Peaceful protest is a basic right and in a democratic state the police should not interfere with that right. However, protests do escalate and violence can occur. In the United States it is all too common for peaceful protests to be marred by violence—such as damage to businesses and looting. The police are sometimes the instigators of violence, attacking peaceful protestors and then blaming the victims.
When considering reports of damage and looting during protests it is reasonable to consider whether this is being done by protestors or opportunists using the protest as cover or excuse. It is also worth considering that the reports are not true, especially now under the Trump regime.
An actual protestor is someone whose primary motivation is moral —they are there to express a moral condemnation of something perceived as wrong. Not all people who go to protests are actual protestors—some are there for other reasons. Some people believe a protest can provide an excellent opportunity for them to engage in criminal activity—to commit violence, to damage property and to loot. Protests do attract such people and often these are often not from the area.
Of course, actual protestors can engage in violence and damage property. Perhaps they can even engage in looting (though that almost certainly crosses a moral line). Anger and rage are powerful things, especially righteous anger. A protestor who is motivated by her moral condemnation of a perceived wrong can give in to her anger and do damage to others or their property. When people damage the businesses in their own community, this sort of behavior seems irrational. After all, setting a local gas station on fire generally won’t be morally justified by the alleged injustice. However, anger tends to impede rationality. I, and I assume most people, have seen people angry enough to break their own property. One example of this is when MAGA folks buy merchandise just to destroy it as an act of protest, usually against a company pretending to care about some issue.
While I am not a psychologist, I suspect that people sometimes engage in such violence because they cannot reach the target of their anger. Alternatively, they might be damaging property to vent their rage in place of harming people. I have seen people do just that. For example, I once saw someone hit a metal door frame (and break his hand) rather than hit the person he was mad at. Anger does summon up a need to express itself and this can easily take the form of property damage.
When a protest becomes destructive (or those using it for cover start destroying things), the police can often be justified in intervening. While protests are intended to draw attention and try to do so by creating a disruption of the normal course of events, a state of protest does not grant protestors a carte blanche right to interfere with the rights of others. As such, the police have a legitimate right to prevent protestors from violating the rights of others and this can sometimes involve the use of force. That said, sometimes the police are the ones engaged in the violation of rights, such as the infamous cases involving ICE under the Trump regime.
That said, the role of rage needs to be considered. When property is destroyed during protests, some condemn the destruction and wonder why people are destroying their own neighborhoods. In some cases, as noted above, the people doing the damage might not be from the neighborhood and might be there to destroy neighborhood property rather than to protest. If such people can be identified, they should be dealt with as criminals. What is morally problematic is when people are driven to such destruction by moral rage, that is, they have been pushed to a point at which they believe they must use violence and destruction to express their moral condemnation.
When looked at from a cool and calm perspective of distance, such behavior can seem irrational and unwarranted. However, it is well worth it to think of something that has caused the fire of righteous anger to ignite your soul. Think of that and consider how you might respond if you believed that you have been systematically denied justice. Over. And over. Again.
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