OK, protesters, we get it.

You were angry, sickened and sad about the cold-blooded killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Who do you know who wasn’t?

Tens of thousands of you have marched in dozens of cities demanding that Chauvin and the three cops who helped him press Floyd’s body to the street until he died be charged with murder.

On Wednesday the state of Minnesota finally agreed with you. The charges against Chauvin were upgraded to second-degree murder and the other officers were charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Your protesting work was successful. You accomplished your goals. You got 24/7 positive media coverage for your message.

You honored the life of George Floyd and called out the cold-hearted cops who so casually and deliberately ended it in public.

You demanded criminal justice reforms and the end of what you contend is “systemic racism” in the justice system. You signaled your virtue by the thousands — day after day.

Now you need to let the judicial process work. It’s going to take many months for the trials of those bad cops to end, so be patient.

Meanwhile, though you had legitimate reasons to take to the streets to express your feelings about George Floyd’s tragic death, you’ve done great damage to the country.

Your peaceful protests sparked waves of violence against people and property by leftwing anarchist groups like Antifa and they attracted thousands of young men and boys who looted, set cars and buildings on fire and attacked police with bricks and bullets.

You’ve been marching and chanting now for ten days. The National Guard had to be called out. Curfews have been enforced.

Whose minds are you still trying to change?

I don’t know anyone who is in favor of bad cops or racist police departments.

Every decent American agrees that something must be done to get rid of rotten cops like Chauvin and his partners in crime.

But are you really serious about reforming our criminal justice system, or are you just good at making “Black Lives Matter” signs?

Do you really want to clean up police departments in cities like Minneapolis that have long histories of harboring abusive cops or unjustly treating people in their black communities?

OK, protesters. Then get rid of the Democrats who’ve been running — and wrecking — most of our biggest cities for the last half century.

They’re the politicians who’ve failed to police their police for decades — not President Trump.

They’re the ones who’ve let police unions acquire so much power that potential killers like Chauvin are impossible to fire despite years of complaints from the citizens he mistreated.

If you want to give cities a financial incentive to clean out the bad apples in their police departments, you can push for Congress to eliminate their “qualified immunity.”

That’s the legal rule that protects police officers (and the cities that employ them) from being sued for damages by victims and their families even when the officers have violated their civil rights.

So OK, protesters. You won your battle.

You stood up for justice and woke up the world to a problem that has existed for too long in our criminal justice system and needs to be solved ASAP.

Now it’s time for you to do something else for the good of your country. Get off the streets. Go home before your peaceful protests do us any more harm.

Copyright 2020 Michael Reagan