How Far Would You Go - Or Have You Gone - In the Name of Protest?

Would you subject yourself to arrest? To prosecution?

You wouldn't be here today, on DU, if the issues of the day did not somehow affect you and stimulate a response. We've seen how piss-poor the right wing fundies are at protest: the tea baggers were a joke, and let's face it, assassinations and arson aren't exactly the stuff of legends.

Think of the young man in the white shirt standing in front of the tanks on Tiananmen Square. Think of Martin Luther King. Ask yourself: what would I be willing to do...for a cause that I believed in?

Native American rights and a few environmental issues

Sadly, I can't imagine that it would

Once in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War, the other, well, last week, in opposition to the Supreme Court's ruling on prop 8. I have also choked on tear gas and pepper spray.

How far would I go? I'd go to prison if I thought it was really necessary, and I'd even die under very extreme circumstances. I would not kill. Not at a protest. There are circumstances where I would kill, but nothing at a protest would ever make me do so. Nor will I ever destroy private property. After years of protesting, I've come to the conclusion that that's a really dumb tactic.

I love protests, maybe a little too much. I sometimes wonder what I'd do with myself if I ever did manage to create the world I fight for in the streets. LOL. Not to worry, I'm sure I'd find something.

As a protester, I've pretty much seen it all. I've seen the Black Bloc smash a window, I've seen the police beat somebody with their batons, and I've seen a protester reach out and grab a tear gas canister and toss it back at the cops.

I've also seen the power of love that protests can create. Last week, when we were all sitting in the street doing our blockade, there was a woman going around the circle, walking up to each protester, and saying to them, "I want to see your face." She would then gaze into each of our eyes for maybe 5 or 10 seconds, and then she would smile and say, "I just want to know who I'm praying for."

Normally when somebody tells me they're praying for me, I get pissed off because it's some smug condescending remark about how I'm a sinner. But not this. There was nothing but love and compassion emanating from that woman. I was absurdly touched by her gesture.

So to answer your question, I would go all the way, under the right circumstances. But I protest and do what I do now in the hope that that will never be necessary.

me that she would pray for me. I wasn't in a good mood because the pro war demonstrators were using bull horns to insult us and drown out our speakers. My response to her was "I'd rather you go fuck yourself." She looked like someone killed her kitten.

I know it wasn't nice, but like you I felt it was condescending. I don't need unwanted divine interference in my life. I'm happy the way I am.

When it's somebody doing it because they think they're better than you, well, I would likely have the same response you had. But the woman at this protest was praying for our safety because we were about to be arrested. It's an incredible difference, praying for somebody to essentially be more like you, and praying for somebody because you care about them and support them. The first is an offensive act, the latter is quite touching.

beautiful little story, also.

I've been there many times since the Vietnam war. Been in some direct action situations where I might have been arrested, but wasn't.
Protested in DC a lot, mostly over wars and foreign policy, at the SOA, Oakridge, various power plants etc. etc.

Protest can have many benefits, one of which is people empowering themselves.
I have also met some of the finest people I could hope to find anywhere!

Always loved them, always will.

At the last national pride march on DC I was a designated arrestee. When I got to the Supreme Court building the organizers wouldn't let me join in. They thought I was too old to endure the inconvenience of going to jail. I called them ageist but they just laughed at me.

I was at the women's march for equality in 1970 in N.Y. I expected to be arrested but all of the policemen were just amused and did not arrest anyone.

I was also detained once but never charged during the 60s demonstrating against the war.

IOW - I can't get arrested to save my soul but I still have hope.

If anything, having older people in the crowd will make the police less anxious, and less likely to use excessive force. Even the most jacked up riot cop will probably think twice about using his taser or his baton on an old woman.

I've seen people in their 60's and 70's get arrested for civil disobedience. They did just fine. No reason to cut somebody out because of their age. Come to San Francisco if you want to get arrested. LOL. We'll let you join in on our next action.

Then I would tell the whole world that I and I alone had a Conscience, that I was Speaking Truth To Power, and I'd use as many other clichés as I could in the service of making myself look cool.

In reality, I've already been investigated by the FBI, and lost a job for speaking ill of Ronald Reagan.

I also got chased (with intent to kill) by several irate Born Again Christians TWICE after speaking my mind.

--d!
Political intrigue? Moi?

Well, we tried anyway. None of us knew how to really "spike" a tree, so we just blasted a whole bunch of huge finishing nails into them using a nailgun. Those trees were cut anyway, so our method apparently wasn't all that effective.

And if we didn't have TOMBSTONES OF DEAD HEROES ON DU...you MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING!

EOM...

Illegal/Immoral ENVASION...while you are at it...

physical protest, you're not really protesting. I've been arrested or detained several times, particularly in the late 60s, and once in my USAF uniform outside the Pentagon in late 1968. Civil disobedience always incurs a risk of arrest. If it doesn't, it's not civil disobedience.

I was never charged with anything, even the time I was in uniform. I did get released from the AF nine months early from a 4 year enlistment, but it was an honorable discharge, ostensibly in an "early release" program.

If there's no risk, there's no effective protest, at least not in a physical protest.