The looting in downtown Chicago started after a misinformation campaign began online about a law-enforcement encounter in which a civilian reportedly opened fire on police. Protesters were told to converge on a downtown commercial district, at which point looting became the goal in itself — a rationalized attempt to right historic wrongs and achieve social justice through wanton criminality.

If the protest movement truly believes looting and destruction are the proper reaction any time police officers do their jobs, America is in for some very difficult times ahead. Difficult as in armed warfare and open civil conflict. The Chicago violence, coming on the heels of protest violence in Portland, Oregon, and neighborhood occupations in Seattle, marks a troubling escalation. Americans, especially in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, can get on board with sustained civil disobedience aimed at forcing real police reforms. That support stops when the movement embraces mayhem and anarchy.

Continuing along this path not only risks undermining public support for the Black Lives Matter movement but also feeds the campaign message of President Donald Trump, whose entire goal these days is to distract Americans from their pandemic woes by turning attention to radical protest violence. Helping Trump win four more years in office is the worst possible way to attain social justice and racial equality.

In Chicago, Black Lives Matter activist Ariel Atkins justified looting as "reparations." Speaking at a Monday rally, she said, "I don't care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy's or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats, that makes sure that person has clothes. ... Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance."

Protesters displayed a large banner declaring, "Our futures have been looted from us. ... LOOT BACK."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. correctly drew the line where it needed to be drawn, tweeting: "This act of pillaging, robbing & looting in Chicago was humiliating, embarrassing & morally wrong. It must not be associated with our quest for social justice and equality."

The New York Times reported last week on the experiences of Seattle residents who lived and worked behind the lines of a six-block protest occupation zone in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood. For 23 days in June, protesters with guns cordoned off the zone, preventing police from entering. Coffee shop owner Faizel Khan said he had to obtain permission from the men at an armed checkpoint before he could pass through to reach his own property.

Is this America, or a scene from civil war Beirut? Do the protesters understand how little it takes to go from neighborhood occupations and rationalized looting to armed encampments and anarchy?

Protesters' sense of anger is understandable. But they must never lose sight of the important distinction between justified civil disobedience and self-righteous criminality.

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