To have an effective protest, you have to get the people running the government to notice there is an outrage at the way they've allowed the govt to operate. Yes?
You must get the people who can solve your problem, elected officials, realize they have allowed a problem to continue, while they were playing golf, and having lunch meetings at the country club.
So, to get your protest heard? You must be protesting effectively. A sit down in the park? Isn't going to do a thing.
Shutting down a freeway, gets everyone in their cars to call the press, the police, and maybe their mayor or city council member.
Probably only the press and police though.
But, the police will likely have to make a note in the days report of what occurred, and give that to the mayors office.
If you don't think that blocking roads is effective, ask Hawaiians https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/06/well-heres-some-weird-news-state-parks.html
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/10/california-just-passed-law-that-ought.html
And if your protest was ineffective (Minneapolis I-35, July 2016) like the Coalition to Wake Your Ass Up, condemning the ongoing killing of black lives across the country.
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/07/protesting-to-be-effective-you-must-be.html
It would be a shame if protesters started wearing safety glasses, hard hats, respirators, and gardening gloves, all of which can be found at the same hardware stores as the plywood. It would be a shame if they started using traffic cones (the kind without the hole in the top), upside-down buckets, or other improvised lids to contain tear gas by placing them over the canisters.
It would be a shame if protesters used water balloons filled with paint that sticks to plastic, like police helmets, so police had to remove their helmets.
It would be a shame if protesters brought nuns, clergy, lawyers, and their mayor - to the protests. Also, people in wheelchairs. Grandparents. Doctors and nurses.
After all, a peaceful protest shouldn't incite the police to arrest anyone exercising their right to free speech, and right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That's literally the 1st amendment. Police will not understand that protesters have the right to say anything at all, free speech was the 1st thing the amendments were made to protect.
So, if you're going to protest, remember, the police do not understand that you have that right. Bring a lawyer, or the police chief to point this out to them.
And you must petition the government for a redress of grievances. So, bring along a petition, get people to sign it, have it addressed to the govt official of your choosing, like, the mayor or governor.
If you know some law professors, ask them to help you out.
Remember that police will want to drag out individuals from your protest, and thin out your herd. So, rope yourselves together, in simple slide loops that tighten the more they are pulled on, use your lined up group of protesters to exert a greater force to keep the selected individuals in your protest line.
Study the many ways the Hong Kong protesters adapted to police and use the Hong Kong countermeasures, like, umbrellas, buckets, gas masks, face shields found at car parts stores, etc. Don't bring YOUR expensive smart phone, bring a burner phone. During a melee, or if you're arrested, a smart phone will get broken, a flip top burner phone will do fine, as you WILL need to make phone calls during or after the protest
Maybe, even get smart and plan ahead, and use cars and trucks to block off your area so police cars can't get close. After all, this worked for truckers having their protest in Washington DC in 2018. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/10/truckers-had-protest-called-black-smoke.html
Or tractors full of manure, like in France https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/03/it-only-cost-about-1500-to-let-city.html
You're like a pretty girl that opens her mouth and ruins it all. This post was pathetic, one of your worst and I love this site. You should be ashamed of yourself Jesse.
ReplyDeleteblack and decker pecker wrecker huh?
DeleteGee, that's jut too bad. Here I thought you had the brains to appreciate when other people were using theirs.
Oh well, so no more christmas cards from you? No more walks in the park?
I guess I'll just have to survive on my own - oh, wait, I've already been on my without your support for 14 years and 43,275 posts.
Hmm, maybe, just maybe I'll get by without your rare comment about how you just can't stand to see me offer support to the people that get fucked over every day by those that are driving along with "protect and serve" on their cars.
You might have missed the 171 posts about how police are roid raging apes that often kill people. The cyclist in LA, the man who had a stroke in his car that got tazed and pepper sprayed for being black in a car, etc etc
Get over it snowflake. The pages of daffodils and buttercups delivered to you with kitten kisses are somewhere over there, on another blog. You must have wound up here by accident.
