Friday, November 4, 2016

The peaceful protest: the underlying problem exposed



Despite their peaceful resilience, these protesters are still being attacked by law enforcements with what police have labeled “less than lethal” tools.


Although they may not be lethal, they quite certainly inflict physical and mental trauma, injuries that aren’t justified considering these protesters aren’t violent.   

In an interview with CNN Actor Mark Ruffalo, who is advocate against the construction of the pipeline, said he didn’t see any violence when he went to the protester's camp site.

In fact, he said quite the opposite. Most don’t want to to cause a stir against the police at all.  

From these protests, we can clearly see police injustice, which in turn exposes the underlying problem - excessive force.  

Congressional candidate and activist Erin Schrode, who was shot in the back with a rubber bullet while interviewing protesters said, the protest was “100 percent peaceful.”


While the arguments being made on both sides of the project are important to analyze and discuss, a similarly valuable discussion should focus on the value of peaceful protests as a form of remonstration.

On the surface, these protests have served as demonstrations of people’s right to challenge authority. On a deeper level, however, like so many other protests, they’ve exposed some real law enforcement injustices.  

2 comments:

  1. That was an interesting piece. I enjoyed reading it. I see in it the problem in our society of using force and violence as a course of action by those we consent to occupying positions of authority and power. It seems to me that police and, by extension, the government, increasingly employ violence and force against American citizens, as well as in its international dealings, with an alarming frequency that produces serious consequences beyond the obvious.

    One of the consequences of this violence, I believe, derives from setting the example—as the government and various authority figures—for all citizens to see and be influenced by that it is perfectly legitimate to employ violence and force as a first course of action against those with whom one merely differs. This happens at all levels of this society, local, state, federal. My sense is that the United States is becoming a structurally violent society because of the influence this has on people and the example it sets. The subtle, tacit approval of the use of violence, force, and coercion by authority figures, police, and that seen in the international interventions of our national government and the reported kill lists that result on the nightly news stand as the supreme examples for children, men, and women across this country.

    While trickle-down economics has proven a cruel ruse, trickle-down violence by a government that stands in loco parentis to its citizens most likely works very well, unfortunately.

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  2. I agree that there is a serious "cop culture" problem in our society.

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