• NerfYoda
    +10

    I worked with my local Occupy movement back in the day. Our lawyer put it pretty well to us during our planning meetings. "Your first amendment right to free speech allows you to protest the government to the government without fear of punishment from the government." After that it's fair game and all other kinds of laws could apply, hate speech, inciting riots, etc. And if you're on private property then there's even less legal protection.

    Something off topic but kind of funny from those times is I learned that being read the riot act is a real thing. Prior to our big initial demonstration we met with the local police and they gave us copies of the local riot acts which described what the laws and consequences were for various situations (throwing bricks vs lighting something on fire vs fighting and such) should the protest turn less than peaceful. Interesting times.

    • shiranaihito
      +5

      "Your first amendment right to free speech allows you to protest the government to the government without fear of punishment from the government."

      Without fear of punishment from the government, huh? Does getting brutalized by the police count? Because that happened plenty.

      • NerfYoda (edited 8 years ago)
        +1

        Far too often. :/

        Edit: Thankfully our local movement didn't have too much go that. We had a pretty okay relationship with the cops at the start. As good of a relationship that you can have with them at least.

        • shiranaihito
          +1

          Interesting how you specified "at the start".. leaving room for things having gone downhill from there.

          • NerfYoda
            +2

            Entropy creeped up and things got worse on both sides. I suppose it's bound to happen. "Everything goes to hell, anyways." :)

            • shiranaihito (edited 8 years ago)
              +2

              Well, it is the police's job to prevent you from causing too much trouble to your rulers, so.. yeah :p

              Of course, the mere existence of OWS was troublesome for them, which is why the police were sent to harass you.

            • NerfYoda
              +1
              @shiranaihito -

              I participated in Occupy Houston, so we had the oil and shipping industries pretty spooked. I never witnessed any of the over the top stuff that we saw in NYC and Berkley. There were plenty of arrests, but those are to be expected when you're engaging in civil disobedience. On the other hand there was the whole undercover Austin police officer and FBI sniper contingency plan which was pretty unnerving. The released FBI documents around that sniper plan showed that jurisdictions all over the country were terrified of what these protests could do to industry and infrastructure.

            • shiranaihito
              +3
              @NerfYoda -

              I can't think of anything worthwhile to say to that, but here's a relevant little cartoon: http://i.imgur.com/G7g93L7.jpg

            • NerfYoda
              +2
              @shiranaihito -

              Hah, that's a good way to put it.