What frustrates me about protests is that when the public is challenged, unlawfully and unconstitutionally challenged, they always back down. The police know that, the city knows that. That's how they get away with denying permits, and that's why protests have been otherwise kept in "freespeech cages" or otherwise left impotent in too many cases.
Watch the video, it's frightening. But they should have stayed.
9.26.2009
And so they left.
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8 comments:
Well stated, of course there is a better way to approach things than destruction of property of innocent bystanders and struggling business persons.
I agree, DONT back down- however, I also say- DO NOT randomly destroy things either.
what do you mean by stay? if you meant that they should stand still, then there would be an awkward moment where the police is inches away from your face, and you have to keep a straight face, but you can't because you are just not that confident so you back off anyway, and the police win
Jesse, I agree to an extent. Although this group was clearly not into destruction of any kind. They were literally just standing there LOL.
Anon (I have open ID you know, you can post a handle here ;))- Yes, stay. Stay until the cops drag them away. Or fight back. But don't just stand there, school them on constitutional rights, and then voluntarily give those rights up the moment the cop look sat you all scary like.
What's the point of that?
You know why school yard bullies never beat me up in school? Because I stood up for myself, hit them back. The police thugs who have no trouble sleeping at night knowing they're gassing peaceful people whose kids probably go to the same school as their own are nothing more than schoolyard bullies, with high tech weapons.
I'd rather catch a baton to the face than let them scare me into giving them my rights.
same anon here,
well if the police drag the protesters away, they still win, and if the protesters fight them the protesters would get beaten up, police still wins. I only see 1 reason to do any of those and it is so you could say to yourself that you did something about it, but in actuality you really didn't make a difference. I really doubt that the police's confidence would break if the protesters didn't run like it was expected of them.
on the other hand if you didn't do anything you come off as a pussy (although you made the logical choice)
if there was a BIG group of protesters where they actually had a chance to keep their stance or win in a fight then the choice would be obvious...
same anon here,
well if the police drag the protesters away, they still win, and if the protesters fight them the protesters would get beaten up, police still wins. I only see 1 reason to do any of those and it is so you could say to yourself that you did something about it, but in actuality you really didn't make a difference. I really doubt that the police's confidence would break if the protesters didn't run like it was expected of them.
on the other hand if you didn't do anything you come off as a pussy (although you made the logical choice)
if there was a BIG group of protesters where they actually had a chance to keep their stance or win in a fight then the choice would be obvious...
What civil disobedience achieves is still hotly debated - some say it does nothing. But in the past we can see that civil disobedience and outright defiance has actually worked.
Although I would argue this point:
I really doubt that the police's confidence would break if the protesters didn't run like it was expected of them.
The fact that the police - and the State - reacts with such force in the face of protesters just being there tells me that they're confidence is already broken, and that they are fearful of the people.
I think that if people actually started resisting in earnest, they would react with more force, but they would also be quite terrified of the monsters they're creating.
same anon here
yea but in this particular protest where the crowd is kinda small and half of them are holding video cameras the police would demolish them if they did anything.
on big protests, I agree, people should take a stance
During a lot of the g20 cop riot videos I watched, the thought kept coming to me: why aren't the pigs getting shot/stabbed/beaten?
And I guess the answer is that our chains rest heavily upon us, in this most enlightened age.
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