The act of protest is one of the foundational pillars of this nation. After all, the American Revolution accompanied some of the most “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests in history, and in the decades that have followed, peaceful protests in pursuit of some form of positive change have been a consistent feature of our evolving society.
But there’s one particular type of protest that has reemerged in recent years that’s achieving quite the opposite of positive change: screeching radical Leftists intentionally shutting down major roadways .
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In the last month alone, anti-Israel protesters have blocked the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Bridge, San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, the Boston University Bridge, the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, Interstate 76 in Philadelphia, and streets in downtown Boston, holding up traffic for hours as activists called for ceasefire and intifada simultaneously — the Palestinian equivalent of announcing that you’re joining Weight Watchers while you order at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Of course, the deliberate blockage of crucial roadways isn’t just limited to pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas crowds. Environmental groups have repeatedly blocked roadways to demand action on climate change, ignoring the obvious irony of increased carbon emissions generated by cars stuck in man-made traffic. Roads have also been blocked on multiple occasions as part of Black Lives Matter protests, let alone riots. And who can forget the Canadian trucker protests in 2022 against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, which brought downtown Ottawa to a standstill?
This tactic is far from new. In 1964, for example, the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality called for traffic to be blocked on all roads to the opening day of the Queen’s World's Fair site to protest racial discrimination and concerns regarding housing, education, and living conditions in the city of New York.
During the Civil Rights era in the 1960s, debate raged over whether the deliberate congestion or blockage of transportation routes was a valid form of protest, with Martin Luther King Jr. himself walking back the call of one organizer of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference who had declared, “We will tie up public transportation by laying our bodies prostrate on the runways of airports, across railroad tracks, and in bus depots.”
While the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and assembly, there are limits that allow local and state governments to restrict the time, place, and manner of protest while also enforcing existing laws surrounding the blocking of or obstructing traffic.
Here’s the problem: Since every protest is political in nature, the response, or lack thereof, is also political, which means that protests are judged through the lens of personal politics. If you don’t believe me, consider Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in 2015, boasting that she gave “those who wished to destroy” space to do so.
To some, slowing or halting traffic to demand action on climate change is the least that can be done in the face of an existential crisis, as an expression of Thoreau-like civil disobedience. To others, it’s nothing but an absurd, inconvenient, and dangerous decision that alienates supporters by affecting their ability to provide for their families and placing countless in harm's way by preventing them from accessing resources and care.
One man’s valid protest is another man’s annoying attention-seeking tantrum. But while one’s opinion of a protest is subjective, the fundamental laws protecting the rights of others are not.
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The very purpose of our government is to protect our rights. Unless our elected officials are willing to do their duty and enforce the rule of law equally in order to protect our rights, regardless of political bias, then we can only expect more of these kinds of protests to erupt across the country, proving once again that law and order is nothing more than a political tool.
When you give your political allies room to riot but relentlessly punish your political enemies for even the smallest infraction, imagined or otherwise, that’s not supporting civil disobedience. Far from it.
Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and host of Off Limits . You can follow him on X at @ighaworth . You can also find him on Substack .
The one-sided world of civil disobedience
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18.12.2023
The act of protest is one of the foundational pillars of this nation. After all, the American Revolution accompanied some of the most “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests in history, and in the decades that have followed, peaceful protests in pursuit of some form of positive change have been a consistent feature of our evolving society.
But there’s one particular type of protest that has reemerged in recent years that’s achieving quite the opposite of positive change: screeching radical Leftists intentionally shutting down major roadways .
JOE MANCHIN DODGES QUESTIONS ABOUT POSSIBLE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL BID: 'HAVEN'T SAID I'M GONNA RUN'
In the last month alone, anti-Israel protesters have blocked the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Bridge, San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, the Boston University Bridge, the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, Interstate 76 in Philadelphia, and streets in downtown Boston, holding up traffic for hours as activists called for ceasefire and intifada simultaneously — the Palestinian equivalent of announcing that you’re joining Weight Watchers while you order at........
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