MLK Day Protesters Block Traffic on the Bay Bridge

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They're not?!?! 😕[/QUOTE]

It's strange, I know. I actually had an extensive conversation with a couple of local officers about MLK the other day, and--and this is the surprising thing--at no point during the conversation did they pull their weapons and discharge them into my person, nor the multitude of black, white, Asian and Hispanic customers that were in there that morning. I kept watching to make sure they didn't gun down any pedestrians on their way back to their cruiser.

They're hard to find, but they exist.
 
Grammar grenade hurled.

Nothing wrong with having a different viewpoint. Nothing wrong with not being sympathetic to the cause. The reality of the situation is this, people are dying and nothing is being done about it. Your viewpoint isn't fixing the issue. If people were as concerned with fixing the issue behind the protest as they are with decrying the method used, the issue would be fixed. Instead, we have mental gymnastics and decathletes from the idgaf Olympics claiming moral superiority and having legitimate concern for hypothetical individuals passing away in circumstances that the facts of this instance render impossible.
I'm all for discussing the merits of reforms and have done so in threads in the past.

All I did was disagree with blocking bridges.
 
Why do you keep doing this? You can disagree with the method of protest and also still sympathize. Not liking the method of protest doesnt mean youre a racist, as much as many posters in here will try to push.

The point is that people have been policing and criticizing how black people protest for years, and that maybe you should reevaluate your position and whether or not you're perpetuating the same persecution that MLK and other Civil Rights protesters have faced.
 
Did anyone ever answer how minority voices are going to be heard without these sorts of disruptions? I remember it being asked a couple times but don't recall an answer ever being given.
 
Why do you keep doing this? You can disagree with the method of protest and also still sympathize. Not liking the method of protest doesnt mean youre a racist, as much as many posters in here will try to push.

I didn't call him or anyone else a racist. He said he would have cops to meet protesters and I posted an example of what happens when cops break up a protest. Point out where I called someone a racist.
 
Why do you keep doing this? You can disagree with the method of protest and also still sympathize. Not liking the method of protest doesnt mean youre a racist, as much as many posters in here will try to push.

I said it earlier: if you support a societally disruptive cause, but not the actual disruption required, you may not know what you're actually supporting.
 
It's strange, I know. I actually had an extensive conversation with a couple of local officers about MLK the other day, and--and this is the surprising thing--at no point during the conversation did they pull their weapons and discharge them into my person, nor the multitude of black, white, Asian and Hispanic customers that were in there that morning. I kept watching to make sure they didn't gun down any pedestrians on their way back to their cruiser.

They're hard to find, but they exist.
This is a shocking revelation to me. I'll have to reassess my opinion of law enforcement officers and I apologize for my ignorance. It's an MLK miracle!
 
This is a terrible idea. All its going to do is piss people off and make both sides more hostile. And then all the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to get to work are going to have their days ruined. So basically it accomplishes nothing besides throwing more frustration and anger into the mix.
 
If you can't substantiate your argument for "not liking" the form of protest beyond hypothetical grandmas and being late to work, I don't see why anyone should give that opinion the time of day.

Edit: I typed this before Chezzyman's post above, so chalk that happy coincidence up as another MLK Day miracle.
 
This is a terrible idea. All its going to do is piss people off and make both sides more hostile. And then all the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to get to work are going to have their days ruined. So basically it accomplishes nothing besides throwing more frustration and anger into the mix.

What would a better form of protest be, that does not piss people off, but also gets adequate attention?
 
Did anyone ever answer how minority voices are going to be heard without these sorts of disruptions? I remember it being asked a couple times but don't recall an answer ever being given.

I'm sure someone will say voting and peaceful means of drawing attention to the issue. Perhaps they can schedule press conferences. I'm sure all of the stations are just dying to hear what BLM has to say. They know this is the most effective way, but they don't like it because reasons. I've already seen the protesters called hooligans. I remember that rhetoric when Baltimore happened.
 
This is a terrible idea. All its going to do is piss people off and make both sides more hostile. And then all the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to get to work are going to have their days ruined. So basically it accomplishes nothing besides throwing more frustration and anger into the mix.

Man, I am stoked you brought this unique insight to the thread. It's so fresh!
 
Having police on the bridges prior to this to ensure people don't block traffic. Perfectly reasonable.

The fact that you would waste police resources to prevent potential protests inconveniencing normal ass people from going to work or some other small shit that will only affect them for like hours at the most shows how you really feel about minority issues.
 
This is a terrible idea. All its going to do is piss people off and make both sides more hostile. And then all the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to get to work are going to have their days ruined. So basically it accomplishes nothing besides throwing more frustration and anger into the mix.

If this is bait, you done got me good. If not, then the bolded is ignorant AF.
 
This is a terrible idea. All its going to do is piss people off and make both sides more hostile. And then all the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to get to work are going to have their days ruined. So basically it accomplishes nothing besides throwing more frustration and anger into the mix.
What part of this protest told you they didn't want to piss people off?

