December 2, 2014

To all those who wish to protest police violence and injustice in Ferguson and nationwide:

There are smart effective ways to protest.

And less effective ways…

I know.  I’ve organized more of them than I can count and participated in many more.

An effective protest has specific goals.

And means to those ends.

The goal should not be to block traffic.

The goal should be to engender a dialogue, make clear that this issue is far bigger than Michael Brown, and to advocate for specific concrete remedies (like cameras on police officers and discipline for renegade public officials).

This elevates the debate from a “he-said/he-dead” argument into a general plea to allow unarmed black men to be able to live peacefully in our cities…and to transform law enforcement from an enemy occupying force into necessary allies and public servants.