
In your youngest years, at least for myself, protests seemed almost a fictional to show outrage and never actually happened. Although as I grew up it became more apparent that protests took place often and all around the nation for all different reasons. The United States has always seemed to be heated over one issue or another, and today it continues. Nonviolence protests have changed the way we shape our nation in many respects through spreading messages in text and nonviolent actions. Some protests grow so exponentially there is no control and leads to violent outcomes. In Ferguson, Uncensored author Tim Dickinson outlines the outcomes of a single protest that turned into a violent confrontation with police. Although I find this article important because it connects to many different movements our nation is making at the time and in recent history, and shows the possible results if these protests get out of hand.

It is known to be a fact that Americans don’t particularly like protests or protesters until they become personally affected by the reasoning. Which is surprising in the sense of how many protests have been taking place recently in the United States. Many of the well known protests are somewhat convoluted because they start with a story, someone or a group is discontent, something else negative happens, and all of the sudden 10% of the country is running the streets toppling police cars. Although that may be slightly excessive, that is what essentially happens when “nonviolent” protests get out of hand and end up useless. This is also the reason that some of the most important protests in history were taken place nonviolently or through text and literature. One of the most notable dealing with segregation and Rosa Parks. The outcome of Rosa Parks refusing to move until she was arrested lead to a boycott, and one year later the United States deemed segregated seating unconstitutional making Rosa Parks the “mother of the civil-rights movement”.

Ferguson, Uncensored discusses the killing of an unarmed 18 year old Michael Brown who was shot in the head by a police officer and the outrage from the civilians. Dickinson states that Ferguson Missouri has “transformed into a powder keg” through the actions of the police officer. He also uses such a tone toward officers in the text that makes it seem as it is completely their fault and every officer is in the wrong. Although one most definitely is wrong, and the person ordering these troops, I mean officers, to prepare as they are headed to warfare in Fallujah is most definitely over stating it. I see the meaning in the saying “you can never be too careful” but when you are approaching distraught civilians attempting to communicate on such a level they are marching on streets and shutting down traffic I don’t believe the best move is to send out military vehicles and Navy Seals. This is just going to disrupt everyone’s feeling of safety and control, and rely on only one person to mess everything up and send the protest up in flames. 

Numerous important protests have taken place lately including the police shootings and “black lives matter”, as well as the gay marriage movements, and of course good ol’ Trump. Just today I have read several accounts of thousands of people protesting as Trump is declared our President-Elect. Understandable, taking account just under half of voting Americans disagree and in my own opinion I think less anti-Trump Americans voted then pro-Trump simply because of disbelief that he could possibly be elected. Many nonviolent protests take place around the nation most notably stating “Love Trumps Hate” and “not my president”. These people are directly rejecting the fact that Trump was elected by us, as a nation, and want a re-election when obviously the American people have chosen. This connects to the killing of Brown in a sense that we vouch for our “peace keepers” on a daily basis while when one makes a mistake they are no longer keeping the peace but disrupting it entirely. Even though every one of us makes mistakes every day, and one could even be as detrimental as electing the wrong President.

The police have long been viewed to manipulate protesters into acting out to in turn have the right to arrest. In the case in Ferguson, Missouri Dickinson states how “These police - unwilling to accept that they, themselves, are a legitimate target of protest - have barraged protestors with tear gas, rubber bullets, and sonic cannons, fired from war vehicles that have no justification on civilian streets.” which clearly shows the overreaction of police force. One notable fact not stated by Dickinson is that the military (who the equipment was actually designed for) is not trained to place their finger on the trigger or even aim their weapon at a human unless they intend to shoot, and these officers walk around aiming heavy rifles at unarmed civilians, clearly showing they are not fit for this equipment. This overreaction is countered by civilian outrage and results in criminal activities in turn creating more “police escalation, and even leading Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to deploy the National guard.”, stated by Dickinson. 

The journalists in Ferguson were attempting to spread the word in the town through media, and the police officers did their best to deny this by creating “media staging areas” to “prevent them from doing their jobs”. This in the eyes of many is viewed to be unconstitutional, and evolves to the predictable outcome of “criminal activities” or simply breaking the law by stepping out of bounds and receives police intervention. One individual, Getty Photographer Scott Olson, stepped out of the staging area just a few feet and was arrested. This prevents the media and journalists from doing their jobs and getting the word out and creates the appearance that the police are hiding information from the people. 

Between nonviolent and violent protests the most successful appear to be nonviolent, and of these the protests that simply consisted of spreading a literal message instead of changing the way people go about their day and forcing them to see it. This may be because of the simple fact that they are more important or of the fact that people are more willing to listen, and not just the common individual but also important figures. The National American Woman Suffrage Association led a procession of over 5,000 people down D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue funding around $14,000 and seven years later the right for women to vote is achieved. Many of these stories of protests have had an inspiring impact, like the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech, and many end in violent outrage when citizens feel insecure and threatened by their nation. It all depends on the message spread, how it is spread and absorbed, and in turn how the police advocate it. 
