Civil disobedience, would you commit it?

[Downtown Hound]

Poll question: Civil disobedience, would you commit it?

Just thought I'd take a poll on how many DU'ers would be willing to be arrested in opposition to policies they find immoral. Have you, would you, or might you ever be willing to risk jail for an act of protest?

[T Wolf]

1. I do not believe that "civil disobedience" is an effective way to bring about change.

First - not enough Americans are affected severely enough to be roused for civil disobedience to the degree necessary to bring change. Think about the general strikes in Europe and elsewhere. Never happen here.

Second - the forces of the government and corporate America are too powerful to fight in this manner. The media portray marches, etc. as the single events they actually are - with little connection to the issue being promoted/protested.

Third - specific, direct actions are much more effective. See availability of abortion for example.

So, I would not be willing to needlessly and impotently sacrifice myself for a useless gesture. Now, something that was/would be effective - I'm there.

[Downtown Hound]

4. What do you consider effective?

You say "specific, direct actions." Such as?

[T Wolf]

7. I think the example I cited is obvious enough. Not that I would ever commit or encourage

another to commit a criminal act...

Just saying that attacking a problem head on is generally more effective than going at it in a sideways, indirect manner.

How many millions worldwide marched against the wars? Are those wars still going on, draining treasuries and filling coffins? Uh-huh.

[Downtown Hound]

8. Of those millions who marched

How many of them graduated from simple protesting to civil disobedience? Not very many. Now if those same millions set up camp in the financial districts of every major city, do you think it would be effective then? I sure do.

[Fozzledick]

16. I believe that civil disobedience in Washington aborted Nixon's nuclear attack against Viet-Nam

see post #14

[Mystayya]

2. Yes, but not for a few more years

My first responsibility as a single mother is to my kids. Once they graduate, then sure, I would risk my freedom. Until then I will march but avoid arrest if possible.

[frog92969]

3. None of my ideas for bringing change...

involve deliberately being thrown in jail.

If you're going to break the law for the good of the country you should at least try to get away with it.

[armyowalgreens]

20. It's hard to get away with it if you are being surrounded by police...

like say in a very illegal very disruptive protest down the middle of a road. Or something like that. The point is to draw attention.

[alfredo]

5. I have committed civil disobedience but wasn't arrested.

[closeupready]

6. I have never been, but I absolutely would if the cause was worth it.

n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

9. What, you wanna be called a terrorist?

According to the ACLU, DOD anti-terrorism training material equates protests to "low-level terrorism." If just taking part in a protest march is enough to make you a low-level terrorist, I would have to wonder if outright civil disobedience wouldn't bump you into the "Osama and followers" category.

Antiterrorism training materials used by the Department of Defense teach that public protests should be regarded as "low-level terrorism," according to a letter of complaint sent to the department by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

"Teaching employees that dissent on issues of public concern is something to be feared, rather than encouraged, is a dangerously counterproductive use of scarce security resources, making us less safe as a democracy," Northern California ACLU staff attorney Ann Brick and ACLU Washington national security policy counsel Michael German wrote in the letter to Gail McGinn, acting undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness.

"DOD employees cannot accomplish their mission of protecting our nation and its values unless they understand that those values encompass the right to criticize our government through protest activities," they wrote. "It is imperative that they are taught the difference between political, religious or social activism and terrorism."

Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course — an annual training requirement for all DOD personnel that is fulfilled through Web-based instruction — the department asks the following: "Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?" To answer correctly, the examinee must select "protests." The ACLU wants that changed immediately, and it wants corrective information sent to all Department of Defense employees who received the training.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics/ci_12589887

[Echo In Light]

10. Exactly. It's easy to see who our govt considers the REAL so-called "terrorists" to be, and why

[Downtown Hound]

12. Most definitely I want to be a terrorist.

:D

[rucky]

11. Does public urination count?

[Downtown Hound]

13. Absolutely. n/t

[Fozzledick]

14. I was "illegally detained" by the D.C. police during the 1971 Mayday demonstration against the War

At least that's how the Federal courts ruled when the ACLU filed suit afterward - the result of a "criminal conspiracy" between Nixon's top aides and the D.C. police chief to "violate the civil rights of demonstrators". On the one hand I wasn't doing anything illegal when they caught me and they didn't follow legal arrest procedure, but on the other hand I had just spent most of the morning deliberately obstructing traffic as part of a civil disobedience action. I found out later that the police had orders to arrest any male under 30 who wasn't wearing a necktie.

At the time I was just trying to stop the slaughter that was going on every day in Viet-Nam, but years later Daniel Ellsberg revealed that Nixon was plotting a nuclear attack and that this demonstration deterred him into postponing it until after the election for fear of the political backlash. By that time he was preoccupied with the unraveling Watergate cover-up. (Details are spelled out in his introduction to the New York Times edition of the Pentagon Papers.)

Leaks from White House staff later revealed that Nixon disregarded the 500,000 person legal protest march the week before as "commuters" who weren't seriously committed, but that 10,000 people committing civil disobedience in the streets of Washington seriously shook him up with the prospect of a real political rebellion.

[Downtown Hound]

17. I took part in the Day X protests in San Francisco in 2003

If you're not familiar, Day X was so named because it was the day the Iraq War started. Everybody knew there was going to be a war, and we were going to cause as much ruckus as possible on the day it broke out.

2200 people were arrested and the cities' financial district ended up being completely blocked off by protesters. So many people were arrested that the city actually made a public plea to the protesters to stop what we were doing. We were not only costing them serious money but we had completely filled the jail. There was by and large a major media blackout of what went on there that day, I firmly believe because they were afraid it would spread. If it had, Bush would have been in a lot of trouble.

To anybody that says civil disobedience isn't effective, I just tell them they weren't in San Francisco on Day X.

[sarcasmo]

15. If someone tried to force me to go to church.

[Downtown Hound]

21. Grounds for a riot. n/t

[armyowalgreens]

18. I have not been arrested yet...but I could see arrest in my future.

I am more than willing to commit acts of civil disobedience.

[roody]

19. I went to Cuba twice to protest the embargo.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

22. We ALL do every time we post here.

...or so they would have us believe...