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[shoreu]

Arrest these idiots.

Que?

 

[Slayven]

I might to pick up my son from school though, on MLK day, when school is out.

You might live in Arziona

 

[Chariot]

non American here, are BLM actually making any inroads with their protesting? I know you folks are in an election cycle so it's become a talking point for some candidates but do people think positive change is coming in regards to how black Americans are treated by the establishment?

no ulterior motive just interested in getting some insight

Bernie Sanders said "Black Lives Matter" and names if victims in his time during the first democratic debate on tv while the others (minus O'Malley) acted coy on this. Bernie also since he was disturbed, made his politics regarding black ussues clearer and earned respect from people like Killer Mike. Hillary on the other chand got her security to catch BLM protesters and put them in a backroom so they won't dusturb her.

 

[Silver Arrows]

You might live in Arziona

By the time I get....TO ARIZONA!

 

[Kid Kamikaze10]

MLK would be fucking demonized if he was around today


He wouldn't be asking why BLM is blocking the bridge, he would be asking why 60 years later they still have to block a bridge

MLK would have gotten destroyed by the FBI and other legs of the establishment. They were ready to destroy his legacy, they wanted him to commit suicide.



And if I remember a certain court case in the 90s, apparently he was destroyed by them.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

You might live in Arziona

The fuck. I had no idea.

 

[EdibleKnife]

Are they actually blocking emergency services or is that just a hypothetical?

Of course not

MLK would be fucking demonized if he was around today

He wouldn't be asking why BLM is blocking the bridge, he would be asking why 60 years later they still have to block a bridge

But doesn't the sight of all those people on that bridge just rub you the wrong way, Slayven? Doesn't it just annoy you for reasons you can't put words too? Wouldn't you rather have them confine their little protest to a rented acreage of park so that you can be comfortable :/

 

[theignoramus]

So is this action meant to persuade, or punish...or persuade through punishment? Something else entirely?

Currently I'm failing to see how this helps the BLM movement in any way.

It remains a public topic, thats what it accomplishes. Doesnt matter if people get pissed off, it forces people to confront an issue theyd prefer be consigned to an op-ed in a newspaper or a letter to a congressman.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

Of course not



But doesn't the sight of all those people on that bridge just rub you the wrong way, Slayven? Doesn't it just annoy you for reasons you can't put words too? Wouldn't you rather have them confine their little protest to a rented acreage of park so that you can be comfortable :/

The condescending tones you take towards people who disagree with you simply aren't necessary. We should be able to have a discussion without the snark.

 

[DrSlek]

It remains a public topic, thats what it accomplishes. Doesnt matter if people get pissed off, it forces people to confront an issue theyd prefer be consigned to an op-ed in a newspaper or a letter to a congressman.

Fair enough.

 

[Cyan]

I don't think I'm very well versed in protests, but what is the benefit of holding up traffic? Is it meant to:

a) bring media attention to the cause

b) bring attention to the people in traffic

c) make people angry and inconvenienced enough that they will start working on a solution just to avoid more similar obstructions in the future

I'm guessing some combination of all 3?

I think disruptive protests of this sort mostly work by bringing broader attention to the cause. Media attention, and official attention, and the attention of the general populace. While peaceful protests that don't get in anyone's way can draw attention, you would in general expect a lot more attention for disruptive protests. Partly because they're less common, partly because they're more controversial, and controversy helps a lot in the spread of ideas (and so, ironically, the people who get mad about tactics like this are a big part of what makes them successful).

I do expect that people directly affected by disruptive protests would be less likely to support the cause. Not because they "were never going to be allies of the cause" or because "traffic > the cause" or whatever but because for someone who hasn't already thought about an issue and picked a side, being personally negatively impacted by a protest is immediate and painful, and since the proximate cause of that pain is the protestors and their cause, it's likely they'll associate strong negative emotions with the cause and never engage in any critical thinking on the topic.

In a perfect world, peaceful protests would be more successful than disruptive protests and no one would feel like they had to do this sort of thing. Unfortunately, I don't think we live in that world.

