The DeRay Mckesson Dilemma

July 11, 2014 (Fault Lines) — DeRay Mckesson, one of the most prominent Black Lives Matter activists, is something of a polarizing figure when it comes to the topics of criminal justice and free speech. Some praise his work for social justice and commitment to highlighting racial inequality in the criminal justice system. Others bang their heads against a wall every time he claims academic venues provide a “voice for racism” and describes free speech as “code for this notion that there should be a 50-50 split on how we discuss topics.”

Regardless of your opinions on DeRay, his arrest at the hands of Baton Rouge police late Saturday should outrage any person who claims to support free speech, and those who value the open marketplace of ideas must stand beside DeRay Mckesson, no matter how wrong he may be.

Mckesson traveled to Baton Rouge to document a protest in the wake of Alton Sterling’s death last week. He streamed footage of the protest, which started at a Circle K near Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, to his various social media accounts. The protesters then made their way out of the Circle K and onto the shoulder of Airline Highway, described as a march toward the Baton Rouge police department. During the march, the protesters kept to the shoulder of the road, police kept pace with the protesters and ordered them to stay in the lines of the shoulder or face arrest.

Mr. McKesson was confronted by a police officer at about 11:15 p.m. as he and other protesters were marching on Airline Highway, where they were warned by the police not to stray onto the road. Mr. McKesson, 31, repeatedly tells viewers in the broadcast that there is no sidewalk where they are marching. In the background, an officer can be heard shouting, “You with them loud shoes, I see you in the road. If I get close to you, you’re going to jail.” “I think he’s talking to me, y’all,” says Mr. McKesson, who often wears a blue vest and red sneakers to demonstrations.

The cops would later get close to Mckesson, reportedly “tackling” him and arresting him for the crime of Simple Obstruction of a Highway of Commerce, according to the Affidavit of Probable Cause. Mckesson violated the law by allegedly crossing the white line designating the road’s shoulder twice, the second time after an officer gave him a “lawful command” to stop exercising his First Amendment rights. This “intentional” or “criminally negligent” march on a highway allegedly constitutes performance of an act that rendered “movement thereon more difficult,” and Baton Rouge Police couldn’t let that happen.

“Well, they’re clearly blocking the roadway…We welcome the protests. We want them to voice their opinions. That’s what we’re here to do, to make sure they’re safe and they’re able to do that…We wouldn’t arrest people who are quietly protesting off the roadway.”

Some took to Twitter celebrating DeRay’s arrest as a moment of schadenfreude. Others suggested it might be heroic if DeRay “disappeared” while in BRPD custody. The inconvenient truth anti-DeRay types didn’t want to see is other people protesting with DeRay were arrested on the same charges, people without as prominent a face or social media presence. People who might just have been covering the protests as part of their job.

A public radio station in New Orleans, WWNO, said on Twitter early Sunday that one of its reporters had also been arrested during a demonstration in Baton Rouge on one count of obstructing a highway. The Advocate said the reporter was Ryan Kailath, who had earlier tweeted images from a New Black Panther Party march.

The protests in Baton Rouge, and the subsequent police response, could be viewed through the myopic lens of #FreeDeray, if one chooses to keep to simplistic, reactionary takes on major events. Taking a step back from the widely circulated image of Mckesson in custody gives the thoughtful person a chance to see this weekend’s events for what they are: Baton Rouge Police making a judgment call on whose speech mattered more, and landing on their side of the thin blue line. Worse still, they chose to execute this poorly-timed move by targeting and arresting one of the most visible faces of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The arrest and detention of DeRay Mckesson is a clear sign from Baton Rouge’s law enforcement that once you enter Louisiana’s Capital city, you really are as free to do as they tell you. Your right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Louisiana and the United States, ends where the white line on the side of the road begins. If you are a person with a national presence, like Deray Mckesson, and you don’t bow to cop authority, you are more at risk of going to jail. Regardless, your right to criticize the government only exists in Louisiana as long as the cops are okay with it.

DeRay, through a passionate yet terribly uninformed, and often times flat-out wrong, voice on the world often advocates “no-platforming” and shouting down those who disagree with his interpretation of “the black experience.” Regardless of your reactions to his viewpoints, his voice matters just as much as yours. If you truly value free speech, it requires you stand beside the rights of those with whom you disagree the most, during the times when those speakers suffer the most adversity for expressing their views.

To paraphrase writer Warren Ellis, the test of free speech always lays in that which is hardest to defend. It really would be nice if people like DeRay, who advocate silencing others to amplify a few, didn’t make the rest of us work so hard.

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