Motorcyclist detained after riding through San Francisco health care protest

but except for narrow circumstances, traffic blockages are a very unintelligent form of protest.

They work if the people being blocked are those who could affect change and, usually, those who are not aligned with the cause being promoted by the protest.

Please note, I am NOT defending the motorcyclist. He should be prosecuted. But I really dislike traffic blockages - they may have worked with the Civil Rights movement, but they won't make a difference here and they actually aggravate those who support the good side.

tend to imply that he could have gone other ways to avoid the protesters entirely and thus any claims his attorney might try to make that he was frustrated over being blocked would kind of fly out the window you would think.

He should be prosecuted, as I said.

In other words it was probably permitted.

Whether blocking traffic, for any length of time, has a positive impact on the causes we all promote - including making sure Obamacare is not overturned for something like Trumpcare - is. And as far as I can tell, it doesn't.

Then again, maybe they did and I don't meant this in snark but maybe they decided peoples' inconvenience is unfortunate but necessary. One reason for a protest like this as I'm sure you're aware is to simply raise awareness, not necessarily to gain support. In the case of the Senates health care bill, it's an effective form of protest because no matter how irritated a person is about the resultant traffic congestion, it's highly unlikely that it will cause a person to support that bill or other wise alter their general position on the subject. They either believe health care is a fundamental human need and right or they consider it a commodity to be bought and sold on the market, traffic be damned.

It gets the word out really well because of commuters complaining about the traffic jam these protesters created, the conversation will eventually turn to the actual bill. Without the traffic jam and inconvenience, the conversation may never take place. I acknowledge you don't like it and I'm not asking you to, either. Traffic sucks on a good day.

First - I acknowledge a couple of differences between this protest and the traffic blockages that really turned me against the practice:

1. This particular protest appears to have been organized (and announced) in advance. I was unaware of this (blame incomplete reading on my part) when I made my first comment. People know they're coming and, in general, they're organized to allow emergency traffic or alternative routes for those going somewhere.

Spontaneous traffic blockages really piss people off and tend to be the focus of attention. Interstate 80 was blocked for a while near my home after Trump was announced as the president-elect; nearly all of the news coverage was directed toward the families who were trying to get to a local hospital to visit relatives in the ICU. Likewise, when BLM blocked highway exit ramps leading to airports, the media spent more time covering people who missed flights as a result of the action.

2. This particular protest had a specific goal - block Trumpcare. Other traffic blockage protests have not been so centered. Consider some of the BLM protests - what, exactly, did they intend to accomplish beyond making people aware of police violence toward African Americans? Were they protesting for or against specific legislation, or individual political officials or police officers? (Protests organized in reaction to specific acts of police brutality often call for a specific officer's dismissal and prosecution, but not all BLM protests did.) Likewise - what, exactly, did those who blocked freeways in reaction to Trump's "election" hope to accomplish? Again, the news reports focused on the outcome relative to travellers and commuters, not the reasons for the protest.

How many took place on sidewalks so as not to inconvenience motorists?

Spontaneous traffic blockages tend to annoy people without advancing the cause. But if people know they're coming, disruption is minimized.

The guy took matters into his own hands at seven minutes. Many of the protestors were disabled (like my daughter, who uses a wheelchair) or elderly.

San Francisco has lots of much longer road closures for more frivolous reasons all the time.

That's interfering with others' rights to be free to travel and move around.

That doesn't excuse the motorcyclist.

just because the biker dude was a white MAGA-queen.

yup

The event and the article is several days old.

This real gem of a deplorable ran a Facebook group called "The White Privilege Club" and calls his own Asian-descent wife a "slant eye import."



Read it here: https://nextshark.com/man-ran-white-privilege-club-calls-asian-wife-slant-eye-import/

the SF company for which he works.

[link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029241759|

North Carolina, North Dakota and Tennessee are trying to make this legal. All I could think of was those terrible attacks in London. They want to be the terrorists? I guess if it a right winger acting out it is patriotism.

Doubt he cares, but I bet his agent just shit a brick

Funny how those Replican THUGS get caught they turn into an instant snowflake and had NO IDEA they were or could hurt anyone.

Published June 22, 2017, 7:14 AM, posted in the LBN Forum Jun 24, 2017, 06:50 PM way over 12 hours old.

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