 

[StickSoldier]

Well, I guess it will get people talking right? I know I'd be one pissed of person if this happened to me though, to be honest. I just wish they did a protest some other way than involving traffic. You never know where someone has to be, so to purposely block traffic for this, it seems a little poor in taste to me personally.

 

[EdibleKnife]

The condescending tones you take towards people who disagree with you simply aren't necessary. We should be able to have a discussion without the snark.

I'd be less condescending if the way some people talked about the issue had more substance beyond how it makes them "feel some sort of way".

 

["God's Beard!"]

Let's rank all causes by the number of secondary fake GAF accounts that only exist to shitpost against the cause. Evidently, this one here would win.

Are you really accusing me of making an account to shit on BLM? Is being dismissive and insulting your only response or can you form coherent criticisms too?

I live in East Bay. Blocking major freeways near my home that already get massively backed up to begin with directly affects me. I lived here when Oscar Grant got killed, I'm more than aware enough of "the cause" without someone on the internet telling me how I should care.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Well, I guess it will get people talking right? I know I'd be one pissed of person if this happened to me though, to be honest. I just wish they did a protest some other way than involving traffic. You never know where someone has to be, so to purposely block traffic for this, it seems a little poor in taste to me personally.

Is it that much of a throw away issue? For "this" I mean?

 

[GrantDaNasty]

It's always weird/funny to see people who from a distance look at things like the Civil Rights Movement Protests and (to bring it closer to home) the Baltic Chain and go "rah-rah, stick it to the man!", but once they find themselves in a comparable situation, suddenly it's "man fuck these guys, I ain't got time for their little conflict, especially because it doesn't concern me!".

And yes, the fact that the Oregon Protesters get to sit tight and "defend their rights" while getting media coverage, supplies and supporters, while BLM is treated like some fucking guerrilla warfare outfit, a step removed from being branded terrorists is...well..a tad fucked.

 

[Africanus]

There's not an MLK day that goes by that has me wishing he had dodged that bullet and lived into his 90s.

But then again, we see how Rosa Parks narrative is portrayed, and she only died last decade!

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

It's always weird/funny to see people who from a distance look at things like the Civil Rights Movement Protests and (to bring it closer to home) the Baltic Chain and go "rah-rah, stick it to the man!", but once they find themselves in a comparable situation, suddenly it's "man fuck these guys, I ain't got time for their little conflict, especially because it doesn't concern me!".

Seriously.

Beyond tired of MLK as Black Social Justice Santa to white people.

 

[ElTorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";192600416]Are you really accusing me of making an account to shit on BLM?[/QUOTE]

Huh? No, not at all. My intention was to point to the fact that there is apparently enough diet racism directed at this particular cause, in contrast to others that you have mentioned, that it even makes some trolls make secondary accounts here to shitpost about it. I was not suggesting that this was you, just offering one of the many reasons why one can be sympathetic to people who do not assume that peaceful protests will give them the same attention as disruptive ones.

 

[Tesseract]

blocking traffic is unacceptable, pieces of shit have no right disrupting everyone's lives

*edit* pieces of shit is rowdy even for me, maybe i should've said cunts

 

[MiniBossBattle]

The condescending tones you take towards people who disagree with you simply aren't necessary. We should be able to have a discussion without the snark.

If only.
Sarcasm and dog piling really don't help.

Any who, friend is still stuck hoping to get her kid in daycare soon.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

These conditional allies don't give a shit about anything but their own comfort. They will never, ever step up for black people. BLM has been going on for years now. Where have they been? What has to be done for them before they'll do anything for anyone else?

It's a weird catch-22 they're in. BLM can protest, but at the same time it falls on deaf ears. They can block a bridge, and people will be pissed at them.

It's horrible. People are just in such a state of conformity that things have stagnated. When a sit in protest happened 50 years ago at Greensboro, people had to deal with it. Now a days they can just look at their phone, ignore the situation, and go to elsewhere to ignore the protest.

