"What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? ...No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders ... an uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people ... Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily-whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence-whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded." - Robert Kennedy
© Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty
Let's be clear about one thing:
no one-not the armed, violent, militant protesters nor the police-gave peace a chance during the August 12 demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va.
What should have been an exercise in free speech quickly became a brawl.
It's not about who threw the first punch or the first smoke bomb.
It's not about which faction outshouted the other, or which side perpetrated more violence, or even which group can claim to be the greater victim.
One young woman is dead because of the hate, violence, intolerance, racism and partisanship that is tearing this country apart, and it has to stop.
Lawful, peaceful, nonviolent First Amendment activity did not kill Heather Heyer.
She was killed by a 20-year-old Neo-Nazi who
drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Charlottesville, Va.
Words, no matter how distasteful or disagreeable, did not turn what should have been an exercise in free speech into a brawl.
That was accomplished by
militant protesters on both sides of the debate who arrived at what should have been a nonviolent protest armed with sticks and guns, bleach bottles, balloons filled with feces and urine and improvised flamethrowers, and by the
law enforcement agencies who stood by and allowed it.
As the
New York Times reported, "Protesters began to mace one another,
throwing water bottles and urine-filled balloons - some of which hit reporters - and beating each other with flagpoles, clubs and makeshift weapons. Before long, the downtown area was a melee. People were ducking and covering with a constant stream of projectiles whizzing by our faces, and the air was filled with the sounds of fists and sticks against flesh."
The madness is spreading.