Was what they were doing against the law? Yes or no?
They were arrested.
 
The fact that you would waste police resources to prevent potential protests inconveniencing normal ass people from going to work or some other small shit that will only affect them for like hours at the most shows how you really feel about minority issues.
No it doesn't. But keep trying to find that angle.

"AGREE WITH ME OR ELSE YOU DONT CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE" is not a good argument.
 
Was what they were doing against the law? Yes or no?

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I hope you see why some of us wouldn't care about that.
 
Having police on the bridges prior to this to ensure people don't block traffic. Perfectly reasonable.

I swear I remember reading in a history book somewhere this exact response from a mayor in the Deep South during the civil rights movement in the 60's. Now I don't remember where I read it. lol
 
I just don't getting everyone angry and frustrated is the solution to a problem like this.
"Why are they throwing away their own tea?!"

Liberation from a racist institution doesn't involve winning over that racist institution. It's an imperfect protest, but no one is going to wait around for America to free them, because it will never happen. In the absence of anyone giving a shit, this is all the power they have, just like all of the ways MLK created tension in America in order to force change.

Would you risk getting arrested or killed for anything you believe in? If not, you don't understand what they've been driven to.
 
You can decry these tactics if you like, but history proves that they work. Like that time in the 60s here in Chicago when then-Mayor Daley wanted to go back on some of his promises to poor black folks on the South Side. What did they do? They threatened to put together a "shit-in" and use up every toilet and stall in O'Hare Airport, one of the busiest hubs on the goddamned planet.

Guy Tabachnik alerted me to a more consequential appearance of shit-in from earlier in the ’60s. Famed community organizer Saul Alinsky told the story in his 1971 book Rules for Radicals and then again the following year in an interview with Playboy. In 1964, Alinsky and Chicago’s The Woodlawn Organization (TWO) wanted to spur Mayor Daley into following through on some commitments for poor blacks on the city’s South Side. They decided to target O’Hare Airport, “Mayor Daley’s pride and joy.” From the Playboy interview:

"Some of our people went out to the airport and made a comprehensive intelligence study of how many sit-down pay toilets and stand-up urinals there were in the whole O’Hare complex and how many men and women we’d need for the country’s first “shit-in.” It turned out we’d require about 2500 people, which was no problem for TWO. For the sit-down toilets, our people would just put in their dimes and prepare to wait it out; we arranged for them to bring box lunches and reading material along to help pass the time. What were desperate passengers going to do — knock the cubicle door down and demand evidence of legitimate occupancy? This meant that the ladies’ lavatories could be completely occupied; in the men’s, we’d take care of the pay toilets and then have floating groups moving from one urinal to another, positioning themselves four or five deep and standing there for five minutes before being relieved by a co-conspirator, at which time they would pass on to another rest room. Once again, what’s some poor sap at the end of the line going to say: “Hey, pal, you’re taking too long to piss”?

Now, imagine for a second the catastrophic consequences of this tactic. Constipated and bladder-bloated passengers would mill about the corridors in anguish and desperation, longing for a place to relieve themselves. O’Hare would become a shambles! You can imagine the national and international ridicule and laughter the story would create. It would probably make the front page of the London Times. And who would be more mortified than Mayor Daley?"

The shit-in never happened, because even the threat of one was enough to get the attention of City Hall. “There were warm handshakes all around, the city lived up to its word, and that was the end of our shit-in,” Alinsky said. “Most of Woodlawn’s members don’t know how close they came to making history.” (A proposed “fart-in,” targeting the Rochester Philharmonic as a protest against Eastman Kodak, also remained in the realm of Alinsky’s imagination.)

This isn't some bridge. This is one of the biggest and most important airports in the world brought to chaos. And just the fear of that happening ended with real progress being made. They didn't even have to go through with it. So when people ask if these tactics are worth it, if they're really going to make a difference when they're "alienating other people" with their disruptions...

Yeah, it's works. Yeah, it's worth it.
 
I swear I remember reading in a history book somewhere this exact response from a mayor in the Deep South during the civil rights movement in the 60's. Now I don't remember where I read it. lol
I'm sure that mayor agreed with their message in principle and was just worried about people getting to work on time.
 
I hope you see why some of us wouldn't care about that.

I'm talking about strictly blocking traffic, not about what they were blocking traffic for. I was just genuinely curious/too lazy to look it up. That's why I brought up the story of someone blocking traffic to propose and getting arrested for it. I didn't even say whether I agree with them being arrested or not, so sorry if my previous post came off as ignorant, but please don't think I'm clueless to why some people would be upset.
 
Im wrong i admit, nobody has outright called anyone a racist and I apologize for that. But the tone of posts and the sarcastic responses are pretty telling.
Your beef sounds like you don't like the some people are responding to things they find ridiculous.
So now people can't use sarcasm when dealing with nonsense?
 
I just don't getting everyone angry and frustrated is the solution to a problem like this. If anything it will make things worse.

Imagine the frustration and anger one might have if their spouse/child/family member/friend was killed without discrimination by an officer of the law, and compare that to your being late for work.