I commend people blocking the Bay Bridge, as that is something you can't easily divert. It forces eyes on the protestors. That is something that's needed these days. Unfortunately it's a matter if news will pick it up and talk about it, or dismiss it as hooligans trying to cause trouble. It's a catch-22.

I'm going on a bit of a rant here, bear with me, but it's annoying that situations like this exist. There was some progress 50 years ago, 40 years ago, with sit ins, marches, marching to Washington in mass. People who didn't care for it, HAD to deal with it. Today it's easier to communicate, and you would think that would help something like a protest, but at the same time it helps those who don't care for it to ignore it. It feels like we're at a stopgap where anything that's done, anything that happens is ignored for the next big thing. It doesn't matter if officers are recorded beating somebody anymore. Back in the 90's, Rodney King was huge because it was probably one of the first instances of brutality caught on tape. And people were pissed off. These civil protectors turned out to be scum. And there was video proof. Today? We have ten times the amount of videos of police brutality, and it's like people just buried their head in the sand. Back in the 90's, it would take over your TV, your newspapers, people were forced to deal with this situation. Now a days it's like you can flick off the TV, go to the web or your phone, and just continue on your day.

And anyway I think about it, it just protests like this are a stopgap. It feels like progress isn't being made. Officers are still abusing their power, whether it's shooting animals or people. Black people most of all, suffer from systemic racism and bigotry. Atleast the KKK was blatant and you knew who they were, now it's hard to tell, it's easier to hide in ways. Whether it's people who ignore protesters, police officers who are corrupt assholes, politicians who will say anything to appease their voters, it just feels like hitting your head against a wall.

I'm not black, I can't say what it is to be black, but I can empathize heavily because I see it every day. Whether it's the way the old lady who greets people at my work gives looks or says things in the break room, or the way some coworkers treat people of color and then joke about it as if it's a normal thing, it disgusts me.

Sorry for the rant. Just a train of thought right now.

 

[Two Words]

of course you do when you do not have to worry about police brutality. You probably want people to protest in their designated protest zones so you continue to ignore the problems this country has.

Roads are important for critical functions for a society. Blocking them is dangerous and can potentially cost human lives.

 

[Karsticles]

I might to pick up my son from school though, on MLK day, when school is out.

Not all schools have MLK day off, actually. I know my high school didn't. Most likely because we had less than a dozen black students in a 2,400 student body.

 

[Tesseract]

many disabled people might not get their meds on time because of this shit

parents to their children, doctors to patients

this is unacceptable behavior

 

[AlphaDump]

Of course not



But doesn't the sight of all those people on that bridge just rub you the wrong way, Slayven? Doesn't it just annoy you for reasons you can't put words too? Wouldn't you rather have them confine their little protest to a rented acreage of park so that you can be comfortable :/

people arent uncomfortable.... they are stuck in traffic.


I'll just say. it is possible to support their cause and also not like being stuck in the traffic at the same time. People are petty with their time, that is a reality.

if they go the legal route and do something like Occupy Wall Street they can be much more perpetual and evident in everyones daily lives. The law would also need to be on their side, and body cams/cell phones from everyone would keep things monitored.

we also need the Fairness Doctrine back to have the media help reinforce their message.

 

[StickSoldier]

Is it that much of a throw away issue? For "this" I mean?

I believe any reason to stop a huge flow of traffic purposely, especially considering how many people will be affected by the stoppage, should only be for emergency issues or maintenance.

I believe that racism is a huge issue in this country, and I want to help bring this hatred to a stop any way I can, I just don't believe stopping and delaying everyone's lives this way is the proper way to address the issue. You never know what kind of situation a person is in when driving so who knows how badly having to wait caused them?

 

[commedieu]

All police brutality matters..!

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Anyone here upset by this is free to demonstrate their proper ways of protest that would allow black people to be free.

BLM isn't some secret club. You can join and make it into what you want. You can even start your own groups.

 

[The Kree]

I believe any reason to stop a huge flow of traffic purposely, especially considering how many people will be affected by the stoppage, should only be for emergency issues or maintenance.

