Editorial: Let’s remember the ‘peaceably’ part of First Amendment

By The Herald Editorial Board

The First Amendment has been getting a workout in recent days.

Even amid abuses of those rights, that’s for the good.

Like all exercise, use of our freedoms of speech and assembly strengthens those civic muscles. And those workouts will continue as protests press on in Los Angeles and elsewhere over the alleged excesses of the Trump administration’s immigration policy and more general “No Kings Day” rallies scheduled for Saturday throughout the nation, including here in Everett and elsewhere in Snohomish County.

Most of us will not need a reminder that the First Amendment inserts the word “peaceably” between “the right of the people” and “to assemble.” We understand that duty when expressing grievances; even when we hold the stakes and the reason for our protests as fundamental and existential to our democracy, our rights and our humanity.

The vast number of us would vehemently object to the injury of others or the vandalizing of property at such gatherings. We want our voices heard and our concerns taken seriously; we’re not out for mayhem.

Instances of violence, destruction of property and opportunistic theft are easy to point to and are can be inflated beyond context by visual and social media. Again, most of us understand such acts are counter-productive and can easily be used against the arguments we wish to communicate.

That’s clear in how the Trump administration and pundits have painted the protests in Los Angeles, in an attempt to delegitimize those opposed to heavy-handed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency raids.

The protests are a reaction to raids that — rather than targeting those undocumented individuals with criminal warrants — have instead focused on those seeking work at hardware store parking lots, restaurants and elsewhere; those who, while they are undocumented, are providing labor, paying taxes and living lives that are as law-abiding — if not more so — as those of the rest of us.

Our immigration laws and border protections need comprehensive reform and, instead, have been ignored by Congress for decades, but vilification of immigrants won’t make us safer or more prosperous.

A reminder that historically and more recently, examination of records have found that immigrants of all legal statuses commit crimes at lower rates than those who are born in the U.S. That’s been true since at least 1870 when such data was first collected; and as of 2020, immigrants were 60 percent less likely to be incarcerated for crimes than native-born citizens, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Further, a 2021 Justice Department study found that U.S.-born citizens were 10 times more likely than immigrants to be convicted and incarcerated for weapons-related offenses, five times more likely for violent offenses and about twice as likely for property and drug offenses.

Yet, according to a social media post by Trump, the protest showed L.A. being “invaded and occupied” by “violent insurrectionist mobs,” and called for federal agencies to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.”

The waving of Mexican flags by protesters — most likely U.S. citizens as well — is meant to taunt Trump and his supporters and is not the planting of a green, white and red flag of invaders or insurrectionists. The purpose of that framing, however, attempts to justify the president’s call-up — without consent or request of California’s governor — of thousands of California’s National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to take on law enforcement tasks that Los Angeles police are fully capable of handling.

It is Trump — and not the immense majority of protesters — who may need a refresher on the First Amendment’s finer points.

Trump, in an Oval Office news conference Tuesday, hinted at the use of “heavy force” against any protesters who oppose Saturday’s planned $45 million military parade in Washington, D.C. Initially intended as a celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday, Trump has used the convenient coincidence of his 79th birthday on June 14, to attach the proper significance to the event.

Spoiling the party with any protest, Trump warned, would be met with “very big force.”

“And I haven’t even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force,” the president said.

Unable to grasp the difference between lawful and unlawful protests, violent and nonviolent demonstrations, the president made clear that even peaceable and constitutionally protected dissent will not be tolerated.

Which is one more reason to exercise those muscles of civil and nonviolent dissent, for the benefit of the president and ourselves.

And, along with all manner of banners, flags and signs — being that it’s also Flag Day — bring an American flag; just as a reminder to all who need it of the authority of the rights you are exercising.