response, it is no longer a civil society.

Like so many of you, I feel only sadness for the residents of Ferguson and even St. Louis in general. If the upcoming protests are anything like the initial unrest, most of those involved in the lawlessness are not from Ferguson. Many are outside agitators for a wide variety of liberal issues who are using Ferguson as an excuse to create havoc.

We can only hope and pray that any protests that follow the grand jury announcement are peaceful. There is no opposition to allowing protesters to vent their frustration or display their support for the outcome.

But since the initial unrest, a number of videos have surfaced that clearly illustrate that many protestors are anti-law enforcement. Their ire and aggression is directed at authorities with a level of anger that does not bode well once the grand jury decision is released.

Of course, all of the Ferguson discussion is based on the assumption that the grand jury will find insufficient evidence to convict officer Darrin Wilson for the shooting death.

Law enforcement believes there will be massive demonstrations regardless of the outcome either in celebration or anger.

The legacy of Michael Brown depends on your perspective based almost solely on race. Brown was either the latest victim of racism by white law enforcement or just another street thug with no regard for the laws of this land.

The truth may well fall in between.

The long-held narrative by some that Brown was a gentle giant who was minding his business until profiled by a white law enforcement officer should by now have long vanished. He was neither gentle nor minding his own business.

And if reports are to be believed, the hands up narrative has also vanished into thin air.

Unlike protesters, juries remove emotion and operate on facts. And by what accounts are available, the facts don't support the storyline adopted by the protesters.

The potential unrest in Ferguson is no longer about Michael Brown. There's a larger agenda at work promoted by a group of professional race baiters.

You know the usual suspects.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.