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Six reasons why patriotic Americans stand with Ferguson

Since before the time of our founding, Americans have accepted dissent against government as legitimate. As one example, the Boston Massacre of March 1770 set the stage for revolution when a bunch of hooligans verbally and physically aggressed against armed government sentries and were fired upon against orders.  

Not only were the actions of those street thugs acceptable the night of the Boston Massacre, it is quintessentially American to challenge the government and refuse to bend to its will. It is quintessentially American to verbally and physically challenge armed government agents. Firing on civilians who mean no harm to other civilians is by the same token quintessentially un-American and should be patently unwelcome in a free country.  

{mosads}Those sentries on the night of the Boston Massacre are looked back on as mere “redcoats” sent from a foreign land, but those sentries and their officers had friends and family in the colonies and perhaps decades and generations of established connections much like any police officer would today. It was certainly not as black and white then as we tend to look back on it today. Redcoats were the brother, father, or son of a neighbor, colleague, or friend, much like the police officers of today are. Both the sentries the night of the Boston Massacre and the police officers of today also share the characteristics of being the face of government. As such, they voluntarily put themselves at risk whenever a free people are feeling rebellious and disobedient of authority. 

1. So many founding documents demonstrate that government is the prime enemy of a free people. Virtually any reading of the Constitution, and specifically the Bill of Rights, demonstrates that this includes, very specifically, the various police powers exercised by government and the various agents authorized by government to carry out those police powers. It’s almost adversarially so, so much that every police officer at some point finds his work undermined by the highest law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.  

2. Our founding documents are written to encourage a weak government – right down to the very controversial 2nd Amendment. On the right, the 2nd Amendment is referenced as a just tool to prevent tyranny. Support of the 2nd Amendment is ultimately a statement in support of the people over the government, and with the police officers as the front line of government’s show of force, it places the police notably in opposition to anyone who sees the 2nd Amendment as protection from government and not just for home-defense or hunting.  

3. The police are constantly walking a line: helping to maintain order as valuable members of a community, yet also government agents imposing authority as an enemy of a free people. Many clever police officers understand that dichotomy. It is not an offensive personal affront to push back against the police.  

4. What is believed to have been done by Michael Brown in Ferguson (jaywalking, physical intimidation, and accosting an officer) is relatively tame compared to a seminal American event like the Boston Massacre, where an aggressive mob was present. The less egregious government sentry behavior at the Boston Massacre became a casus belli and those slain that night still have their names taught to school children to this day.  

5. The most patriotic among us should be aware of those core American values in the founding documents and behave accordingly. If you fly a flag in your yard, if you choke up during the singing of the national anthem, if you salute when “Taps” is played you should be among the first to stand up for the rights of the people to threaten government agents on a square in Boston 1770 and on a quiet street in Ferguson 2014, even if that threat only comes from a single unsavory individual such as Michael Brown.  

6. Unless a person means harm to another civilian, no officer in a free country has any business doing physical harm to that person, let alone drawing a gun on that person. No matter how threatened an officer personally feels, the right answer is almost always for the officer to just walk away. Seldom does an officer need to fire on a civilian in self-defense. An officer’s training and the law may say that is acceptable, in order to preserve control of a situation and a veneer of authority, but it is not the approach that must be taken to protect an officer. The most effective way to de-escalate a tense and potentially threatening situation is to simply walk away, unless the officer feels very threatened in which case the officer should then run away. I know that idea of an officer fleeing to protect civilian life is in conflict with our almost comical over-the-top Dirty Harry/Jack Bauer/McBain view of powerful male law enforcement taking the law into his own hands and saving the day. In a free country it is much more just to simply walk away and have a police officer look weak than for an unarmed citizen to die on American streets.  

More than anyone, the patriot, the TeaPartier, the conservative should be aware of that. They should not be the ones ridiculing Ferguson protestors. They should be the ones standing with Ferguson protestors. It’s hard sometimes to stand up for the principles contained in the U.S. Constitution. However, standing up for Michael Brown is precisely how an American patriot would act in the later half of 2014.  

Stevo is an American conservative writer who attended the first Tea Party protest of the contemporary Tea Party movement. It was held at the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on the morning of December 16, 2007.

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