Restore peace to protests

None but the hardest heart could learn the details of Garrett Foster’s death and life and not quake with sadness at what his loss represents to the wife he loved and the family he leaves behind.

Foster was killed in downtown Austin Saturday, not far from the state capitol, while participating in a Black Lives Matter protest. The melee of violence that ended in his death began with a car driving into the crowd of protesters. Foster, a veteran who was armed with a rifle, was shot as he approached the car. According to published reports, Foster did not fire, although shots came from the car as well as the crowd. The shooter reportedly told police Foster aimed the rifle at him.

Whatever happened, we know this: A young man leaves behind a wife who was his childhood sweetheart and who he loved with devotion. The pain of his death can’t help but be amplified by the fact that she is a quadruple amputee who plainly relied on her husband and was with him when he lost his life.

Pulling back on what happened, it appears that this tragedy is now part of a metastasizing trend toward violence in and around the protests that are gripping America right now. This violence must be de-escalated in order to move forward toward the progress everyone of conscience wants—a fairer and more just nation for Black Americans. Across the country in the last week, most notably in Portland but also in Seattle, Chicago, Aurora, Colo., and Louisville, Ky., the country witnessed spasms of violence—some organized, some not—that drew people into ever more dangerous confrontations.

There is an ugly irony that these things happened in concert with the burial of civil rights icon John Lewis. As a statesman, an organizer and a protester, Lewis deeply understood the moral authority that comes from the rejection of violence.

Nothing good will come from allowing protests to be hijacked by those bent on hurting others or destroying property. Nothing good will come from facing one another with weapons.

Good will come from the rejection of violence, and the willingness to genuinely and peacefully seek the best for one another.