DeRay
Mckesson is a controversial person in the
Black Lives Matter Movement. Mckesson is at
the center of a legal battle that went all the
way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well, almost.
The high court refused to hear McKesson v.
Doe, allowing the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling
to prevail. While the devastating decision did
not totally eliminate the right to protest in
the three states under the circuit’s
jurisdiction, it added to the ice effect
orchestrated by the right-wing movement to
criminalize any and all protests.
Mckesson
parachuted into the Ferguson Uprising from
Minneapolis after the murder of Mike Brown by
police officer Darren Wilson. Soon, he
catapulted his way into the national
mainstream media and became a self-appointed
spokesperson and leader of the movement.
Mckesson
and other fellow travelers left the St. Louis
area to pursue fame and fortune. They received
lucrative deals for books and speaking gigs;
they were anointed with unearned titles. They
left behind a hostile community weary of the
opportunists who rode the coattails of
home-grown activists and organizers.
Most
of what Mckesson touched after Ferguson has
curdled. He made an unsuccessful run for mayor
of Baltimore. He fell out with his co-founders
of Campaign Zero, a nonprofit organization
seeking police reforms. On his book tour in
2019, Mckesson’s stop in St. Louis was
disrupted by angry young people who accused
him of using the historic Ferguson protest for
his own gain.
I’m
giving you this history so that you understand
what happened in Baton Rouge after the police
murder of Alton Sterling in 2016. Mckesson
went to Baton Rouge to protest the shooting
and was arrested, along with others, when they
attempted to shut down a highway. He filmed
his own arrest.
There
were many who thought this was another example
of DeRay Mckesson’s obsession as a media hog.
Some were dismissive and ignored the
implications of the situation.
Then something happened,
something that dramatically changes the way
protests will be viewed in the future. At a
Sterling demonstration organized by Mckesson,
someone threw a bottle at a cop who suffered
non-life-threatening injuries. The cop is the
plaintiff John Doe in a lawsuit against
Mckesson believing
him to have engaged in “negligent protest” as
the event organizer. The suit has resulted in a
volley of legal maneuvers over the last eight
years.
No
matter how one feels about DeRay Mckesson,
this is no longer just about him. I doubt if
he planned an assault on a cop. I do believe
it was inevitable that such a lawsuit would be
contrived to justify conservatives’ agenda to
suppress the righteous non-violent
demonstrations of resistance.
We
witnessed the wave of anti-protest legislation
escalating after the infamous George Floyd
police murder in 2020. The legislation is
designed to undermine First Amendment rights,
to stifle dissent, to criminalize protests and
to unleash sanctions against citizens lawfully
engaged in protests. According to the
International Center for Not for Profit Law
(ICNP), nearly 300 bills have been introduced
across the country that will make protesters
and/or organizers of protests criminally and
financially liable for property damages and
injuries should they be convicted.
If
the concept of authoritarianism is coming to
your mind, you are normal and understand the
dangerous erosion of civil rights in a
so-called democracy. Under authoritarianism,
personal freedoms are the first to be
sacrificed and organized opposition is crushed
to the ground.
Let us get over how we feel
about DeRay as an individual and focus on
intensifying an organized resistance to
collectively defend our democratic rights.
Mckesson v. Doe is not the end of the story,
or just DeRay’s story. It is now our story and we who believe
in freedom must write the ending.
