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Portland Police tackle protestors blocking traffic
- Thread starter superdeluxe
- Start date
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Oh boo boo. You want people to protest as long as it doesn't get in your way. FOH here with that. They blocked traffic. Nobody had to be tackled.
You have people in this thread saying they should be run over.
Seems like you should target the powers that be then.
Protest outside their offices or even their homes.
Target the people you want to listen to you.
Don't piss off random people in the hope someone will turn to your side faster than the public demands they turn against you.
LiquidSword
Member
For every person cheering on fascism there is someone watching in horror and anger. We will not forget.
DerangedHermit
Member
Given the history of protest threads in GAF, i'm sorry if that doesn't seem out of place.
One more thing, what the Portland Police just did will actually just encourage more protests and even more people to join in. You cannot disrupt a protest like this and expect people to go away quietly, they will come back even stronger and larger than before.
That doesn't work, not alone at least. Those on the top have the pure luxury that they can ignore you. What they can't ignore is the bad PR and businesses hurting that protests can cause.
That doesn't work, not alone at least. Those on the top have the pure luxury that they can ignore you. What they can't ignore is the bad PR and businesses hurting that protests can cause.
EdibleKnife
Member
This. There was nothing peaceful or charitable to people on the fence about homosexuality in regards to the Stonewall riots but without it the boom in LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and the public perception that gay people weren't going anywhere wouldn't exist. Civil rights protest were completely financially disruptive and people despised them simply for protesting in the first place, let alone the effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but they were still a factor in the progress toward racial equality.
superdeluxe
Member
I think only one guy said that, and he said he was being sarcastic. Although I will admit it is getting harder to tell what is sarcasim and what isn't anymore..
HighResTomato
Member
I'd be pissed of if I was on the way to work and riding on that bus. You want to protest, fine. Do it where it doesn't interfere with other peoples lives.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
SIR YES SIR
Is it amazing that in every fucking protest thread there are ignorant people who spew the same tired talking points and cast aspersions on protesting methods?
Did you chuckleheads miss the other threads? or do you just ignore the history of protesting and what it is and can entail?
the good thing is your meaningless concern for inconveniencing other people has no affect on actual protests as people will still do it how they want.
NANA RUTH!!!!!!!!!!
Did you chuckleheads miss the other threads? or do you just ignore the history of protesting and what it is and can entail?
the good thing is your meaningless concern for inconveniencing other people has no affect on actual protests as people will still do it how they want.
NANA RUTH!!!!!!!!!!
pirateluigi
Member
To quote a guy named Martin Luther King Jr "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."
EdibleKnife
Member
Protest always interferes with peoples lives. Even the Women's March interfered with people's lives because it was large and not 100% in lock step.
gamechanger87
Member
Correct. Organize, ask for approvals and march on Washington if you want to be heard. Fucking with random strangers doesn't get anyone to listen to you, they just drown you out.
Regarding the commentary on the Nashville sit-ins, they ultimately got results when the marched on the Mayor's office. Prior to that, they allegedly followed this code of conduct in the sit-ins.
How does this line up with blocking traffic?
^^^This. Which is why I don't see much of a problem with the video. Go protest the local government building or a big bank. Why block poor people taking a bus trying to get to their jobs?
KurtSloane
Banned
If it was a right wing protest would you believe the same?
I have a feeling many wouldn't.
You know what get officials to take action and hear grievances? When their offices are being flooded with pissed off constituents because protesters made them late for work.
Pissing off the general public to force officials to listen to them have been a staple of protesting for a long time.
Seriously: how about instead of setting up in a random street, you set up in front of the parking garage at City Hall or the street in front of the entrance to a large multinational bank or even go the houses of top politicians/bank executives and surround their driveways so they can't leave in the morning?
I'm fine with using protest to disrupt, but one should really try to disrupt the actions of those that oppress you, rather than society in general.
After all, civil rights activists didn't stage sit ins at random restaurants, they set specific targets. The Stonewall protests didn't occur blocks from the bar, they occurred in direct opposition to police presence.
I'm fine with using protest to disrupt, but one should really try to disrupt the actions of those that oppress you, rather than society in general.
After all, civil rights activists didn't stage sit ins at random restaurants, they set specific targets. The Stonewall protests didn't occur blocks from the bar, they occurred in direct opposition to police presence.
Coriolanus
Banned
Poe's law.
I just said, those on the top have the luxury to ignore you if you focus on local government buildings and big banks, what they can't ignore is bad PR and businesses suffering because of protests, so they have to do something. Since arresting them or attacking them only leads to more and larger protests, they have to talk to them. It's a strategy that works fairly well, just look at the Civil Rights Era and Stonewall.
LiquidSword
Member
The issue here is the violence. If those police had put him in handcuffs and arrested him people wouldn't be as upset. Discussing what is and isn't the right way to protest is getting away from why people are angry. IMO at least
EdibleKnife
Member
I personally would. If a bunch of pro-lifers wanted to waltz across the street while I'm driving to work, I could be pissed, I could disagree but protesting is their right.
