Are Protests Over Police Brutality Helping or Hurting The Cause

Suddenly, it feels like the 1960s again, with swirling movements for social justice finding inspiration and a powerful common denominator in the struggle for black equality.

Multiracial, multi-ethnic, multi-class, and multi-generational Americans have swarmed the streets in vast numbers to not only protest against racial injustice but to expose systemic oppression that has been an open secret since the heyday of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The decision by a Staten Island, New York, grand jury not to indict Police Officer Daniel Pantoleo in the choking death of Eric Garner came nine days after Ferguson, Missouri, erupted into an open rebellion following another grand jury’s decision not to indict former police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, a black teenager.

While violence engulfed parts of downtown Ferguson, 170 cities staged largely peaceful demonstrations both in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and in demand of a vision of social justice that far surpasses the imagination of most contemporary politicians and pundits.

Thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets on Wednesday and Thursday nights to express outrage against the political system that allowed a black man to be choked to death while screaming, “I can’t breathe!”

Across the country this movement has been spreading with protesters stopping traffic on highways and busy streets. Here in Baltimore protesters attempted to shutdown the annual Christmas tree lighting in downtown Baltimore. Do events like this help or hurt the cause