lazarus long wrote:
i do believe in peoples' right to protest, their right to voice their opinion and would really love to start that company to help more people do it in a more efficient fashion, with less likelihood of injuries, fatalities or arrests.
Do it!
If you can........
When and if we lose the right to protest & organize, then all will truly be lost. We're not there yet, our country is not that far gone in my opinion. The people still have power, and can effect change.
I'm also not sold on the capabilities of our governments to respond to, and effectively control protests that they do not have a tremendous amount of lead time to prepare for such as the upcoming conventions.
Quick story (what I am basing my opinion on as far as the limits of local police forces when it comes to dealing with crowd control):
The only protest I ever took part in was originally supposed to be a candle-light vigil for Matthew Shepard who had just passed away from the injuries sustained during his horrific beating/crucifixion. This took place about ten years ago.
Several hundred people were assembled near Central Park, in front of the Plaza Hotel, what began as a vigil turned in to a march down Fifth Avenue. Traffic was halted as the police lost control of the crowd, which had swelled to thousands. Despite mass arrests of many of the organizers of the vigil - now march, and despite the beatings in plain sight, the march continued down Fifth Avenue as it made it's way towards Madison Square Park (Mayor Ghouliani had banned all forms of protest anywhere near City Hall years earlier).
I recall (with a smile) that my friend Mike and I had somehow made our way up near the front of the march and up ahead, the police had decided to make a stand and stop the march from continuing. Lined up with their NYPD golf carts, commandeered city buses, stood a heck of a lot of cops with shields - waiting for us. I remember Mike looking at me, asking me - "are you ready?' - "yup - let's do this." The police were mid-block, ready for action. Luckily, no altercation was to come - the solution was absurdly simple, the march simply turned to the right at the intersection and we made our way to Sixth Avenue and then back down to Fifth about two blocks later
This move would be repeated about ten blocks further down Fifth before the police eventually gave up and allowed the march to proceed to Madison Square Park.
The actions of some of the police that day were brutal - several people were badly beaten - but the voice of the people was heard.
The march in NYC was not an isolated incident, there were several other protests across the country. In the end our elected officials heard the voice and outrage of the people and on both the local, and Federal level hate-crimes legislation was pushed to the fore.
We still have power, and we can still protest. It is a right we must never surrender. The powers of the government are limited, especially when they lack the time to prepare. Goo-guns be damned.
The U.S. isn't a lost cause, and we need to try to avoid the mentality that it is - we still have the power to be heard, and to be effective in bringing about change on behalf of the people when we are motivated to do so.