Protests create awareness. Detach yourself from your own issues ATM and pay attention to theirs, because that's what they're demanding here and now...attention.
 
No it doesn't. But keep trying to find that angle.

"AGREE WITH ME OR ELSE YOU DONT CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE" is not a good argument.

I don't have to find an angle when you are saying this directly. You are hurting a movement that is trying to push for a society not corrupt by the systemic racism because people are inconvenienced over petty shit.
 
If this is bait, you done got me good. If not, then the bolded is ignorant AF.

So when someone posts a dissenting opinion the first thing you think of is that they're either trolling you or are ignorant as fuck? Come on.

I'm just saying I don't think that upsetting a shitload of people who have nothing to do with this and getting everyone angry is going to do anything besides provide fuel for the hate fire the other side has for this movement. If you want to explain to me why I'm wrong, go right ahead. But don't be a dick.

Edit:


Imagine the frustration and anger one might have if their spouse/child/family member/friend was killed without discrimination by an officer of the law, and compare that to your being late for work.

Protests create awareness. Detach yourself from your own issues ATM and pay attention to theirs, because that's what they're demanding here and now...attention.


I can't imagine that because ice never been through it. And I don't know if any attention is good attention, it might just strengthen the other sides resolve or something.
 
People started the strawmen arguments awhile back using the mocking condescending tones calling these people monsters. That's implying racial disdain.

People have been using the word monsters with a particular poster, because that poster literally called the protesters monsters.
 
So when someone posts a dissenting opinion the first thing you think of is that they're either trolling you or are ignorant as fuck? Come on.

I'm just saying I don't think that upsetting a shitload of people who have nothing to do with this and getting everyone angry is going to do anything besides provide fuel for the hate fire the other side has for this movement. If you want to explain to me why I'm wrong, go right ahead. But don't be a dick.
You need someone to point out how hating people protesting against members of their race being killed with impunity by public servants over some time stuck in traffic is wrong?

Trolling seems to be a best-case-scenario here.
 
So when someone posts a dissenting opinion the first thing you think of is that they're either trolling you or are ignorant as fuck? Come on.

I'm just saying I don't think that upsetting a shitload of people who have nothing to do with this and getting everyone angry is going to do anything besides provide fuel for the hate fire the other side has for this movement. If you want to explain to me why I'm wrong, go right ahead. But don't be a dick.

A bunch of people's day (aka a few hours in traffic) versus numerous lives. Even more livelihoods if we go further than police brutality and go into state violence.

Are you kinda seeing why people are getting annoyed by this rhetoric? Besides the fact that it's been used since the days of abolitionists?
 
So when someone posts a dissenting opinion the first thing you think of is that they're either trolling you or are ignorant as fuck? Come on.

I'm just saying I don't think that upsetting a shitload of people who have nothing to do with this and getting everyone angry is going to do anything besides provide fuel for the hate fire the other side has for this movement. If you want to explain to me why I'm wrong, go right ahead. But don't be a dick.
What part of this movement asked people to be sympathetic to them? What part said they didn't want to piss off everyone?

I mean, if you go on blacklivesmatter.com, all it talks about is liberation and centering the movement on black and queer lives. This particular protest came from a spin-off group of black queer activists. Does anyone look up anything about what they talk about here? This is about LIBERATION and FREEDOM, not making people like them. Black people already know white America will never like them.
 
So when someone posts a dissenting opinion the first thing you think of is that they're either trolling you or are ignorant as fuck? Come on.

I'm just saying I don't think that upsetting a shitload of people who have nothing to do with this and getting everyone angry is going to do anything besides provide fuel for the hate fire the other side has for this movement. If you want to explain to me why I'm wrong, go right ahead. But don't be a dick.

Because it's 2016, and blacks still aren't in equal standing in this country. So anyone who can't see past a few hours minor inconvenience for the greater good, aren't as "sympathetic" as they think they are. In fact, their bitching and moaning is what the protesters want, so that the powers that be will actually listen to someone about maybe the faint telephone game version of the actual issue, and something might accidently be done.
 
You need someone to point out how hating people protesting against members of their race being killed with impunity by public servants over some time stuck in traffic is wrong?

Trolling seems to be a best-case-scenario here.
No, I'm just talking about how this type of protest may not be the best course of action as even though they are definitley getting the attention this movement needs it could just cast the whole movement in a bad light and add fuel and a false sense of justification for the other side.

And when did I say I hated them? I never said that at all.
 
No, I'm just talking about how this type of protest may not be the best course of action as even though they are definitley getting the attention this movement needs it could just cast the whole movement in a bad light and add fuel and a false sense of justification for the other side.

And when did I say I hated them? I never said that at all.
When are black people in America ever not seen in a bad light?

None of this has anything to do with America liking them, but that's seriously the only question criticizers seem to have. Like the opinion of apathetic Americans matters to black activists. It's so self-absorbed and gives away that there hasn't been a moment of research done into the history of civil rights or what civil rights activists want right now.
 
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