I believe that racism is a huge issue in this country, and I want to help bring this hatred any way I can, I just don't believe stopping and delaying everyone's lives this way is the proper way to address the issue. You never know what kind of situation a person is in when driving so who knows how badly having to wait caused them?

Police brutality and institutional racism are emergency issues I think.

 

["God's Beard!"]

.

 

[ElTorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";192601316]"Evidently, this one here would win." Interesting way of not suggesting I'm one of those people.

But I'll assume this is an apology and move on.[/QUOTE]

"This one here" referred to "the cause", not to you. Apologies for not have made myself clear enough.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I'd be less condescending if the way some people talked about the issue had more substance beyond how it makes them "feel some sort of way".

I think plenty of people have articulated why people aren't necessarily gung ho about this idea in this thread.

 

[freeofgreed]

Roads are important for critical functions for a society. Blocking them is dangerous and can potentially cost human lives.

"These guys should stop protesting people dying, what if someone dies????"

 

[Tesseract]

Anyone here upset by this is free to demonstrate their proper ways of protest that would allow black people to be free.

BLM isn't some secret club. You can join and make it into what you want. You can even start your own groups.

don't do illegal shit that makes you look like monsters

pretty simple

i can't believe there's a defense force for this shit, how sad

 

[MHWilliams]

You don't get change by being obedient and getting everyone on your side, just take a look at MLK's approval rating in 1966, 32% positive and 63% negative.

I mean, that's how protest works.

[The Albany movement] quickly became a broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within the city. Bus stations, libraries, and lunch counters reserved for White Americans were occupied by African Americans, boycotts were launched, and hundreds of protesters marched on City Hall.

The Birmingham campaign literally disrupted an entire city, on purpose.

Martin Luther King's presence in Birmingham was not welcomed by all in the black community. A local black attorney complained in Time that the new city administration did not have enough time to confer with the various groups invested in changing the city's segregation policies.[36] Black hotel owner A. G. Gaston agreed.[36] A white Jesuit priest assisting in desegregation negotiations attested the "demonstrations [were] poorly timed and misdirected".[36]

Protest organizers knew they would meet with violence from the Birmingham Police Department and chose a confrontational approach to get the attention of the federal government.[21] Wyatt Tee Walker, one of the SCLC founders and the executive director from 1960 to 1964, planned the tactics of the direct action protests, specifically targeting Bull Connor's tendency to react to demonstrations with violence: "My theory was that if we mounted a strong nonviolent movement, the opposition would surely do something to attract the media, and in turn induce national sympathy and attention to the everyday segregated circumstance of a person living in the Deep South."[20] He headed the planning of what he called Project C, which stood for "confrontation". Organizers believed their phones were tapped, so to prevent their plans from being leaked and perhaps influencing the mayoral election, they used code words for demonstrations.[37]

The plan called for direct nonviolent action to attract media attention to "the biggest and baddest city of the South".[38] In preparation for the protests, Walker timed the walking distance from the 16th Street Baptist Church, headquarters for the campaign, to the downtown area. He surveyed the segregated lunch counters of department stores, and listed federal buildings as secondary targets should police block the protesters' entrance into primary targets such as stores, libraries, and all-white churches.[39]

The SCLC's goals were to fill the jails with protesters to force the city government to negotiate as demonstrations continued. However, not enough people were arrested to affect the functioning of the city and the wisdom of the plans were being questioned in the black community. The editor of The Birmingham World, the city's black newspaper, called the direct actions by the demonstrators "wasteful and worthless", and urged black citizens to use the courts to change the city's racist policies.[42] Most white residents of Birmingham expressed shock at the demonstrations. White religious leaders denounced King and the other organizers, saying that "a cause should be pressed in the courts and the negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets".

What do you think happened on Bloody Sunday and the events leading up to it?

Dr. King decided to make a conscious effort to get arrested, for the benefit of publicity. On February 1, King and Ralph Abernathy refused to cooperate with Chief Baker's traffic directions on the way to the courthouse, calculating that Baker would arrest them, putting them in the Selma city jail run by Baker's police, rather than the county jail run by Clark's deputies.