Ashamed of myself? not really, supporting those that can use a bit of help getting the word out has been what I do, charities, kids, and citizens that the police beat on, like the grandma who was knocked down and punched in the face by CHP who wondered how many times he'd have to punch to see if she'd turn another color, cause he had all day and she had no one to get her to the emergency room.
I've got nothing to be ashamed of. How about you?
What a load of crap. Stick to the pictures, that's what you are good at.
DeleteBy the way, you are so full of shit, I didn't even feel belittled by your retort.
Deletein the words of Skid Row:
DeleteYou're standin' to close what the fuck's with you,
You ain't my old lady and you ain't a tattoo,
No need to whimper no need to shout,
This party's over.... so get the fuck out
I lost my grandfather last year who was on his way to the hospital suffering from a stroke. Had he made it to the hospital on time, he would have lived. Instead he was blocked by idiots like the pictures posted here. He died on that blocked highway. He was black. Rest in peace gramps.
DeleteMy condolences, I'm sorry your grandpa had a stroke, I'm sorry he died. I bet I would have liked him if we'd ever met.
DeleteI also know protesters never block ambulances. No one does.
What highway, when? What day, what time? Do you have an online obit to link to? News sources that show the date time stamp of covering the protest on that highway?
The above images are of interstates, not highways. So, no, not "that blocked highway" That's easy to see because we can count the number of lanes, and there are 4 and 6.
@DustyRider: Nope, Jesse should be proud of himself, telling how peaceful protesters can defend themselves from polivce violence. There have been a few other issues where I don't agree with him, but never forget; it's his blog, not ours.
Deletethank you. I know I mostly stick to entertaining content, but, blogging is in the hands of the blogger. There are no rules, no management, and the focus on what topic to post about is not a locked in - carved in stone law brought down Mt Sinai by Moses. In a heart beat I could blog about buttons.
DeleteIt is only coincidence that we all share most of the same tastes in what I share on my blog.
And remember, you can always look down the alphabetic list of tags, and click on the ones that you prefer. I recommend Awesome and humor
Civil disobedience is a form of protest where one nonviolently breaks the law, in order to make a statement of protest, with the expectation and acceptance that the person protesting will face the normal legal penalties for breaking those laws.
ReplyDeleteWe have sort of gotten to a phase where people believe that they are exempt from the law, as long as they are protesting something. So people can block a freeway or rail line with the expectation that nobody will interfere with their demonstration.
Environmental protesters believe that their strong views on carbon dioxide permit them to shut down pipelines or to come onto our ranch and destroy equipment.
Lots of people have causes that they feel very strongly about. The right to peaceably assemble and petition grievances does not confer a right to escalate without consequences if your demands are not met to your satisfaction.
If you were to interview the folks stuck behind the protest blockade, you would probably find that many of those folks are not just trying to assert their own right to peaceably assemble somewhere, but some of them are on that road for important reasons. Some are trying to see a dying loved one for the last time, or a million other non-trivial things.
Virtually everyone agrees that racism of any sort is unacceptable, and that police reform is needed urgently. But BLM also wants to abolish the police, disrupt the nuclear family, ban fossil fuels, all the regular Marxist stuff. Lots of us are not going to support BLM because of their position on Israel.
ok, You've opened up on many issues, and that's a lot to respond to, so, I'll keep it simple.
DeleteI'm sorry your ranch is getting assaulted, that sucks.
The environmental wackos are very far out in the deep end, like a few other fanatical extremists.
Civil disobedience, alone, just that issue is a thing of pride in my view. Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali. Icons of civil disobedience, that led to the changes that were needed in America.
Just sticking on that issue, CD, I am all in support of the 1st amendment assemble to petition the govt.
The obvious trouble, is that the govt people are NOT INTERESTED in reforming, changing, comprehending, or understanding that THEY ARE the problem.
So, instead of the very diplomatic and ultra civilized behavior I suspect the founding fathers expected, like not even raising voices, taking turns talking and responding, and giving "my good colleague from the state of Minnesota" the time on the floor to speak uninterrupted to be heard, we have NO civilized method where the people with grievances will be able to force the people causing problems, the police, local, state, and federal governments, to shut the fuck up and pay attention with the intent to cooperate to handle the very constitutional right of the citizen.
