Should it be legal to drag road blockers away?

[lfromnj]

This is obviously using your barehands. If they escalate you can escalate to lethal force but if they just rag doll then you just have to drag them.

[Obama24]

No. They are annoying but the right to assemble is a key part of our democracy. If a peaceful protest, even if annoying, can be disrupted by force or threat of force, we're no better than any third world country. Annoying speech and annoying protests should be protected.

[Thank you for being a friend...]

Yes, a protest can be held on the sides of a road instead.  You should never be able to block a road - what if a emergency vehicle needed to get through it?

[dead0man]

No. They are annoying but the right to assemble is a key part of our democracy. If a peaceful protest, even if annoying, can be disrupted by force or threat of force, we're no better than any third world country. Annoying speech and annoying protests should be protected.

you don't have the right to deny me my civil rights 'cause you're big mad, I'm 100% dragging your ass and I'd recommend not resisting too much.

[Obama24]

No. They are annoying but the right to assemble is a key part of our democracy. If a peaceful protest, even if annoying, can be disrupted by force or threat of force, we're no better than any third world country. Annoying speech and annoying protests should be protected.

you don't have the right to deny me my civil rights 'cause you're big mad, I'm 100% dragging your ass and I'd recommend not resisting too much.

I mean hey, you can just say "I want an excuse to harm college kids." You don't have to mask it in "my poor civil rights are being because of an inconvenience." Just take the mask off, you know?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yes

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Yeah, that's reasonable force to prevent false imprisonment. Blocking drivers in and trapping them is distinctly not peaceful protests.

[dead0man]

No. They are annoying but the right to assemble is a key part of our democracy. If a peaceful protest, even if annoying, can be disrupted by force or threat of force, we're no better than any third world country. Annoying speech and annoying protests should be protected.

you don't have the right to deny me my civil rights 'cause you're big mad, I'm 100% dragging your ass and I'd recommend not resisting too much.

I mean hey, you can just say "I want an excuse to harm college kids." You don't have to mask it in "my poor civil rights are being because of an inconvenience." Just take the mask off, you know?

I disagree

[Antonio the Sixth]

If you can do so without causing further escalation, sure, but in the vast majority of cases that just won't be practical.

[Vice President Christian Man]

No, but they should be arrested, and held responsible for involuntary manslaughter if someone died because they needed medical care and either the ambulance or the road that the hospital is on was blocked.

[dead0man]

Yes, a protest can be held on the sides of a road instead.  You should never be able to block a road - what if a emergency vehicle needed to get through it?

No, but they should be arrested, and held responsible for involuntary manslaughter if someone died because they needed medical care and either the ambulance or the road that the hospital is on was blocked.

these are good arguments, but the "denying the civil rights of others" is way more than enough.

[TheTide]

No. They are annoying but the right to assemble is a key part of our democracy. If a peaceful protest, even if annoying, can be disrupted by force or threat of force, we're no better than any third world country. Annoying speech and annoying protests should be protected.

you don't have the right to deny me my civil rights 'cause you're big mad, I'm 100% dragging your ass and I'd recommend not resisting too much.

I mean hey, you can just say "I want an excuse to harm college kids." You don't have to mask it in "my poor civil rights are being because of an inconvenience." Just take the mask off, you know?

Are they all college kids then?

[dead0man]

Are they all college kids then?

yeah, good point.  Also, in what way is blocking people from going where they want to go "peaceful"?  Have they never met another human being before?  Other than those of us with a strong sheep gene (about 43% of us), the rest of us tend to get a little upset if we are denied movement for no good reason.  The longer it lasts, the more upset we get.  A peaceful protest can NOT deny the movement of people not involved in the protest and remain peaceful.  Period.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Are they all college kids then?

yeah, good point.  Also, in what way is blocking people from going where they want to go "peaceful"?  Have they never met another human being before?  Other than those of us with a strong sheep gene (about 43% of us), the rest of us tend to get a little upset if we are denied movement for no good reason.  The longer it lasts, the more upset we get.  A peaceful protest can NOT deny the movement of people not involved in the protest and remain peaceful.  Period.

