Aug 2, 2018 4 min read

Shortly after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder five years ago following the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, protests began springing up across the country trying to raise awareness about inequities in America’s legal system.

The protests morphed into a cohesive coalition known as “Black Lives Matter” the following year after the deaths of two unarmed black men – Michael Brown in suburban St. Louis and Eric Garner in New York City – at the hands of police.

The years that followed were especially tumultuous as racial tensions seemed to rise – and further divide us – with each police shooting.

And now those protests have come to Western Pennsylvania following the June 19 killing of 17-year-old Antwon Rose by an East Pittsburgh police officer. The unarmed teen was running from a vehicle in which a passenger – later determined not to be Antwon – fired gunshots at a pedestrian in North Braddock minutes earlier.

Over the next few weeks, protests erupted on the Parkway East, blocking highway traffic there for hours, and outside PNC Park just as people were leaving a baseball game. The protests at the time had a very specific goal of demanding that Michael Rosfeld, the East Pittsburgh police officer who killed Antwon, be charged and face prosecution.

That’s exactly what happened June 27 when Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. announced he had filed a criminal homicide charge. He called the shooting an “intentional act, and there’s no justification for it.” Rosfeld waived the charge to court last week and is now awaiting trial.

But in the month since Rosfeld was charged, more protests have spread to other pockets of Allegheny County, including on Route 30 in North Versailles, Route 19 in Mt. Lebanon and numerous busy streets in Pittsburgh. News reports indicate Pittsburgh alone has spent more than $1 million in overtime for police officers to protect the protesters and redirect traffic.

It’s now clear that these protests are not solely about a police officer killing Antwon Rose.

Instead, they appear, to some degree, to be about the disruption of daily life for many people who never encounter police officers, the justice system or racial bias because of the color of their skin. It’s an opportunity for minorities to express frustration and raise awareness about racism that affects their lives every day.

But at some point, the protests lose their effectiveness and risk alienating the very people the protesters are trying to persuade. We seem to have reached that point.

Pittsburgh officials recently implemented new rules outlawing protests on major roads around the city and confining them to nonpeak commuting hours. That decision was met with more protests last Friday outside the Allegheny County Courthouse as the group made the absurd demand that Zappala somehow remove Judge Jeffrey Manning from the trial, as if the district attorney has that authority. While the protesters are justified in being outraged by Rosfeld’s $250,000 unsecured bond – meaning he is free from jail without having to produce any cash – there’s still a requirement for him to appear at trial.

The legal process is now in motion, and while the outcome one way or the other will surely divide the community, it’s time to allow the case to proceed.

To make long-term changes, the protesters should devote their energy to volunteering for civic projects that improve their local communities, or by voting in the midterm election that’s just three months away. But the biggest impact could be felt in next year’s municipal and judicial elections, in which people can make immediate changes to reshape their local governments and, indirectly, how their police departments function.