Having run away to the lovely Garden Isle of Kauai for the holiday I have been blessedly free of the after effects of the Ferguson  verdict. Today, however I downloaded the Daily Caller app on my iPhone and got back to acquainting myself with the going’s on in the “real world”. In all the insanity that has reigned since the decision, I found one thing I agree with. Now, hear me out since this might sound a bit odd at the outset.

A Huffington Post blogger named Eternity E Martis criticized the white (and largely liberal) protesters in Canada (yes, because evidently the Canadians just love dead gang-bangers and think that they should serve as role models for their youth too) for complaining about being asked to move in between black protesters and police. At a “Black Lives Matter” rally in Toronto, organizers handed out “protest rules”:

“Stand behind black folks or between us and the police”, and “If you see a cop harassing a black person, come in and engage. [Chances are they are least likely to arrest you].”

“While we appreciate the solidarity shown by White and Non-Black POC, want to remind folks of some things: Please refrain from taking up space in all ways possible. Remember that you are there in support of black folks, so should never be at the centre of anything,” the rules stated.”

Oh and for the uninformed among you, POC is people of color. So in essence, these white, liberal protesters are being used as human shields to protect the black protesters from the police. So it seems that white, liberal protesters are good for something other than hanging out on campus, complaining about “rape culture” and wasting mommy and daddy’s money while sneering at everything their parents hold dear.

In the wake of the Ferguson decision many a city in the U.S. has erupted in chaos, all in support of an “unarmed black teen” who turns out to have charges up to and including 2nd degree murder in his juvenile record. Many of his supporters have pointed out that he had no adult criminal record. Now, due to a new lawsuit that was filed by a reporter in order to get the truth about Brown into the public square we now know that he was only an adult in the eyes of the court a few months prior to his death. We also know he was no stranger to the court.

Frankly, were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. still alive I think he would be disgusted at the cowardice shown by those he fought so hard to free from the shackles of unfair treatment in the eyes of the law. He and his supporters in Birmingham, AL did not hide behind their white supporters when the fire hoses and police dogs were unleashed on them during their marches.

After all, you see all this melee and craziness, it isn’t about you. As in you, white, privileged, liberal yahoos who are out there screaming about how you need to “Show the fuck up for black people!” by jumping onto a busy highway at rush hour. Nope, it is about the put upon black people who still suffer at the hands of the big, bad racist cops. After all, just look at this horrible, abusive officer in Portland, OR-where does he get off harassing that poor black kid?

Personally, I think that this child and this officer was what Dr. King had in mind when he and his supporters, white and black, faced those dogs and hoses in Birmingham, AL all those years ago. Perhaps we should all strive to emulate them more often.