DeRay Mckesson has been a lightning rod for as long as I’ve known him.
We met in 2014, after Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, and Mckesson came to ºüÀêÊÓƵ to protest. You might know him by the blue Patagonia vest that became his calling card. He built up a massive Twitter following, even with the social media company’s founder, Jack Dorsey. He used that following to help people know about protests, and to see what was happening in our region as young, Black people faced down a militarized police force.
Mckesson had, and has, many detractors, from the local Black activists who clashed with some out-of-state protesters, to some of the national Black activists, who later said of the Black Lives Matter movement, to, of course, some police officers and others who just wanted the protests to end.
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I’ve always appreciated Mckesson’s insights. He’s been gracious to me. But some of those who tend to criticize him might cheer a recent development in a long-running lawsuit between a Louisiana police officer and Mckesson. Those folks should be careful what they wish for.
The lawsuit, filed in 2016, seeks to hold Mckesson accountable for injuries the police officer sustained in the protest that followed the death of Alton Sterling, even though Mckesson, who was at the protest, had no connection to any violence. It doesn’t matter that McKesson wasn’t violent, say the officer and his attorneys. Because he helped organize the protest, and let people know about it on social media platforms, he should be held accountable.
Last week, the Louisiana Supreme Court . In responding to a question from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a majority of Louisiana’s high court determined that under state law, Mckesson could be held liable for the officer’s damages.
“Because it is alleged that Mckesson, with knowledge that such protests could turn violent, staged a protest in direct contravention of law, thereby provoking the police to respond, a person can easily associate the injury to the police officer with the alleged conduct,†wrote one of the judges in the majority.
No matter what one thinks of Mckesson’s activism, this is a devastating development, if it stands, for the cause of free speech in America. It is “cancel culture†on steroids.
Consider the ongoing investigation by the congressional Jan. 6 commission into the events that led to the insurrection against the seat of American government. We now know that Virginia “Ginni†Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was at the “Stop the Steal†protest that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and that then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to encourage him to use whatever power he might have to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.
We know through federal prosecutions of the people who stormed the Capitol, leading to countless injuries of police officers and other public employees, that many of the people there were following instructions posted on social media by leaders from organizations like the racist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and, yes, even by former President Donald Trump and members of his family, and other high-ranking Republicans.
If a police officer in Louisiana can sue DeRay McKesson for tweeting about a protest, then where does it stop? It’s one thing for those directly involved in violence to be held accountable — as they were in Ferguson, in Louisiana, and in the nation’s capital. But if the courts decide that anybody who exercises his or her right to peaceably assemble, or encourages others to do so, can face civil liability, then we might as well rescind the First Amendment and consider it null and void.
The lone dissenter in the Louisiana case, Justice Piper Griffin, explains what will happen to free speech in this country if the decision by her colleagues is allowed to stand:
It “will have a chilling effect on political protests in general as nothing prevents a bad actor from attending an otherwise peaceful protest and committing acts of violence,†, a Black woman who is the on her court who is not a white male. “Courts would see increased litigation from all sides of the political spectrum and the flow of political speech could hinge on which viewpoints had patrons with deeper pockets.â€
One doesn’t have to agree with Mckesson to root for him to win this case. Civil rights are not the province of those we like or agree with. They belong to all Americans equally, or, they’re supposed to, anyway.
If Mckesson loses, we all do.