The Trump administration’s deportation policy demands good trouble, which peacefully protests for social justice and change. Instead of heeding Lewis’ advice, protesters regularly get into stupid trouble that hurts the cause.
Protestors are angry because President Trump lied when he said he wanted to deport illegal immigrants with criminal records, a stance almost all Americans agree with. But his ICE squad has gone much further by targeting law-abiding people in sometimes brutal ways, and he’s losing support (Republican and Democrat) as a result.
That’s no surprise when the government supports deporting the wife of active duty service members, detains people without showing a warrant, and separates mothers from their babies.
But when a few knuckleheads caused trouble during protests in Los Angeles, the images of burning cars and troublemakers made it appear as if the city was on fire. It doesn’t matter that the violence happened in one small area; those reports gave immigration hardliners the perfect image of lawlessness they needed to justify their actions.
The LA riots took steam out of the protest because the violence — the stupid trouble —became the focus. The discussion and media coverage should have centered on what started the mess — ICE targeting day laborers at a Home Depot without any justification beyond stereotyping. (Most day laborers were born in Mexico or Central America, according to the National Day Labor study.)
It’s hard to peacefully protest when emotions run high, but it happens. Demonstrators regularly gather in front of the Butler County jail to protest various arrests and deportations. There’s been one reported arrest after someone got out of hand, but otherwise the focus has been on the issues, which include:
- Does it make sense to deport people who have been in our communities for years, work, contribute, and stay out of trouble?
- Why should ICE agents wear masks when other public officials (judges, police officers) don’t, even though they face and have received threats of violence?
- Why is law enforcement arresting and detaining American citizens?
If you break the law, you’ll get arrested and thrown in jail (as it should be). Ask yourself: Who does that help? Sure, you have a story of defiance you can tell your friends, but that accomplishes nothing,
To accomplish something takes time. Black people fought for their civil rights for decades. The Vietnam protests lasted years before the federal government left the war. The Racial Reckoning happened faster because video captured the brutality of George Floyd’s murder. Even then, It took time for major companies to pledge to combat racial injustice, pledges that in some cases have been abandoned because of Trump’s opposition.
If history serves as an accurate guide, good trouble can accomplish. America has a long history of mistreating immigrants — the Chinese in the 1880s, Italians in the 1920s, the Japanese in the 1940s. Those periods of intolerance always lead to reflection in which America realizes its bigotry, pledges to do better, and tries to do so, for a while anyway. And then the next nationalist comes along, and we’re back to demonizing some group for political points.
Good trouble can get us to that period of reflection faster. Stupid trouble can’t.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.