he following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

In 1914, the poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote, β€œTo sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.”

Ms. Wheeler was tapping in to a visceral truth: Silence in the face of oppression is not simply a vote to abstain. It is a moral wrong.

This country was born in protest. For 243 years it has been nurtured by women and men brave enough to take to the streets and speak out against disenfranchisement, unjust wars, sexism and racism.

The heroes of the American Revolution, women’s suffrage and the civil rights era are not the people who counseled silence and obedience to authority. The heroes we read about and make movies about are the rebels, the ones who demand change and a better world.

The murder of George Floyd has sparked a new demand for change and social justice. Here in Tucson, thousands of protesters of every age and color and walk of life have gathered to voice that demand. Their actions are not only brave and righteous but protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, written by James Madison, which guarantees free speech and β€œthe right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

In Tucson, the George Floyd protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Only two people have been arrested on felony charges related to the protests, and of the nearly 20 other people arrested last weekend on misdemeanor charges, a judge has already dismissed one case for lack of probable cause.

It bears remembering that β€œpeaceably” is not synonymous with β€œsilently.”

Our laws are meant to protect people in our community who raise their fists and their voices and cry out.

β€œPeaceably” does not mean the only thing the Constitution allows them to do in the face of police brutality, over-prosecution, and racism is silently march, or silently sit or silently vote. The Constitution guarantees them the right to yell, scream and insist justice be done though the heavens fall.

Ms. Wilcox’s poem continues, β€œThe human race has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised against injustice, ignorance, and lust, the inquisition yet would serve the law, and guillotines decide our least disputes.”

Without protest we would have no American law, and no Constitution. We would have no minimum wage, no civil rights acts and no gay marriage. Law would merely mean strength, and the whim of the strongest would be deaf to appeals for justice.

Some of us may be quick to dismiss the right to protest and object, especially when the objections become loud and difficult to hear, and challenge the privileges of the audience. But our constitutional rights have no hierarchy. We do not get the right to bear arms without the right to protest how police use arms, and knees, against us.

We must be vigilant about protecting these rights. It is all too easy to read police reports and look at mug shots and assume people arrested for peaceably protesting and violating curfew are also rioting and looting.

They are not. They are men and women who are innocent of all crimes until proven guilty in a court of law, people who choose not to sin by silence in the face of injustice.

They are the successors to all the freedom fighters throughout our country’s history. Our Constitution exists to protect them.


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Joel Feinman is the Pima County public defender.