Saturday saw a protest designed specifically to get on the nerves of leaders in the Trump Administration.
It was billed as a "wake-up call" by ShutDownDC, a group that aims to make its grievances heard. Early in the morning, protesters brought pots and pans and air horns to make noise outside Louis DeJoy's apartment building in Washington, DC.
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| Policeman in a riot helmet on a horse in a riot helmet. |
That puts both of DeJoy and Trump in criminal and possibly treasonous territory for interfering with the mail. But so far, nobody has stopped DeJoy's efforts.
This tactic, of "waking up" officials, appears to be in fashion. On Friday, Houston activists turned up before dawn to string a big banner in front of Senator Ted Cruz's home. The banner read, "No Justice, No Sleep."
A participant later wrote on Facebook that "Senator Cruz is an active participant in attacks on our freedom, racial injustice, economic inequity & the ongoing climate crisis...[He] is an exceptionally bad person. He merits no peace."
How do these protest tactics measure up to "The right of the people to peaceably assemble?" I think it should take a true crisis, like trashing the U.S. Mail before an election, to justify a nuisance protest. In DeJoy's case, nothing is out of bounds except personal threats. Arguably, the serenade of air horns might feel like one, but it really isn't.
However, just being a "bad person" is not enough. Ted Cruz has been on the wrong side of everything for every day of his career. That protest was like chiding someone for being stupid -- or more accurately, disagreeing with me, my family (most of it), my friends, and all other right-thinking people.
Speaking of stupid, a far-right group called the Three Percenters held a 2,000-person protest, also on Saturday. It was in Stone Mountain, Georgia, the site of a bas-relief of Confederate military leaders carved into the side of a mountain like a low-rent Mount Rushmore.
The Three Percenters' cause was "Our history and Second Amendment rights." A certain potential for violence at that event, huh? The city urged people to stay the heck out of downtown. Still, on Saturday morning, counterprotesters from two different groups flooded into the town.
The Three Percenters had applied for a permit, which was rejected. Neither group had legal permission to gather, and protesters on both sides had firearms. The counterprotesters far outnumbered the Three Percenters.
All the protesters met in front of a downtown church. Thanks largely to a huge police presence that included SWAT teams and the Georgia National Guard, only a few minor injuries occurred in the shouting matches and scuffles that followed.
When I went to a protest in Houston a while back, the police made the counterprotesters meet at a separate location, a good 50 yards from the opposing side, and out of sight of each other. At that protest, too, police were out in force. (Ever seen a horse in a riot helmet? They look pret-ty weird.)
But really, should peaceful assembly be this much like a forest fire looking for a spark?
What do you think? Do you call these "peaceful?" What do you think of the protests waking people up in the morning?
"riot ready" by zenobia_joy is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/noise-demonstration-held-outside-home-of-postmaster-general_n_5f381669c5b69fa9e2fc3b62?fbclid=IwAR2UMLiOZFz3jynu-yPK6KzZHmo6DT9OmPaGtZcokUVJlhRhLJCRQtrFhw0
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/dozens-protesters-counter-protesters-face-off-defend-stone-mountain-rally/JBMRHJCD2ZAFDBCWTS6UIBGI5M/
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