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[Bigmack]

Dude wrote: "Why don't these people simply move when they are asked to? Is this how we are to solve all our disagreements in the future? Yes, we have a right to peacefully assemble. But, does that include blocking bridges, road, intersections??? If you actually look closely at what happens in these confrontations, the protesters are baiting the police. Why must they break a law to get their point across? Maybe next time I get pulled over for speeding I'll just tell the police I am protesting US foreign policy. Will you back me?"

Bigmack wrote back..."Why don't they simply move on...? Because this is the United States... not Iran or Syria or North Korea. Because the 1st Amendment guarantees us the right to peacefully assemble. Because this country was founded on NOT "simply moving on". From the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights marches... from the Flint strike to the Haymarket riot... from the Civil War draft riots to the Veterans Bonus march... real Americans don't "simply move on". If it's inconvenient or upsetting to some people.... well, perhaps they need to review the history of our country. We are a fractious people. Baiting the police...? You mean by students sitting down on their campus? And that merits fire-hose quantities of pepper spray? Actually, your opinion... and mine.... are immaterial. The courts have ruled very specifically about what the police and authorities can and cannot do. The policeman in the picture above is in violation of the constitution... http://public.findlaw.com/civil-rights/more-civil-right...
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1332957.html The protestors at the Boston Massacre baited the redcoats, and refused to disperse... the fallen there are heroes. The Boston Tea Party...?....Violent protestors destroying private property. The Civil Rights marches...? Pronounced illegal and the marchers beaten unmercifully. Breaking the law to get their point across is called "civil disobedience", and is part of the American experience... as is "not-so-civil disobedience. There's another point to this... if demonstrators are on public property exercising their constitutional rights and are assaulted by police, who has committed the crime? I noticed you didn't mention the crimes and frauds of the people that OWS and others are protesting. Where's the outrage directed at those people, who certainly did more to hurt this country than blocking sidewalks?"