It’s educate, AGITATE, organize
edit: putting this at the top so people understand the basis for this:
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
How convenient it is for every would-be martyr that martyrdom is the only option they’re willing to go through with, and not any of the long, boring, tedious, thankless work the rest of us do day after day to stop things from getting to that point. If we succeed, you don’t have to do anything except crow about how nobly you were ready to sacrifice yourself. If we fail, we won’t be in any position to demand you follow through on your rhetoric.
I somehow doubt that.
Fair, its semi-hyperbolic as I do enjoy basic federal protections regarding free speech. The problem is that in practice and enforcement its effectively illegal.
https://www.ericjburch.com/blog/2021/1/new-tennessee-law-may-make-protests-illegal.html
https://wpln.org/post/tennessee-gov-bill-lee-signs-law-that-will-increase-punishments-for-protesters/
https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/08/22/tn-house-passes-rules-to-restrict-speech-limit-disruptions-and-public-during-special-session/
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/29/tennessee-bill-offers-immunity-drivers-running-over-protesters/4881949001/
https://www.aclu-tn.org/en/know-your-rights/your-right-protest-tennessee
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/tennessee-gop-expels-2-democratic-state-lawmakers-gun-protests-rcna78531
Disorderly Conduct TCA § 39-17-305: (a) A person commits an offense who, in a public place and with intent to cause public annoyance or alarm: (1) Engages in fighting or in violent or threatening behavior; (2) Refuses to obey an official order to disperse issued to maintain public safety in dangerous proximity to a fire, hazard or other emergency; or (3) Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act that serves no legitimate purpose. (b) A person also violates this section who makes unreasonable noise that prevents others from carrying on lawful activities. (c) A violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor. Failure To Obey TCA § 55-8-104: (a) No person shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any police officer invested by law with authority to direct, control or regulate traffic. (b) A violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor. Resisting Arrest TCA § 39-16-602: (a) It is an offense for a person to intentionally prevent or obstruct anyone known to the person to be a law enforcement officer, or anyone acting in a law enforcement officer’s presence and at the officer’s direction, from effecting a stop, frisk, halt, arrest or search of any person, including the defendant, by using force against the law enforcement officer or another. (b) Except as provided in § 39-11-611, it is no defense to prosecution under this section that the stop, frisk, halt, arrest or search was unlawful. (c) It is an offense for a person to intentionally prevent or obstruct an officer of the state or any other person known to be a civil process server in serving, or attempting to serve or execute, any legal writ or process. (d) A violation of this section is a Class B misdemeanor unless the defendant uses a deadly weapon to resist the stop, frisk, halt, arrest, search or process server, in which event the violation is a Class A misdemeanor.The summery is that if a duly appointed officer of the law says, even unconstitutionally, that I cannot protest, and I do not instantly and polity comply with this unconstitutional order, then I have committed a felony.
My only redress is to prove that the request was unconstitutional in court, AFTER i have been arrested and put in jail.
So yeah… GL.