On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80. The march was led by John Lewis of SNCC and the Reverend Hosea Williams of SCLC, followed by Bob Mants of SNCC and Albert Turner of SCLC. The protest went according to plan until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and entered Dallas County, where they encountered a wall of state troopers and county posse waiting for them on the other side.

Chicago, 1966, MLK marches directly into affluent white neighborhoods to protest the end of slums in the city. He planned the Poor People's Campaign in 1968:

King wanted to bring poor people to Washington D.C., forcing politicians to see them and think about their needs: "We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way...and we've come to stay until you do something about it.'"

King wanted the demonstration to be “nonviolent, but militant, and as dramatic, as dislocative, as disruptive, as attention-getting as the riots without destroying property”.

What do people think protest is? I mean, let's be out with it on MLK Day. Do you actually believe what he did was good, or do you just agree with the abstract because you didn't have to live with it?

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Police brutality and institutional racism are emergency issues I think.

For some. Many towns only have a dozen or so black folk, so it's just not that big an issue. Flyers would suffice..

don't do illegal shit that makes you look like monsters

pretty simple

.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

don't do illegal shit that makes you look like monsters

pretty simple

Yes that's what they're protesting.

 

[AlimNassor]

Apparently a mans kids being late is more important then black lives! Black lives really are meaningless to Americans. I wish I could be out there protesting as well.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

"These guys should stop protesting people dying, what if someone dies????"

That's not what he said.
Your logic seems to project that any serious cause gives you the star in super Mario Bros to do whatever you want.

 

["God's Beard!"]

"This one here" referred to "the cause", not to you. Apologies for not have made myself clear enough.

Sorry about that, I think we're on the same page now.

 

[Slayven]

For some. Many towns only have a dozen or so black folk, so it's just not that big an issue. Flyers would suffice..

Maybe a nice E-Card

 

[shoreu]

Nope, they'll move out the way.

And if they don't?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

That's not what he said.

Yes, it is.

i can't believe there's a defense force for this shit, how sad

You don't understand protest. You don't understand what it is or why people would be driven to do it instead of literally anything else they wanted to do. Read some history.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

Being annoyed by having the road block doesn't mean we don't support you cause, that snarky attitude alone is more grating than any protest.

 

[MiniBossBattle]

people arent uncomfortable.... they are stuck in traffic.


I'll just say. it is possible to support their cause and also not like being stuck in the traffic at the same time. People are petty with their time, that is a reality.

if they go the legal route and do something like Occupy Wall Street they can be much more perpetual and evident in everyones daily lives. The law would also need to be on their side, and body cams/cell phones from everyone would keep things monitored.

we also need the Fairness Doctrine back to have the media help reinforce their message.

Still feel that the BLM movement would make headway is in sports, particularly in college sports. The fact that there was change in Mizzou was the threat of the football team not taking the field. Imagine a bowl game with key players not participating due to lack of minority representation in the the NCAA.
Another was at Ferguson to get more people to register to get better representation in local government. Not sure it was successful or not yet but fingers crossed.

 

[MHWilliams]

Being annoyed by having the road block doesn't mean we don't support you cause, that snarky attitude alone is more grating than any protest.

You can be annoyed all you want. But saying they shouldn't absolutely misses the point of a protest.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Maybe a nice E-Card

Now you're getting it!

 

[backflip10019]

Apparently a mans kids being late is more important then black lives! Black lives really are meaningless to Americans. I wish I could be out there protesting as well.

Except that these people are actively disrupting people's lives while I'd say most of the people who are being affected by this haven't actively done anything to suggest that they don't care about black lives. I'd suggest that most of them are not the bad guy.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

Not all schools have MLK day off, actually. I know my high school didn't. Most likely because we had less than a dozen black students in a 2,400 student body.

I mean, I live in Maine, and we had less black students than even that in my high school(none in elementary), and it's still a day off. I didn't think skipping out on that was even a thing.