When Ye Protest at Our Capitol
Protests are powerful forces, but only an armed movement can accomplish things if they remain small. Unarmed resistance must be large to get the job done.
I see the present movement--called by such names as Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening--as lacking in numbers. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, via their celebrity status, help bring attention to the movement. That's great. Love it. However, how do we increase the numbers?
As a B12 shot in the arm, the movements have turned to peaceful rebellion in the form of voluntary arrests, but with minimal or even negative mainstream media coverage it is unlikely that the numbers would go anywhere but down.
The Capitol Police are very diligent when it comes to following through with their orders but no one on the force would like to spend resources on defending themselves against lawsuits--especially if it can really be helped. At this point, I'd like to point out a very significant difference between celebrities and your average citizen. . While the ordinary citizen gets cuffed to the point of causing perhaps permanent hand injury, celebrities like Ben & Jerry, Rosario Dawson, and Cenk Uygur are treated with kid gloves--so much so that Dawson went out of her way to give kudos to the CapPol for the nice way her arrest went. Now, no one wants the spokesman injured but we need each other and when the non-celebrity continuously gets injured by the CapPol, the celebrity might just as well just give an interview.
The solution is not to get equal treatment by CapPol for they are as unionized as any other police force in America and, with near total abandon, generally allow for a disproportionate number of sadists into their rank and file.
The solution I propose is this: either the organization or the celebrity participants makes it clear to the CapPol that they will use their funds to bring about a lawsuit on behalf of the most seriously injured protester. The rank and file of the protest movement are not rich folk and the CapPol know this. However, if they know that money is being allocated to seek remuneration for cowardly, sadistic acts perpetrated on the people, I think they'll eventually rewrite the manual and disallow sadism.
Finally, to those who doubt the power of demonstrations, I ask that you consider this: the very first Amendment gives us the right to free speech, the right of free assembly, and the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances but that same government takes away our right if we exercise it anywhere on the grounds of the Capitol. We are a force to be reckoned with and those fat cats at the Capitol have surreptitiously enacted this regulation because they know that movements start small and grow and if they can nip it in the bud, they will. What they still can't mess with is a multitude of people, When Bernie Sanders gets elected, he should start considering how he is to once again allow expression of the First so that we can build that coalition that will demonstrate on behalf of his policies.
Personally, I won't be risking arrest again any time soon (I was the third one arrested last Monday). I love to play musical instruments and do not want to risk injuring my hands to the point where they can't function for me any longer; I can see that happening with the CapPol. Yes, Ms. Dawson, my cuffs were finally loosened but only because I complained meekly and only after four attempts at loosening them. Do you think, Ms. Dawson, that by giving kudos to the CapPol that they will treat other protesters with compassion? Don't fucking bet on it!
Celebrities are treated well but so are the younger crowd. Why would that be? Well, these beasts know that Americans are quick to dismiss the youth as malcontents who have nothing better to do with their time than to protest*. They have a heck of a problem, though, when it comes to older folk for when seasoned folk protest, the population recognizes that something must be terribly wrong and a change to their status quo is only a matter of time.
*The youth were instrumental in stopping the Vietnam War but we went out in large numbers that couldn't be ignored nor suppressed. To Nixon's credit, he allowed moratorium after moratorium--even showing up by helicopter one early morning on the grounds of the Washington Memorial to talk with us--he never arrested us en masse. There'll always be a soft spot in my heart for Tricky Dick Nixon.
I see the present movement--called by such names as Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening--as lacking in numbers. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, via their celebrity status, help bring attention to the movement. That's great. Love it. However, how do we increase the numbers?
As a B12 shot in the arm, the movements have turned to peaceful rebellion in the form of voluntary arrests, but with minimal or even negative mainstream media coverage it is unlikely that the numbers would go anywhere but down.
The Capitol Police are very diligent when it comes to following through with their orders but no one on the force would like to spend resources on defending themselves against lawsuits--especially if it can really be helped. At this point, I'd like to point out a very significant difference between celebrities and your average citizen. . While the ordinary citizen gets cuffed to the point of causing perhaps permanent hand injury, celebrities like Ben & Jerry, Rosario Dawson, and Cenk Uygur are treated with kid gloves--so much so that Dawson went out of her way to give kudos to the CapPol for the nice way her arrest went. Now, no one wants the spokesman injured but we need each other and when the non-celebrity continuously gets injured by the CapPol, the celebrity might just as well just give an interview.
The solution is not to get equal treatment by CapPol for they are as unionized as any other police force in America and, with near total abandon, generally allow for a disproportionate number of sadists into their rank and file.
The solution I propose is this: either the organization or the celebrity participants makes it clear to the CapPol that they will use their funds to bring about a lawsuit on behalf of the most seriously injured protester. The rank and file of the protest movement are not rich folk and the CapPol know this. However, if they know that money is being allocated to seek remuneration for cowardly, sadistic acts perpetrated on the people, I think they'll eventually rewrite the manual and disallow sadism.
Finally, to those who doubt the power of demonstrations, I ask that you consider this: the very first Amendment gives us the right to free speech, the right of free assembly, and the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances but that same government takes away our right if we exercise it anywhere on the grounds of the Capitol. We are a force to be reckoned with and those fat cats at the Capitol have surreptitiously enacted this regulation because they know that movements start small and grow and if they can nip it in the bud, they will. What they still can't mess with is a multitude of people, When Bernie Sanders gets elected, he should start considering how he is to once again allow expression of the First so that we can build that coalition that will demonstrate on behalf of his policies.
Personally, I won't be risking arrest again any time soon (I was the third one arrested last Monday). I love to play musical instruments and do not want to risk injuring my hands to the point where they can't function for me any longer; I can see that happening with the CapPol. Yes, Ms. Dawson, my cuffs were finally loosened but only because I complained meekly and only after four attempts at loosening them. Do you think, Ms. Dawson, that by giving kudos to the CapPol that they will treat other protesters with compassion? Don't fucking bet on it!
Celebrities are treated well but so are the younger crowd. Why would that be? Well, these beasts know that Americans are quick to dismiss the youth as malcontents who have nothing better to do with their time than to protest*. They have a heck of a problem, though, when it comes to older folk for when seasoned folk protest, the population recognizes that something must be terribly wrong and a change to their status quo is only a matter of time.
*The youth were instrumental in stopping the Vietnam War but we went out in large numbers that couldn't be ignored nor suppressed. To Nixon's credit, he allowed moratorium after moratorium--even showing up by helicopter one early morning on the grounds of the Washington Memorial to talk with us--he never arrested us en masse. There'll always be a soft spot in my heart for Tricky Dick Nixon.
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