Debate Desk
Are Riots the Voice of the Unheard, and Should They Be Tolerated?
Peaceful protest is a constitutional right; riots destroy the businesses and neighborhoods of the people they claim to speak for.
The claim
Some argue that when peaceful appeals fail, anger breaks out, that property is replaceable while lives and dignity are not, and that looking at the causes of unrest matters more than condemning its form. Riots, they say, are what a society gets when it ignores its people.
The answer in three points
- The First Amendment protects the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition for redress of grievances. The word "peaceably" is in the text. Violence is not speech, and a society that excuses it loses its ability to protect the right of the peaceful.
- Riots harm the people they claim to speak for. Businesses, many owned by families in the same neighborhood, are burned, jobs vanish, insurance rates rise, and some stores never return. Residents are left with fewer shops and services and a longer road to recovery.
- A government has a duty to keep order and protect lives and property equally everywhere. When officials stand aside, the first to suffer are those least able to leave. Law enforcement that protects peaceful protest and stops violence serves both liberty and safety.
A peaceful protest has the law and the public on its side.
The numbers
- The First Amendment protects the right of the people peaceably to assemble, according to the text of the Constitution.
- Property Claim Services estimated insured losses from the civil unrest of 2020 at more than $1 billion, among the largest in the history of civil disorder claims.
- Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1967 that a riot is the language of the unheard, while also arguing for nonviolence as the way to lasting change, according to his published speeches.
What they will say next
"Property does not matter compared with life." It matters to the owners, and many lives are built on it. Looting is not a statement about justice, and it often falls on people who agree with the cause.
"The Boston Tea Party was destruction too." It was an act of resistance by people who had no representation, and the colonists argued about it for years. America now has courts, ballots and a free press, and the remedy runs through them.
"Police overreact to protests." Officers who abuse their power should be held to account. That is separate from the duty to stop arson and assault, and good policing respects both.
"Condemning riots ignores the grievance." One can take a grievance seriously and reject the method. In fact, violence tends to discredit a cause and strengthen its opponents.
The right to protest is precious, and it is best defended by those who keep it peaceful.
"Police violence provoked the unrest." Grievances about policing deserve a hearing and reform. They do not justify burning the businesses of neighbors, and the people harmed are often the ones who share the grievance.