Last week, 10 protestors, 7 men and 3 women, chained themselves across the inbound lanes of the George Washington Bridge, yes, that George Washington Bridge that Chris Christie is accused of purposely closing down to cause traffic problems in Ft. Lee a couple of years ago.
The protesters wanted to draw attention to immigrant rights. Clearly, they got attention. Clearly, the attention was not good. Just check the YouTube comments and see for yourself. In America, you have a right to protest for your opinions, but you really do not have a right to impact thousands of innocent citizens trying to go to work in Manhattan. Travel across the bridge was delayed for up to 90 minutes.
Why am I interested in this? I happen to personally know one of the protesters – quite well. I will not reveal her identity here for her privacy and that of her family and friends. I have known her since she was born, and I have to say I have always respected her as I saw her grow up. I do not agree with how this act was carried out, since it did adversely affect innocent people, but I respect her initiative, and I believe she will learn from this and one day go far.
After all, we have images of Bernie Sanders doing pretty much the same thing back in 1963, and he made it pretty close to the presidency in 2016, didn’t he?
But if your protest doesn’t have an impact on anyone what’s the point of a protest? If they had stood by the roadside would they have received any news coverage at all?
Now, whether it has any long term effect on them achieving their goals is another matter but, at least at time of writing, we live in a free country where we have absolute right to protest and I am sure this was not something they took on lightly.
They all got arrested for trespassing. The trick with protesting is to get attention without hurting innocent people. If you protest against a company, you can stand in front of their building, etc. I do not think my freedom of speech and right to protest extends to doing “damage” to others, like setting things on fire, sending mail bombs, or blocking a major traffic artery where pregnant women on their way to the hospital may be trapped – just to use a drastic example.
I absolutely agree, Norbet!
The issue is when does inconveniencing people become hurting them. In blocking the bridge there was always the possibility of delaying an emergency vehicle, for example.
As you say, even if they had chained themselves to the side of the bridge they could possibly be endangering others directly who are sent out to remove them in traffic, or indirectly causing an accident should, say, a driver decide to take a cell phone hot and then swerve into traffic.
It’s a tough call to make a noticeable protest without “hurting” anyone at all and I am neither condemning nor condoning their action, as I don’t know the background. Plus, to be honest, I may have a different opinion if I had been stuck in traffic too!