Protests: Helpful Or Harmful?

Garbage littering the streets, buildings slowly withering away in flames, glass shattered everywhere while smoke turns the sky black, as city officials try to put together the pieces of what's left of their city. All this is a classic scene of the aftermath after a protest. While having the right to freedom of speech, and the ability to express them openly, there is still a right and wrong way to do so. Protesting is the least effective and most harmful. Although many argue that protesting is manageable and proficient, protests cause more issues than benefits because they hurt people and property, send bad messages to the communities and waste people's time and resources.
In the process of protesting many people get hurt and injured while

property gets destructed and destroyed. This alone should be the red light, signally that protest does no good. A recent example would be the Trump Inauguration, more than two police officers and one civilian were taken to the hospital (Krieg). Why are we endangering the people that protect us, when all of this could be solved by not protesting? Not only does it endanger police but it puts civilians at risk. These major cities where protesting takes place are homes to thousands of people, and when protesters are in action we endanger every single one of them. During protests, threats not are only targeted towards people but to property. A prime and devastating example would be the Ferguson Protests. After the released news that Officer Darren Williams would not be indited for the shooting and death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, the whole city paid through the burning of 25 buildings, drug store robberies and vandalism, all of this, signs of protest against the grand jury's decision. Furthermore, public storage units got burned and so did cars(Ferguson Unrest). These valuable pieces of property got destroyed all for people who didn’t get there way. Imagine all your families sentimental, priceless, and irreplaceable items getting burned in the storage unit. How terrible and inconsiderate can one human being be to possible do such a thing? From here on the violence did not stop. After a report on the Ferguson police department was release stating that the department was being racially bias, a few days later 2 police officers were shot and injured(Ferguson Unrest). After all the direction and damage that these protesters caused, still they were not ready to give up. Not only did the actions of the shooters were dumb and irrational, they changed nothing. No good nor change came out of there actions, only the harsh consequences that followed. Ultimately through many experiences we have still not learned the lesson that protests cause more damage and still solve nothing.
As a consequence to the actions of protesters, the cities of which they caused destruction in are left dumbfounded and with a cloud of negative stigma over their heads. For instance after the grand jury decided not to charge officer Darren Williams with the murder of Michael Brown, outbreaks of protests begun all over the United States. As a result protesters continuously, by violent actions and protests, dispute the skills and abilities of our grand jury(Ferguson Unrest). We as Unites States citizens should be able to trust and believe in our judicial system. If we can’t then we have some serious problems to face in the near future. Ferguson, MO is not only left with a destructed city but also a reputation that follows with a negative cloud over the city. For instance when you google a city you tend to find results of restaurants, a wikipedia page, history, attractions, directions and more. However when you google “Ferguson, Missouri” the first link is a city website, and the second one is a Wikipedia page. However from there on all the links contain the words, “Shooting of Michael Brown”, “What happened in Ferguson?” and “Protest…..”. The point being that Ferguson is, and will always be known for the protesting, destruction and the questioning of their police force along with the jury’s decision. With Ferguson only being 12 miles, 20 minutes to the great tourist city of St. Louis there has been uprising concerns. According to USA Today News spoken by Mike Rush, the convention and visitors commissioner of St. Louis, Brian Halls says that tourism and convention rates of St Louis are not going down although he has reached out to the convention officials that are planned to host their events in St. Louis and have reassured them that the riots and destruction is only happening in Ferguson with a small radius. There have also been some concerned event planners and tourists, worried about their safety while visiting St. Louis. It is scary to think about all the terrible things that have happened to the city of Ferguson, let alone thinking about how it could happen while you're on vacation forsay visiting the St. Louis Arch. Before you act upon your actions always consider the facts of: who is this going to hurt? And how am I going to achieve my goal through my actions? If some, even a small percentage of protesters would have asked themselves these questions, maybe all the corruption that has be placed upon the city of Ferguson would have not been so brutal.

When people think about all the damage that is already done, they are blindsided by the fact while protests take action.

A voluntary action of violence wastes resources and the time of government officials who are trying to control and manage these large events. For example during the Trump Inauguration in Washington D.C police had to utilize smoke and flash-bang devices that were so loud they could be heard from blocks away. The purpose of these devices was to try to get crowds and mobs to disperse(Krieg). In other words the crowds were so large and overpowering that police had to waste resources and their own time to deal with something that was planned to make this much attention and be this hard to manage. In the same way Audrey Cronin and Max Abrahms, protest analysts, have shown that violence most often does no more that harm people, property and things without getting any closer to achieving a goal. For that reason it supports the fact that violence is counterproductive. The main reason people protest is to try to get attention about the subject they want to make change. However protesting does the opposite, it cause more problems than it does solve the problems they are protesting for. Lastly, the reason protesting gets out of hand and makes government officials involved, is because of government repression(Pinckney). By protesting violently, they are asking for the government to fight back and have to restrain them. As a result while protesting law enforcement

tries to control the protest, it turns more violent endangering the officers and also wasting their time and efforts towards something planned and not their real job of protecting people. Ultimately while protesting due to government repression, the acts of protesters waste the time of greatly need police officers in other places and situations. For this reason protests are proven counterproductive and a waste of time.
While some may argue that protest are crucial to a healthy community with a representative democracy because it allows citizens to express their feelings and human rights, it is more true that there are other routes to express your views towards a subject other than protesting such as writing a informative letter to the person it concerns or to make a petition. Some evidence to prove this reason is that 60% if violent campaigns from 1900 to 2006 were a complete failure, while a little over 20% of nonviolent campaigns were a failure(Fisher). This shows that non violence campaigns such as petitions, civil disobedience and written forms of statements are way more effective than violent campaigns such as protests.
The sun shines over the city while adults go about their daily lives and children head to school.

The fresh bread smell of the bakery warms the air as people, old and young live in peaceful harmony. All these things can be accomplished without the collateral damage that protests have on cities. Some of these include the destruction it has on a city businesses and livelihood, the distraught citizens left dumbfounded and the counterproductivity placed upon many. We should take the many cities such as Ferguson as a lesson in which we can now act upon behalf of all of the people affected by the Ferguson protests and show them that it doesn’t have to end the way it did. So next time you are asked to participate in a protest think twice about the consequence that could be faced upon you, others and everyone not only in you community, but others as

well.