For years, all the time I hear people vilify protestors that turn violent.
Some even go to protests intending to break shit and cause violence.
I personally feel it's up to the individual how they want to protest.
If one person throws a rock from a crowd, it does not suddenly make it okay that the cops shoot them with rubber bullets or spray them with pepper spray or hit them. That is not okay. They should only arrest people they can prove actually committed a crime. Nothing that a member of a crowd does makes it okay when cops attack innocent people and use chemical weapons that are banned from use in war, but seem to just be accepted by domestic news when cops in the US do it...yet at the same time, vilified when cops in other countries use them...if it's a country that we don't like.
You shouldn't break windows of local store owners though.
But, if you wanna protest big business for any of the many shitty things they do, and do so violently, I think that should be fully up to you. If a company has policies that are discriminatory and pay their employees shit wages and cause them to be an undue burden on the government because they aren't paying them enough or giving them benefits, I guarantee you that they would change their habits very quickly if you made it financially beneficial to do so...or detrimental not to. One of the ways to do that is protests, and not necessarily non-violent ones. Of course, if you do break shit, you risk your life and limb and could face jail time.
Of course, it's not like cops have shown in the past years that they respect people's rights, particularly the right to protest. They have arrested countless people for simply peacefully assembling in a public space, carrying signs, and chanting. When you add in things like blocking a road though, it's almost guaranteed they'll arrest you, and possibly hit you first, pepper spray you, or smash your face into the ground. Certain people also will blatantly decry that you should be run over for doing this.
And yet they always continue to say that protestors should always be non-violent.
Non-violent protest was the hallmark of Dr. King, who was instrumental in the progress of the US towards becoming a more free nation. Of course, they also launched intelligence operations against him, slandered him, and he was eventually killed. The man that was arrested for his assassination later tried to recant his guilty plea, after being convicted, but was denied his pleads for a jury trial.
Revolution isn't non-violent.
There are many times when non-violent protest can be effective...but it's not the only way. And it shouldn't necessarily be marketed as if it is.
We exist in a world where one side in a war is willing to use any means they can get away with, including chemical warfare and "non-lethal" weapons that are more accurately a bit less than lethal. A bullet to the head will cause serious damage, whether it's made of lead or rubber. Meanwhile, the other side only uses pickets and voices and sit-ins and occasionally blocks roads...and the media vilifies them for it, if they report on them at all. If someone breaks a window, it's a riot. It's a riot if they're even a bit too loud and scary to them.
This "war" that the populace is constantly in against the police state is completely one sided. They have no chance. They are protesting against a domestic military force with overstock military hardware they got on the cheap and are just itching to use. Meanwhile, no matter what they do, the media will almost always be on their side. There are cases where cops teargassed and peppersprayed and arrested members of the press...and they're still on their side.
In this world where you are always the villain and will be beat no matter what you do, why not earn it? Why not give them a reason? They're gonna beat you. They're gonna arrest you. They're gonna spy on you. They're gonna get away with it. Why not piss them off and make it obvious that they are not the innocent protectors of the peace that the media lies about them being.
Not that there aren't good cops...but we need to stop letting them get away with "not all cops" bullshit, because they protect the cops that are bad.
National March Against Police Violence Washington DC USA 50309
by Ted Eytan December 13, 2014 (source)
Used under the CC BY-SA 2.0 License
