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- Nov 6, 2007
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So, there are a lot of people saying that the protesters should not be evicted from public parks or streets or buildings because it is their First Amendment right to protest.
So when, if ever, should it be okay for police to order a crowd of protesters to move or disperse?
Honestly, I don't see how people can honestly argue that police should not be able to legally intervene with anyone's right to protest, even when those protests violate other laws, especially when the laws they violate are not unreasonable laws. Where would we draw the limit to what laws could be violated and what laws couldn't? If you have one group of protesters smoking pot in front of city hall and another smoking cigarettes on city buses, both just as protests, do either have the right to do this? What if it is a group of women marching topless to protest sexist bare chest laws and another group of male and female nudists dancing naked in the streets/parks or on the sidewalks to protest clothing laws altogether? Should we just allow the people to be able to basically do as they please, including trashing an area and possibly causing sanitation and other problems up til they finally choose to go home just because they are protesting?
And where is the line between peaceful protest and unruly crowd? Why do the protesters and their supporters get to be the determiners of whether they were unruly instead of the police officers, in the immediate situation, followed and ultimately decided by the courts?
So when, if ever, should it be okay for police to order a crowd of protesters to move or disperse?
Honestly, I don't see how people can honestly argue that police should not be able to legally intervene with anyone's right to protest, even when those protests violate other laws, especially when the laws they violate are not unreasonable laws. Where would we draw the limit to what laws could be violated and what laws couldn't? If you have one group of protesters smoking pot in front of city hall and another smoking cigarettes on city buses, both just as protests, do either have the right to do this? What if it is a group of women marching topless to protest sexist bare chest laws and another group of male and female nudists dancing naked in the streets/parks or on the sidewalks to protest clothing laws altogether? Should we just allow the people to be able to basically do as they please, including trashing an area and possibly causing sanitation and other problems up til they finally choose to go home just because they are protesting?
And where is the line between peaceful protest and unruly crowd? Why do the protesters and their supporters get to be the determiners of whether they were unruly instead of the police officers, in the immediate situation, followed and ultimately decided by the courts?