An idea can be a precious commodity, high enough in value to warrant the construction or demolition of authority. The concept of living, fighting and even dying for an idea is not lost on the American people, but it’s often taken for granted that our right to express an idea is protected under most circumstances.
Enforced federally through the First Amendment and later applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, peaceful assembly and petition have been natural democratic processes.
On paper, the implications of protecting these civil liberties are admirable. Giving your populace the tools to speak out against actions they feel infringe upon their citizenship has resulted in successful, nonviolent movements. Mass protesting in the ’50s and ’60s brought several legislative changes, including the desegregation of schools and other public infrastructure.
But history has also shown that wherever civil disobedience occurs, matters can easily escalate to violence. Despite this, protestors, especially in the U.S., have a propensity for cocooning themselves within their ideas during demonstrations. They use their beliefs as a protective sheath against what they deem socially unjust.
They likely do so because U.S. citizens are educated to believe there will always be an invisible hand of liberty to sweep down and shield them from intolerable infractions upon civil rights.
And during many assemblages, this unseen seal goes unbroken and safeguards demonstrators, even those who may be overstepping the boundaries of good taste in their marches and rallies.
Unfortunately, a key element to any interaction between authority and protestor goes relatively unrecognized — human nature.
Human nature will always ensure that protests posses some facet of violence or vehemence.
The strain between a keeper of order and one that seeks to break order — whether violently or not — is a form of energy that has and can still excite brute force.
There are no better examples than the ones currently unfolding throughout parks, college campuses and other public facilities across the country.
Several skirmishes between law enforcement and Occupy protestors have spurred some to label the movement as a ferocious display of mob rule.
Retired Chicago Police officer and freelance writer Peter Bella has denounce Occupy Wall Street as a crusade “designed to provoke, wreak havoc and create