About 1500 people did a tactical blockade of the interstate freeway, in order to get a lot of free publicity and news organizations to cover their protest... it seems you can't get publicity without a stunning demonstration of new innovative ways to shut down a major city.
The CHP asst Chief asked the Alameda County DA to increase bail and charges on the hundreds (about 225) arrested for resisting arrest, and arrested for obstructing police... so basically, for protesting and not agreeing that their constitutional right to protest is an act that police can arrest them for.
Photo and info from http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protesters-block-highway-stop-train-california-27463439
Post by Keith Kuder.
Getting arrested is a badge of honor for these folks and ads to their street cred. Disrupting innocent lives gets the publicity and attention they crave.
ReplyDeletethe only effective protest is the one that grabs the attention of the masses to the plight of the oppressed, and the focus of the news, and makes headlines that the elected reps have to deal with. Nothing changes by wishing on a falling star. Besides, if you've never been arrested for a protest, you're leading a dull life and don't take chances. You really are so unconcerned with problems in this world that you won't join a protest to be a pain in the ass to the people making your life difficult?
DeleteRandom commuters aren't the ones making anyone's life difficult. Not all attention is positive attention.
DeleteOk, I made neither of those points, so you are stating a reply to nothing I've said so far. Random commuters were inconvienenced... on a California freeway? That's not news, hasn't been a surprise for about 100 years. They'll get over it...,. and might be glad to stop their cars and text for a while... and you are wrong in this example about attention. Any publicity is good publicity in California, and for protests.The more attention and publicity they get, the more they have succeeded at their mission to get free publicity spread across as many different websites and news organizations as possible. They just want to be named on Facebook enough to be trending... that alone gets them mentioned on several news outlets. Not for what they do, but for trending on facebook. Welcome to 2014, where a revolution that doesn't get Facebook news, didn't happen. No one covers the war in the Gaza strip anymore, and most people aren't aware it's been happening all year long.
DeleteExactly what they set out to accomplish. You're aware of that, right?
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