What is civil disobedience?
Sometimes I wonder if anyone even know what "civil disobedience is" After hearing about the 900 arrested for protesting the other day I’m just shaking my head-of course they were arrested they didn’t have a city permit-is it "unfair" that the city didn’t give them permits? … perhaps. But, I’d like to share this little piece on civil disobedience I wrote with you and the way it is meant to work-when you use and why:
What is civil disobedience? the question is not terribly simple. for example most people would agree that Martin Luther King's sit ins at "white only" restaurants constituted civil disobedience. Burning a draft card is an act of civil disobedience. What criteria do these acts need to meet?
Civil Disobedience Is:
-deliberate
-premeditated
-public
-illegal
-enacted for what the protester considers to be the common good
(if you are missing any one of these elements it’s not Civil Disobedience)
That is, if I'm protesting peacefully and I have obtained a city permit for my protest and I break no laws that is not civil disobedience. That's civic action: that is, it's not illegal. If, while protesting I'm harassed and get in a fistfight with someone that is not civil disobedience, that is civic action gone haywire, that is, it was not premeditated. If I'm protesting peacefully and I start marching in the street and this is illegal, but I didn't know that-- that is not civil disobedience, it's not deliberate. That's being ignorant of the law.
Likewise, if I grow tobacco in my back yard and sell it to the neighborhood kids that is not civil disobedience. That's being a soft drug dealer. If I wanted to protest the laws that prevent me from selling tobacco to kids, I'd need to notify the press to make the act public.
If I refuse to pay my taxes, not because I think the tax is unjust, or because I object to the way my tax dollars are used, but, simply because I want to buy a CD player That's not civil disobedience. That's selfishness, it's not (even in my own eyes) for the "public good."
Civil disobedience should be the last resort for a political activist. Actually, it's the second to last. The real last resort is a revolution.
I think if you consider it in this way that leaves two options: protestors were protesting the cities failure to give them a permit or the protesters are just plain stubborn.
Though the guys in Dick Cheny masks and pig noses did crack me up-I just hope this will not stop people from going to the legal protests today and later in the week.
What is civil disobedience? the question is not terribly simple. for example most people would agree that Martin Luther King's sit ins at "white only" restaurants constituted civil disobedience. Burning a draft card is an act of civil disobedience. What criteria do these acts need to meet?
Civil Disobedience Is:
-deliberate
-premeditated
-public
-illegal
-enacted for what the protester considers to be the common good
(if you are missing any one of these elements it’s not Civil Disobedience)
That is, if I'm protesting peacefully and I have obtained a city permit for my protest and I break no laws that is not civil disobedience. That's civic action: that is, it's not illegal. If, while protesting I'm harassed and get in a fistfight with someone that is not civil disobedience, that is civic action gone haywire, that is, it was not premeditated. If I'm protesting peacefully and I start marching in the street and this is illegal, but I didn't know that-- that is not civil disobedience, it's not deliberate. That's being ignorant of the law.
Likewise, if I grow tobacco in my back yard and sell it to the neighborhood kids that is not civil disobedience. That's being a soft drug dealer. If I wanted to protest the laws that prevent me from selling tobacco to kids, I'd need to notify the press to make the act public.
If I refuse to pay my taxes, not because I think the tax is unjust, or because I object to the way my tax dollars are used, but, simply because I want to buy a CD player That's not civil disobedience. That's selfishness, it's not (even in my own eyes) for the "public good."
Civil disobedience should be the last resort for a political activist. Actually, it's the second to last. The real last resort is a revolution.
I think if you consider it in this way that leaves two options: protestors were protesting the cities failure to give them a permit or the protesters are just plain stubborn.
Though the guys in Dick Cheny masks and pig noses did crack me up-I just hope this will not stop people from going to the legal protests today and later in the week.