TIL standing in a road holding a sign is violence.

[dead0man]

TIL standing in a road holding a sign is violence.

preventing someone from going where they want to go is way more violent than words (ya know, because of the inherent physicality of it), where do you stand on that issue?  Do you think blocking women from entering an abortion clinic is a valid protest?  Should union members be able to block scabs?  Should white be able to block black children from going to school?  All of these are easy for me because I believe you can't deny someone their civil rights to go where they are legally allowed to go.  Some people pick and chose who gets civil rights and when.

[VBM]

Why are road blocking protests even legal? It would be illegal for me to go randomly stand in the middle of a busy road, and I don’t see why me declaring that I’m protesting would suddenly give me the right to do so. The First Amendment doesn’t give you the right to protest wherever you want.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why are road blocking protests even legal?

They're not.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

TIL standing in a road holding a sign is violence.

preventing someone from going where they want to go is way more violent than words (ya know, because of the inherent physicality of it), where do you stand on that issue?  Do you think blocking women from entering an abortion clinic is a valid protest?  Should union members be able to block scabs?  Should white be able to block black children from going to school?  All of these are easy for me because I believe you can't deny someone their civil rights to go where they are legally allowed to go.  Some people pick and chose who gets civil rights and when.

Can you think of a reason to condemn preventing black kids from going to school as part of a battle to ensure black people stay second class citizens that doesn't apply equally to a civil rights protestor blocking traffic? Because I can. Can you think of a framework in which deliberately preventing someone from accessing a sometimes lifesaving healthcare procedure is considered bad in a way that isn't based entirely on the fact that they stand in front of a building to do it?(And of course, if you actually believe a zygote is morally equivalent to an infant, then blocking people from getting abortions would clearly be the right thing to do.) Because I can. Can you think of a reason why that bit about blocking scabs might be a bad way to persuade anyone of your point*? I'm not saying that blocking traffic is inherently good. Blocking emergency vehicles that are on their way to save someone is very bad, but that doesn't seem to I'm saying like treating it like its violence to get in the way of you getting to work is silly.

And of course the idea that intentionally standing in the way of someone's car is way more violent than sending a barrage of graphic threats to kill someone which include their current address because graphic death threats only use words is ludicrous.

*such as the fact that the rare people who would be swayed more bit than, for example, blocking access to a church because antitheism, already agree with you, and those who are persuadable but not convinced

[ingemann]

Are they all college kids then?

yeah, good point.  Also, in what way is blocking people from going where they want to go "peaceful"?  Have they never met another human being before?  Other than those of us with a strong sheep gene (about 43% of us), the rest of us tend to get a little upset if we are denied movement for no good reason.  The longer it lasts, the more upset we get.  A peaceful protest can NOT deny the movement of people not involved in the protest and remain peaceful.  Period.

TIL standing in a road holding a sign is violence.

If you use Max Weber’s theory on state use of violence, yes blocking a road deliberately is in fact an act of violence.

[lfromnj]

To those who voted no would you be fine with someone going close up as possible with the car and just honking?

[dead0man]

To those who voted no would you be fine with someone going close up as possible with the car and just honking?

some of our redsavs thinks it's fine if they do it to legal protest with a train horn

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do Republicans really want something with "drag" in the description to be legal!?

[Antonio the Sixth]

To those who voted no would you be fine with someone going close up as possible with the car and just honking?

Sure, I'd say that's a reasonable way to register discontent with the protest without escalating violence.

At the end of the day, the dispute is for legal authorities to settle (though that would require the police to be an impartial arbiter of the law, rather than a state-sanctioned street gang that's overtly sympathetic to far-right causes, so police intervention is to be considered illegitimate until radical police reform is implemented).

[Ferguson97]

I'll preface this by saying that I have absolutely zero sympathy for these clowns who block roads.

We don't need more vigilante justice or people trying to take the law into their own hands. It's just not going to lead to good outcomes for anybody.

[Obama24]

Its pretty frightening that a majority of this forum support physical assault of people that are annoying.