It is the major issue. Police are in charge of how reckless things get. Disruptive people can be arrested. But too many times, they arrive itching for a fight.
What if I really need a coffee and you're blocking the road to the place where I get coffee?
Did you think about that mr. anarchist?
Right now, all that is happening is the public is demanding to get protesters off their streets. Thats all they really care about.
If you're a local mayor or county Executive, what's eaiser: getting rid of someone in a higher office than you in the hopes that eliminates such protests, or giving the police more leeway to crack down on disruptive protesters?
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Impeccable
Member
I saw this in London, Ontario, Canada a few years ago compete with dead babies on a sign.
Kept driving.
you should make your coffee at home in your damn underwear like a real man
pirateluigi
Member
It's really scary. When the police beat the protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, 1965, the national audience was horrified to action. Today, police tackle protesters and we have people cheering.
This thread cements it; society's over.
People gleefully clapping basically the gov clamping down on peaceful protest against facism because of traffic. In 'Murica.
It shows why my parents had to drink out of segregates water fountains; nobody wants positive change if causes an even slight annoyance in their personal lives.
People gleefully clapping basically the gov clamping down on peaceful protest against facism because of traffic. In 'Murica.
It shows why my parents had to drink out of segregates water fountains; nobody wants positive change if causes an even slight annoyance in their personal lives.
If it was as simple as that, then the Civil Rights movement should have been an utter failure. You think the general public supported the disruption the CRM caused? The disruption then was immense and was a daily thing.
crustchump
Member
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sit-in
a lot of people realize that in the grand scheme of things an inconvenienced bus rider is definitely going to have a lot fewer problems for the day than a group of people standing in a crosswalk who are brutalized and arrested by a bunch of overstimulated police officers?
i think that a lot of the people in this thread who want to defend police brutality in response to a small group of people standing in a crosswalk are just going to have to be honest with themselves and square up with the fact that their ideology is incompatible with protests/demonstrations in general.
non-peaceful protestors are arrested, peaceful protestors are attacked, beaten, and arrested. you can't win. at the women's march in DC last week, 200 people, journalists and lawyers included, were arrested for protesting: http://www.alternet.org/trumps-amer...n-protesters-signal-dangerous-wave-repression
is attacking a protest with this amount of force actually justice? if you think so i feel like you might have an obsession with respectability at the price of your own values.
a lot of people realize that in the grand scheme of things an inconvenienced bus rider is definitely going to have a lot fewer problems for the day than a group of people standing in a crosswalk who are brutalized and arrested by a bunch of overstimulated police officers?
i think that a lot of the people in this thread who want to defend police brutality in response to a small group of people standing in a crosswalk are just going to have to be honest with themselves and square up with the fact that their ideology is incompatible with protests/demonstrations in general.
non-peaceful protestors are arrested, peaceful protestors are attacked, beaten, and arrested. you can't win. at the women's march in DC last week, 200 people, journalists and lawyers included, were arrested for protesting: http://www.alternet.org/trumps-amer...n-protesters-signal-dangerous-wave-repression
is attacking a protest with this amount of force actually justice? if you think so i feel like you might have an obsession with respectability at the price of your own values.
Forerunner
Member
But I have to go to work!
It just goes to show you how selfish people are. It's fine until it's an inconvenience to them.
":just for standing in traffic"
Being tackled to the ground is a lot better outcome than being hit by a car. Get out of the road. Its weird that it being a protest makes it "ok" in some peoples eyes. So if they weren't protesting and just standing in the middle of the road it would still be ok to just stand there? Or its ok cuz they are trying to protest?
RoadHazard
Gold Member
I do hate it when people block traffic and make me late for stuff, even if I agree with the protest. Like, it's not me you're protesting, why are you fucking up my day?
(Haven't watched the video, so this isn't a comment on this specific situation. Obviously I don't support unwarranted police brutality.)
(Haven't watched the video, so this isn't a comment on this specific situation. Obviously I don't support unwarranted police brutality.)
There are plenty of people who express the same want of hitting people with their cars in any bicycling thread about bikes on public roads. So it isn't hard to jump to a conclusion that you were serious.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Piece of turd on my boot confirmed.
pirateluigi
Member
To again quote Dr King:
"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action""
We need to stop obsessing over the "right" way to protest. A nonviolent protest should never be allowed to be met with violence from the state.
I would.
Anton Sugar
Member
It's almost like society, or at least part of it, is also to blame for this shitstorm of an administration and not just "the oppressors"!
gamechanger87
Member
There were no arrests at the Women's march. The arrests were at the inauguration where people were breaking windows, throwing stuff at police and lighting cars on fire. That was not a peaceful protest in the end.
The women's march was, and they got the required approvals to make sure nothing went wrong. Thus, no arrests.
Basically, yeah.
Messofanego
Banned
People being against disruptive protesting are on the perfect road to accept fascism.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
You are talking to people who think protesting means hitting the Retweet button. Real sacrifice or standing up for anything is so foreign to them that it is scary. These people would have been just fine sitting in the back of the bus or told that they couldn't drink from water fountains. Just a big ball of complacency.
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