Under the First Amendment of the Constitution, we are granted the right to assembly and freedom of speech; these are two of the “wights” which we have as a free people. We have that “right” to exercise when we are not in agreement with our government .

In recent years there have been a number of incidents in which civil discourse has turned into anarchy and very little has been done by the local officials or the local law enforcement authorities to quell this kind of destructive attitude.

From the incident in Ferguson, Missouri, with Michael Brown’s stepfather standing in the bed of a pickup truck shouting, “Burn this bitch down, burn it!” which led to the burning and looting of a commercial section of Ferguson, Missouri ,and no charges were ever filed for “inciting to riot” for fear of alienating the total community.

Baltimore, Maryland, is another example of the lack of courage on the part of those we elect into office and those in law enforcement who must obey the orders given by higher authority. Remember the statement by the mayor of that city was “Let them have a space to riot.” Buildings burned with financial loss in the millions, and the police were helpless to act for fear of being disciplined. In the meantime, over 200 police officers received injuries from the rioting.

The incident which triggered all this destruction involved the death of a low level drug pusher named Freddie Gray while being transported to the police station. Six officers were charged with various degrees of involvement in his death. (One officer was declared not guilty on charges related to Gray’s death on Monday.)

In recent months there have been several demonstrations against Donald Trump and some of the statements he has made regarding immigration and Muslims in this country.

As a nation of “free people” we have the “right” to demonstrate and show our disgust with his statements. But we as a “free people” do not have the “right” to block traffic on a main road and disrupt the flow of normal traffic. We do not have the “right” to block traffic from flowing on a major highway by locking arms together and yelling “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.” That in no way shape or form is “free speech”; it is anarchy, plain and simple, and our governments be they on a city level, county level, state level or federal level are to blame for allowing this to happen.

The incident that took place in Costa Mesa, California, when Donald Trump was speaking shows a lack of courage from local officials to allow local police authority to exercise its rightful duty to restore order to an out-of-control situation. Seventeen arrest were made, but not once was there any “show of force” by the local police. A squad patrol unit was damaged and the individual jumping on the roof of that unit escaped into the crowd.

A number of people were wearing masks to cover their faces and protect their identity, and in no way is this a peaceful demonstration when that happens. These are people who came to the rally to incite the crowd into destructive behavior and claim to the world that this is free speech and that they have the “right” to demonstrate and destroy.

Had a mounted posse and a SWAT team armed with “sting ball devices and rubber bullets” been called into action the minute this demonstration started to get out of hand, those who came to be part of the demonstration would have scattered immediately from the sound of gunfire and the boom that sting ball devices make. What would have been left would have been the hard-core paid anarchists who came to disrupt the demonstration in the first place.

Police to this day practice “crowd control” for it is part of the training they receive on a quarterly basis in most major cities and SWAT teams practice every week on various tactics for crowd control. But when all this training is empty in its implication because of a PC Attitude towards law and order and civil rights, then anarchy has a chance to live and prosper among the crowds of peaceful demonstrators.

When flags of other nations are being waved around in the crowd, decent people begin to wonder, “Would this kind of exhibition be allowed in another nation? Would we be allowed to burn and loot places of business and waving the American flag in the face of another country’s authorities?” Of course not! For other nations including the nation south of our border, would not under any circumstance allow this kind of civil disobedience to take place and directly challenge the sovereignty of that nation.

So we must ask ourselves, “Are we a nation of law and order or a nation of anarchists?”

Garvey, of Kalispell, is a retired law officer.