Message to Ferguson protesters and their supporters: Put up or shut up

Message to Ferguson protesters and their supporters: Put up or shut up

Last night, I had occasion to be traveling on New York’s FDR Drive, which runs along the East River. I’m not sure traveling is the right word insofar as that implies movement from one place to another, and traffic on the highway was at a standstill.

When I reached the area near Bellevue Hospital, I discovered the reason for the bottleneck. Several hundred people were blocking the roadway, holding up signs and chanting dissatisfaction with the decision by a St. Louis County grand jury not to indict Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson.

For me, the inconvenience was minor; if you live in the Big Apple, you are no stranger to bumper-to-bumper traffic. But for the ambulance behind me, desperately jockeying for position, siren wailing, I suspect the delay might have carried more of a sense of urgency.

I don’t know the fate of the passenger in that vehicle — and neither, conveniently, do any of the malcontents demonstrating over what they believe was a case of justice denied. Which raises the question of what this tantrum and others like it across the country last night accomplished. Al Sharpton likes to call these protests acts of “civil disobedience,” but neither he nor any other “organizer” has shown how the law in this case is corrupt or was misapplied by the grand jury.

The evidence and testimony are compelling. They reveal that the eyewitnesses who claimed early on that Michael Brown raised his hands and said, “Don’t shoot,” either witnessed nothing or invented that version of events. Forensic evidence and the three (count ’em, three) autopsies performed on the teen further support Darren Wilson’s version of what went down that day. They overwhelmingly point to the rightness of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson, even for the least of the five possible charges that could have been brought against him.

My advice to these protesters is to find a legitimate cause to demonstrate over, but whether you do or not, get a life. Inconveniencing motorists by shutting down roads and bridges is just plain silly.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

Comments

For your convenience, you may leave commments below using Disqus. If Disqus is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.