The reason for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is monumentally important.

For one, it gives all people the immensely valuable right in that no law is to be established that would abridge “the freedom of speech … or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” The operative word here is “peaceably.”

Merriam Webster defines the word “protest” (noun) as:

* something said or done that shows disagreement with or disapproval of something;

* an event at which people gather together to show strong disapproval about something.

Note: the definitions do not include destruction, theft, burglary, arson, assault or other acts of violence.

Protesters: Ferguson, Mo., and now a town near you.

To title these thuggish criminal hoodlums “protesters” is a colossal misnomer. They and their supporters would tell you and me that it’s their “right” to wreak havoc; that they are protected by the Constitution – a document I am quite sure they’ve never read on any level.

It was 107 days between the date of Michael Brown’s shooting and the public announcement of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson. Many of the deleterious ruffians resided in Ferguson from the onset, and some remain today. The first big question is: Who is the financial resource funding these characters? Who’s paying the tab for motels, food, laundry, etc.?

Umar Lee is a taxi driver in Ferguson and works as independent journalist. He is also a black man. Lee spoke with MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart, offering that some residents have been “incited by a group of what I would describe as mostly out-of-town professional protesters. Some people refer to them as communists. Some people refer to them as an anarchists. It’s unfortunate we have people coming from out of town, coming in here and inciting violence that would do nothing but get a whole bunch of black youth killed and they can go home and chill whenever they came from.” Further, the people are inciting “their little revolution” and “live out their little fantasy on the backs of dead black youth.”

Multiple media reports told of the large numbers arrested, with only a handful being Ferguson locals. This was echoed by Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

On Aug. 18, nine days after the killing, 78 people were arrested and, depending which news source you read, either 74 or 75 were from out of the area. California and New York were cited often as states sending their best and brightest.

A significant element of the tragedy is the good and decent neighborhood folks who simply had their businesses there.

These establishments were how they made a living, paid their mortgages and fed their families. But all of that decency and responsibility be damned; they were destroyed.

One short-timed face of victimhood was cake store owner Natalie Dubose, a mother of two. Her woefully tearful face and sad cries were heartbreaking. She told CNN, “If I can’t open my doors every morning, I can’t feed my kids in the evening. Just don’t burn my shop down, don’t destroy it.” By the generosity of good people, the last I knew about $170,000 had been donated to get her back to her lifeline. You can bet those dollars were not black or white, just pure American heartfelt generosity to give a true victim a hand up.

There is no mystery why these riots are perniciously metastasizing all over our country. Race-Baiter-In-Chief Al Sharpton is providing the gasoline for the fires, and he has the stamp of approval from Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama.

In mid-November, the New York Times reported that Obama met with various national activist leaders on Nov. 5 and told them to “stay the course.” Sharpton is an “advisor” to Obama on all things racial, and he struts the red carpet directly into the White House. That ought to scare every sane person in America.

Sharpton takes advantage of frequent photo-ops with Michael Brown’s mother and stepfather, and also spoke at Brown’s funeral. He said, “Mr. Obama was concerned about Ferguson staying on course in terms of pursuing what it was that he knew we were advocating. He said he hopes that we’re doing all we can to keep peace.”

More rhetoric and ambiguity form Barack Obama: “Stay the course” of your pillaging and destruction, but “keep peace.”

The Nov. 24 outbreak was also fomented and fed by Brown’s step-father, Louis Head, who stood above a crowd of demonstrators – some of them shouting “F[] the police” – and yelled, “Burn this motherf…er down” and “Burn this bitch down.” Neither Sharpton nor Obama denounced those declarations.

Ashley Yates is credited as an outspoken leader with Millennial Activists United. He said, “This is not your momma’s civil rights movement … . This is a movement where you have several difference voices, different people. The person in charge is really – the people. But the message from everyone is the same: Stop killing us.”

As for the latter part of that quote, law-abiding people would respond with: “Start obeying a law enforcement officer who has a gun pointed at you after you just pounded his head.”

Or is that just too darned sensible?

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.