Who is going to tell Black Lives Matter that mobs don't get to decide trial outcomes?

Before St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty on Friday of murdering Anthony Lamar Smith, black activists warned Judge Timothy Wilson that there would be riots if he did not find Stockley guilty. That was a clear attempt to intimidate the judge into tossing aside his assessment of the case on the facts and the legal merits, and to enter a verdict of guilty simply to appease the angry mob that would accept nothing else. To his credit, Judge Wilson ignored this threat and ruled on the facts of the case as he saw them, and the result of that was that Stockley was found not guilty.

And as you might expect given the era in which we live, the mobs made good on their threat:

What seemed to be a relatively peaceful second night of protests near St. Louis suddenly turned violent late Saturday when a small group of demonstrators refused to disperse, police said. The demonstrators were reacting to Friday's acquittal of a white former St. Louis police officer who stood trial in the 2011 shooting death of a black suspect. Saturday's confrontation took place in the Delmar Loop of the St. Louis suburb of University City -- known for concert venues, restaurants, shops and bars. The area had been the scene of a peaceful march earlier in the evening that ended with organizers calling for people to leave and reconvene Sunday afternoon. But the small group that stayed behind drew hundreds of police in riot gear, who moved in and ordered them to leave. The demonstrators retreated down a street, breaking windows and throwing objects at police. Some protesters were seen in handcuffs but the number of arrests was not immediately known. Earlier Saturday, demonstrations consisted mostly of marching and chanting through University City in a change from Friday evening’s violence, which saw 11 police officers injured – several by bricks tossed from the crowd – and the smashing of windows at the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson.

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The Friday demonstrations were relatively peaceful, but as you might imagine they gave way on Saturday to violence. It's no different from Ferguson or Baltimore. And whether it's officially Black Lives Matter or simply people influenced by and sympathetic to their cause, you can always count on the tactics being the same. Judge Wilson's decision showed character and courage, and I say that without having a firm conviction about Officer Stockley's innocence or guilt. I didn't follow the case closely. From what I did see, I thought there was a case to be made on both sides but in the end probably reasonable doubt. Murder is a very serious charge and it's very difficult to prove, as it should be. And Stockely and his attorneys were wise to waive the jury trial and opt for a bench trial, since a jury would probably have been more swayed by emotional arguments or threats, whereas a judge is at least going to have a better understanding of the legal hurdles to a conviction. And surely Judge Wilson must have been aware of the attempts to intimidate him. This is a profoundly disturbing development for American jurisprudence, even if Judge Wilson was brave enough not to give into the pressure in this particular incident. Remember: The requirement that you prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is established to protect the rights of criminal defendants. Many of the people for whom Black Lives Matter advocates are in that position, and they benefit from these protections. Does BLM not understand that the justice system can't work fairly and equitably if these same protections are not afforded to all citizens, including white people accused of crimes against black people?

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Because they certainly don't seem to think this principle is worth respecting in situations like the one in St. Louis. When you publicly threaten violence unless a criminal case goes your way, you make it clear that you're not interested in the rule of law, or in the evidence, or in constitutional protections. All you want is blood. And this has been the mode of BLM since it emerged on the scene, operating on the assumption that racist white cops are everywhere and are just looking for excuses to kill black people for no reason apart from sheer racism. The media has also been extremely irresponsible in covering matters such as these, consistently leading stories by telling you the racial makeup of the participants, but only when it's a white cop shooting a black suspect. In every other case they either don't mention the racial makeup or don't report the story at all, so you're led to believe that police only shoot people when the cops are white and the targets are black. You're also led to believe that every time a cop shoots a person, the cop must have done something wrong, or else it wouldn't have been in the news. All of this encourages the people who threaten violence absent their preferred trial outcome. So does Colin Kaepernick, but we'll deal with him soon enough.