Soo…the Trump administration is wasting no time and leaders around our country in our own state governments are now eating it up. They have had enough of the protesters. Is it me, or is this CNN article really odd and morbid starting out, “It may soon be legal to run over protesters with your car in North Dakota. But only if you do it accidentally.” (CNN, 2017). So, let me get this straight now it is okay to murder someone in North Dakota (or will be if this law is enacted) as long as the person was blocking your way by protesting. Basically, it’s okay to commit vehicular homicide if the person is exercising first amendment rights. This is the country we are living in now. It’s even worse than I thought. I thought simply free speech would be outlawed but now murder and assault is perfectly okay, as long as the victim was officially practicing some sort of civil disobedience. Oh yes, there’s that little guise of it being an “accident.” How dumb do the lawmakers really think we are?
It’s not just happening in North Dakota, numerous States are introducing similar initiatives. Even in the protestor friendly State of Washington. According to a poll done by Fox most people do think the federal funding should be cut to UC Berkeley after the protests a few days ago. See, here. Then again, it is Fox but still..President Trump sends out some half-witted tweet and the public just eats it up as well without even checking the facts or considering them. They see one or two reports on the news of people smashing windows and the media stating how violent the protests were and they immediately make sweeping generalizations. Then the media really has to push the agenda of fear and demonization of protesting as the headlines all state “violent” protests in big bold letters all over the news. Do people not realize the people who were doing the violent protesting were not the students? Why is it always a few bad apples spoiling the whole bunch? The group known as “black bloc” are the ones who are the anarchists and have no real purpose except to cause damage and incite violence and make the real protesters look bad.
The last time I checked, the Constitution of the United States was the law of this land allowing peaceful assembly and free speech. As a reminder: Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
But now various other laws around the country are being introduced, under the guise of protests “interfering with commerce.” And mainly because of these misguided and angry people who are defeating the whole purpose of assembly. The intimidating dress and violent energy spewing forth from these obviously lost ninjas makes me want to yell through the computer–hey ! you assholes are making it worse!– In effect, they are defeating the purpose and I’m just wondering why? Are they just simply anarchists and want to destroy society? Are they planted by the controllers to discredit the actual real protesters? Do they just need a hug? Who are these people waving red flags and acting all crazy? No one talks about them other than to group them in with peaceful citizens and saying we are all destructive and unruly. The violent ones juxtaposed to the peaceful ones was quite apparent at the UC Berkeley march. Very important blog post here talking about the “black bloc” and how these anarchists have a long history of disrupting peaceful protests at Berkeley. According to Chris Hedges, “The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement.” (D. Douglas-Bowers 2014). They [the black bloc folks] came out of a movement in the 1980s–if you believe that– from Germany. (Kunnath, A. 2017).
As the peaceful students and citizens of the city and surrounding areas came together to oppose this person speaking at their school, all of a sudden as the peaceful marchers were going into the streets, all of these crazy ninja type folks show up, clearly up to no good and ready to start some trouble to disrupt the whole process. These are the ones who are freaking out “the Masters” and now various bills and initiatives are going to be enacted to take away our first amendment rights to peaceably assemble. Seems fishy to me. But yet, no one is talking about them. It’s just generalizations about protesters in general.
The majority of people who were assembled peaceably to voice their opposition to a white supremacist speaking at their school were students and citizens of the community. You can check it out here if you missed it. Last time I checked, students pay tuition to attend, or get into debt in some cases, so why shouldn’t they have a voice on who is speaking at their school? It’s not a community center. Even if it was a community center, if the community doesn’t want him then so be it. Frankly, this is the first time I’ve heard of this guy (Milo Yiannopoulos) and really the last I want to hear about him. I’m not even going to do “the research” because I have better things to do than read up on this shady character. Fact is, I could care less about him. He is very irrelevant to what is really going down and a distraction. Like one protester said — “He won’t get a forum at UC Berkeley.” They feel strongly about it and it’s their school so why is everyone so freaked out about it? He can have a forum at many other places to spew his rhetoric. What’s even worse is the President backing him up saying he is threatening to pull federal funds. Wow, speechless…our President is really clueless on how to lead a country.
I am not sure what is happening to our country but I don’t like the path we are going down. Violent anarchists are disrupting peaceful protests and now the public and the government are penalizing everyone by trying to take our Constitutional rights away. The public is ready to let them do it too because of a fringe radical group without any understanding of the greater challenges this presents to our society and the price we will pay is yet more civil liberties being taken away. If we are going to have our voices heard in the Resistance, we MUST find a way to deal with those who insist that violence, vandalism, and intimidation are the ways to protest. History has proven otherwise. The only true and effective way to stand up to the powers that be is through non-violent and peaceful assembly combined with acute awareness that we are all diverse individuals with something to contribute. Anything less is a waste of time.
As you can see here in the UC Berkeley statement, the violence was the sole responsibility of “150 masked agitators who came onto campus and disrupted an otherwise non-violent protest.” (Public Affairs, UC Berkeley, 2017). Who are these masked agitators? Maybe it’s time to tell them to take off their masks and seek some professional mental health services.
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http://www.facebook.com/fox43news. “Poll: Should federal education funding be cut when college students protest opposing viewpoints?” WPMT FOX43. N.p., 02 Feb. 2017. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.
Proposed laws would crack down on protesters who block roadways. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/us/nd-protest-driver-bill-trnd/
Iaconangelo, D. (2017, February 02). Controversy stirred after UC Berkeley cancels Milo Yiannopoulos speech. Retrieved February 04, 2017, from https://www.yahoo.com/news/controversy-stirred-uc-berkeley-cancels-milo-yiannopoulos-speech-224342243.html
Kunnath, A. (2017, February 02). Anarchists, NOT Cal students, responsible for violence in UC Berkeley protests. Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2017/2/2/14482840/anarchists-uc-berkeley-violence-protests-california-golden-bears
Unmasking The Black Bloc: Who They Are, What They Do, How They Work. (2014, December 18). Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://www.occupy.com/article/unmasking-black-bloc-who-they-are-what-they-do-how-they-work#sthash.FtFI3Z0M.RycjHL8c.dpbs
Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2017, from https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/893120087496166/?pnref=story
Public Affairs, UC Berkeley | February 1, 2017February 2, 2017, & Affairs, P. (2017, February 02). Milo Yiannopoulos event canceled after violence erupts. Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/02/01/yiannopoulos-event-canceled/
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