If you're going to protest...
...avoid doing things that will alienate people and possibly end in tragedy.
Last night, a right-wing speaker with prominent anti-LGBTQ points of view gave a talk on campus. I didn't go - I had a long list of better things to do than listen to a bigoted loudmouth repeat what he's said hundreds of times on social media - but although I was at first happy to see a large crowd gathering to give him the welcome he deserved and loudly support LGBTQ rights, I was later disappointed in some of the actions taken by some of those who protested.
I don't like saying this. I thought about joining the protest. I was very much on their side. I would never have called for this speaker (or pretty much any speaker) to be banned, but showing him what our community thinks of his verbal myiasis was perfectly appropriate.
Except for two things.
First - one or more protesters dumped marbles in the stairwells where the presentation would happen. That was breathtakingly stupid. Someone could have gotten killed that way. I hope those who pulled this stunt are caught and prosecuted. I don’t care what message they were trying to convey.
I also later learned that the protesters blocked traffic on one or more streets.
I’ve said it before – blocking traffic is a seriously counterproductive way to protest.
Protests are intended not only to make a point, but to draw sympathy for a cause. Preventing people from picking up their kids at school, visiting a loved one in the hospital, getting to a job interview or court appearance on time, or any other reason for going from point A to point B doesn’t even remotely accomplish that. Instead, it frustrates a lot of people – most of whom, in this community at least, might actively support the protest’s rationale. Their reaction will be less “wow, these kids have a good point” and more “get off the road.”
It can also be dangerous. Emergency vehicles might be blocked. There are lots of semis that whip through a stretch of interstate passing through town, and they can’t stop on a dime - especially if the protest happens at night, when visibility is limited. This is especially true if law enforcement isn't told of the blockage in advance so traffic can be re-routed.
(This happened in our community in 2020, when part of an otherwise peaceful BLM protest decided to block the interstate after dark. Police ended up firing tear gas into the crowd - not because authorities wanted it silenced, but because it wouldn't clear out from the freeway. The crowd had created a hazard that could have ended very badly. I'm still not sure how I feel about the tear gas, but I can understand why the decision to deploy it was made.)
Seriously - I, for one, don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death because an ambulance couldn’t get through. And had that happened, the reason for the protest would have been all but forgotten.
I get it. Protests are intended to stop business as usual. But blocking traffic is not a good way to accomplish that. And before someone points to the roads blocked during the Civil Rights era – those really aren’t the same thing. They were targeted against communities with Jim Crow laws. If lives were interrupted, it was for the people who needed a little interference in their lives. These protests were less likely to antagonize sympathizers.
People have actually been more than inconvenienced by this sort of thing. Someone I know was denied a job because the off-ramp to the airport was blockaded, making her miss her flight. Another highway blockade in town a few years ago kept people from getting to the hospital to visit a gravely ill relative who, for all they knew, was about to die. Fortunately, they managed to get to the hospital and meet with their relative, who I don't think ended up dying (though I could be misremembering that) - but the incident became front-and-center when the protest was reported in local news media. And you know what? No one remembered the reason for these protest. They only knew that a job opportunity was lost or that someone could have been prevented from saying a last goodbye.
Anyway – the protest itself was a good idea, but it could have been handled more strategically. There weren't any unintended tragedies, but it could have ended very badly.
My thoughts. And they’re worth every penny you paid to read them.
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