The Anti-Trump Protests.

Since Donald Trump won the US Presidential election on Tuesday (8/11/16) there have been a number of protests in several US states and cities decrying the result.

These may have reminded some people of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots that have plagued America since the summer of 2014.

The actions of Black Lives Matter were coordinated and organised attempts to subvert the democratic process as expressed through the legal and judicial process. In short they were trying to use violence and the threat of violence force through prosecutions and convictions that had no basis in law.

The original case was that of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri back in August 2014. Within at most a couple of days investigators knew that Brown's fingerprints and DNA were on the police officer's weapon - particularly on the slide. They also knew that his - I think - blood was on the inside of the door of the police vehicle.

As a result it was clear that Brown had first being shot as he was reaching into the police vehicle to attack the officer in an attempt to steal his firearm. In short it was obvious that it was a perfectly legal shooting.

So when this evidence was prevented to the Grand Jury it dismissed the charges because they were utterly baseless.

However the violence of Black Lives Matter continued. So in fear many state prosecutors and Governors simply decided to do away with Grand Juries in such case. That is despite them being laid down in the fifth amendment to the US Constitution.

A prime example of this is the case of Walter Scott who was shot and killed by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina back in April 2015. The trial of this case is currently underway.

Between Internet outages and furniture deliveries I feel like I've not had a moment's peace in the past 10 days. As a result I won't be re-arguing the entire case here.

However Walter Scott was undeniably a felon. He was also undeniably fleeing when he was killed. As such the "Fleeing Felon" rule most certainly does apply. This holds that a police officer can shoot and kill a felon who is fleeing in order to eliminate the threat to either themselves or the wider public.

A prime example of why this rule exists is the ambush of Officer Jesse Hartnett by Edward Archer in Philadelphia in January 2016.  Despite being shot multiple times as he sat in his patrol car Hartnett was able to give chase and shoot and kill Archer as he fled. Thus preventing another attack.

The key test in the fleeing felon one is the reasonable person test. In short would you - as a reasonable person - reach the same conclusion as the defendant under the same circumstances. However if it is found that a defendant has acted unreasonably they can only be convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

The only reason that the local Mayor Keith Summey announced a completely unsupportable murder charge before the matter had gone a Grand Jury was fear that Black Lives Matter would respond violently.

That is terrorism plain and simple and it presents a very serious threat to American society.

However at the moment these anti-Trump protests seem to be different.

Over the past two years the Hillary Clinton campaign has been whipping up young and often vulnerable Americans into an almost religious frenzy that only she can protect America from the evil Donald Trump and she is definitely going to be elected President.

Now that has been shown to be a lie many of her supporters are now almost grieving with lots of anger and nervous energy to get out of their systems.

Although there have been some windows broken and missiles thrown amid the usual tear gas these protests so far haven't been particularly violent.

Last night a protester was shot in the leg in Portland, Oregon. However this seems to have been the result of a motorists getting frustrated that the protesters were blocking traffic rather than being political violence by either the protesters or by counter-protesters.

Crucially at this point there doesn't seem to be any serious attempt to use violence or intimidation to subvert the democratic process.

So for the time being rather than getting over excited by these protests I'm happy to let them tire themselves out.

However it is worth pointing out that Donald Trump is still only the President-elect. Until January 20th 2017 (20/1/17) Barack Obama remains as President.

Therefore if the situation does escalate or deteriorate it falls to Obama to respond.

17:05 on 12/11/16 (UK date)