So, since govt people prefer to avoid confrontation that they can not force citizens into submission with police power, we have found that the govt people gave the police unlimited abuse of power with immunity.
And police recruited apes with bully mentalities that seek out jobs with power over anyone else.
That's just the ugly side of human nature.
So, protests beget rioters who, again, human nature, seek to lash out to vent rage, vandalism actions, frustration.
Since, no, and I mean zero leadership in elected officials, civilized quiet mention of meetings to discuss the issues of police brutality are occurring, the revolution will commence. We see it in Hong Kong, the Arab Spring riots, etc etc.
Of course, those were all verbally supported by the idiot in chief, who now condemns anyone doing anything similar in this country, where it inconvenience him, and his re-election campaign.
So, without intelligent leadership from anywhere, the protests continue, the rioters take advantage of the distracted police, and car dealerships get raided, etc.
Nothing surprising about any of it except that it's simply a result of no strong leader with a brain who can see, oh, this happened in 2016 in Minneapolis, and the governor didn't do shit to get progress made in police reform.
History repeats, more people die. More people riot.
I'm surprised the Waco massacre didn't get repeated.
Your statement about the right to peaceably assemble, well, ok. Too bad the govt actively teargasses and rubber bullets that from occurring. When we can't get smart people seeing the obvious, that our right are meaningless without the consent of the governing elected officials that won't represent the citizens who are petitioning for a redress of grievances, because petty politicians are only interested in getting rich, and getting reelected, unlike the founders who couldn't conceive of the world that's evolved from the life they understood, and the citizens aren't going to get satisfaction and see police that commit murder and manslaughter arrested by their fellow officers.
It's only their job description and sworn duty, to arrest people that are suspected of committing crimes.
It's a bad time in the USA, high unemployment, higher greed, lower satisfaction in living, higher inflation, and now, the same issue that should have been solved by brave people in the 60s, racist behavior among police, rears it's ugly head in every city in the country. So does the issue of abortion, equal rights for women, gun rights, etc.
DeleteWe had a government that failed us, and so did the legislature, and supreme court. Cowards that ran for office to get rich, not to get progress on issues of the people that they represented elected them to handle.
Obama promised to close the torture chambers of Gitmo. Never did it, 8 years in office.
Ol read my lips Bush raised taxes.
I DID NOT Clinton had sexual relations with THAT WOMAN, and orgasmed on her dress. In the oval office, during business hours.
And they all went on to make millions and millions after office, selling books, giving speaking engagements for hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour to corporate board members. And playing golf while elected, costing hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars, plus xmas shopping sprees for their wives and kids.
Each of the previous 5 or 6 presidents cost the US taxpayers billions, for bullshit. Not to mention wasting billions in airplane loads of pallets sent to the middle east for various give away schemes.
So, we've had decades of being let down, screwed over, and abused by politicians, and "leaders" and "representatives" who are focused on getting rich, moving on, soaking up that retirement money for life, and vacationing anywhere the fuck else but here in the USA.
As for your issues with BLM, they wouldn't exist if police weren't killing black with impunity and immunity.
You can maybe see what I'm saying is cause, and effect, and symptoms. Or not.
I'm just a blogger raised with BSA ideology, in a Norman Rockwell landscape, listening to Paul Harvey and Walter Cronkite.
Thank you for the detailed and specific response. I think we agree substantially on most issues. I am also a fan of the actions of Rosa Parks and Mohammad Ali. It think there is, however, a substantial difference in their activism and that of the people who block roads, rail lines, and shipping channels. Rosa Parks's actions did no harm to other people.
DeleteThe laws she broke fit under the broad category of "malum prohibitum". That is, conduct that is unlawful only by virtue of statute, rather than conduct that is unlawful because it is evil or harms others.
BLM absolutely could have gained almost universal support if they had focused on police misconduct. Nobody is forcing them to add all the positions on unrelated issues into their official platform. I don't think a complete decriminalization of drugs is a great idea, nor is "radical redistribution of wealth".
But regardless, it is certainly your blog to use as you like, and I do enjoy it as a daily read. Perhaps some of my cars will be featured here eventually.