Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 22, 2024, 03:23:14 PMQuoteIf voters are upset at an election results, can they blockade a railway, port, or major highway until it gets overturned?
Sure. And, as you know from past discussion, I'm absolutely happy to extend the same courtesy to the other side, even when I think their cause is moronic. And that's because I firmly believe in the right to free speech (although, again, you'll recall that I'm not a Millian absolutist).
Quote from: spork on April 22, 2024, 11:07:37 AMI was being, as my immigrant Arab Muslim wife would put it, facetious.
There haven't been protests against wars in Ethiopia, Sudan, or Ukraine. Gaza is a cause célèbre.
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on April 22, 2024, 01:24:00 PMThe standard answer is that Israel is an important ally in an oil-rich and unstable part of the world. It makes the news. We have many people who have relocated here from Israel and Muslim countries. They also make the news with their extremism. Africa?
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 22, 2024, 11:24:04 AMSo if I'm upset that my boss didn't give me a raise, can I blockade the doors to her kids' daycare (with her kids inside) until she changes her mind?
QuoteIf voters are upset at an election results, can they blockade a railway, port, or major highway until it gets overturned?
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 22, 2024, 07:57:41 AMQuote from: Hibush on April 22, 2024, 07:51:05 AMSome of the students seem to be engaging in the time-honored protest ritual of staying put and chanting while getting arrested for trespassing (charges that will be dropped). That exercise has not been productive in the past, so I don't expect it to be at Yale or Columbia.
Any action that prevents normal, necessary activity from continuing until the protesters leave is extortion, and needs to be treated as such.
QuoteLive Updates: N.Y.U. Orders Protesters to Disperse as Tensions Rise at U.S. Colleges
Quote from: Liquidambar on April 22, 2024, 01:11:37 PMQuote from: dismalist on April 22, 2024, 12:29:55 PMIt boils down to: Who owns the street? The street is free for the brown battalions? Surely not.
You'd be surprised how restrictively the right to assemble can legally be handled. You can't just cause inconvenience. Police permits are required for some actions. Here are some details from the ACLU
Thanks for the link. From there...QuoteYour rights are strongest in what are known as "traditional public forums," such as streets, sidewalks, and parks. You also likely have the right to speak out on other public property, like plazas in front of government buildings, as long as you are not blocking access to the government building or interfering with other purposes the property was designed for.
From this, I infer that protestors wouldn't have the right to block access to the state-owned building where I teach, nor to be so loud that teaching was impossible in my classroom. However,
QuoteCounterprotesters also have free speech rights. Police must treat protesters and counterprotesters equally. Police are permitted to keep antagonistic groups separated but should allow them to be within sight and sound of one another.
Quote from: spork on April 22, 2024, 10:42:04 AMDidn't hear anything about police arresting the Ivy League students who were protesting against the Tigray war in 2020-2022, which killed a half million. Or the students who have been protesting against the civil war in Sudan, which has killed ~ 20,000 and displaced ~ 8 million. Or the students who have been protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has killed about a half million so far, and has involved the rape and torture of civilians, as well as the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian hinterlands.
Why are the students protesting against the war in Gaza so special?