Are the Olympia shooting demonstrations making a difference?

In the wake of news that the Olympia police officer who shot two suspected shoplifters will not be charged, demonstrators hit the streets at the state’s capitol.

There were three events in Olympia over the Labor Day weekend; two on Saturday and one on Sunday. One Saturday event has been reported as an “anti-Nazi” demonstration.

Marchers moved through downtown chanting anti-Nazi and anti-police mantras, according to the Associated Press, including “Nazis out of Oly.” Fliers were handed out, stating that the marchers were demonstrating in opposition to a Nazi rally rumored to be scheduled that same evening.

Related: Police radio tape records details of Olympia shooting

As the demonstrators marched through downtown Olympia, they kicked over trash cans, lit fireworks, smashed windows at the city hall, and struck a passing truck with a bat.

The next day, a Black Lives Matter march included a stop by the city hall.

“This would be classified as a Black Lives Matter march on Sunday. There were about two dozen people there,” Feliks Banel told KIRO Radio co-host John Curley. “They went to city hall and laid flowers because the night before a mob, unclear how many people, vandalized city hall. They broke four windows and ran away. No arrests were made.”

The flowers were meant as a peaceful gesture.

Curley wonders, however, that whatever the reason, if such demonstrations are ever effective. He pointed to another Black Lives Matters event when two women interrupted a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle.

“Does anything actually get accomplished? It’s like with the occupy movement. Does anything really get accomplished if you stand up while someone is giving a speech and scream and yell, interrupt and walk out. What do you accomplish by doing that?” John Curley asked co-host Feliks Banel on KIRO Radio’s Tom and Curley Show.

Banel, also a local historian, contends that it does make a difference. It’s through eruptions that things change, he said.

“Progress is like an earthquake; there’s nothing for a long time, and then all of a sudden everything gets shaken up and reconfigured,” he said.

“It’s all freedom of speech. The only cure for any of these ills we are facing is people getting involved,” Banel said. “If people actually take the time to get out of the house, and get off social media and actually walk around somewhere, no matter what they are saying, if they aren’t violent, more power to them.”

But there’s another angle on the Olympia controversy, Curley notes. There is a continuation of a version of the shooting; that the young men were shot for stealing beer. They were, however, shot blocks away from the store where they allegedly attempted to shoplift beer. This version of the report is included in reports across the country of sometimes deadly interactions between white police officers and black citizens.

Related: Rantz – The maddening revision of the Olympia shooting

An independent investigation into the Olympia shooting, however, found that the white police officer’s version of events was backed up by evidence at the scene. It further found that the version maintained by the two stepbrothers who were shot, could not be backed up. For example, the brothers argued that they were shot in the back while running away. The claim was dismissed based on the gunshot wounds. Instead, the officer’s claim that he was attacked with skateboards by the two young men was upheld.

Curley noted comments made at an unrelated march where KIRO TV interviewed one mother who said that the two brothers were shot for shoplifting.

“I have a 10-year-old little girl who wants to know who she can call for help when it seems that police want to hurt black people,” Malika Lamont told KIRO TV, further noting that she isn’t ignoring the aspect of the story that the two young men had skateboards, but maintains that they shouldn’t have been shot for stealing beer.

“But when they hold up a skateboard up over your head and make a motion in your general direction, and you have a gun, then you get shot,” Curley stressed.