Wikipedia defines the act of protesting as:
"an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to directly enact desired changes themselves. Where protests are part of a systematic and peaceful campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as cases of civil resistance or nonviolent resistance.Various forms of self-expression and protest are sometimes restricted by governmental policy, economic circumstances, religious orthodoxy, social structures, or media monopoly. When such restrictions occur, protests may assume the form of open civil disobedience, more subtle forms of resistance against the restrictions, or may spill over into other areas such as culture and emigration.
A protest can itself sometimes be the subject of a counter-protest. In such a case, counter-protesters demonstrate their support for the person, policy, action, etc. that is the subject of the original protest."
With recent Occupy protests landing closer and closer to home I find that the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) syndrome is alive and well in my thinking. First it was Occupy LA that took over a piece of what was once grass next to city hall downtown.
It all started in early October without permits or any type of clear agenda. After a few weeks it became evident that the occupy mob in Los Angeles was adversely affecting traffic and business downtown. Yet, city officials held off issuing orders for a crackdown. Instead they tried to negotiate with the protesters. As the weeks wore on, the occupiers actually drove a popular farmers’ market from the City Hall Park. Area businesses reported an increase in vandalism and theft and the local homeless began taking up residence in the camp, bringing in drugs, lice and other filth with them.
Even though there was no legal reason to hold off on evicting the protesters since the encampments had already been declared unlawful gatherings that violated a long list of city ordinances, city leaders reportedly offered the occupy folks tax-subsidized office space and even farmland if they agreed to shut down the camp.
Talks failed and Occupy LA ended rather peacefully just after midnight, on November 30th. 1,400 members of the Los Angeles Police Department had massed on the park, announcing that it was closed and after giving demonstrators three 10-minute warnings to leave peacefully, descended on the crowd. When it was over, 200 arrests had been made and the destruction left behind by the movement left fields of dirt and brown grass covered with trash from what had been one of the largest Occupy encampments in the country.
LA Mayor Villaraigosa estimated the cost of the protest could exceed $1 million in police overtime and cleanup costs for repairing sprinklers, restoring trees, renovating paths and stairs, removing graffiti and lawn replacement, and at the same time called for immediate City budget cuts to cover the expenses.
Well, things got a little closer to home when Occupy San Pedro sprang up in mid October. NIMBY I thought; here we go again. Was our little port town to soon be ravaged by tent camps in Peck Park? I hoped not.
The Occupy San Pedro Facebook page says in part:
"We are in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the other occupations across the nation and the world. We are here to raise awareness in our community and take peaceful action against the corporate injustices that continuously degrade our health, happiness, and prosperity. WE ARE THE 99%!"
Occupy San Pedro has so far staged a picket line protest at the local Bank of America branch in the Park Western shopping center at Western Avenue and Park Western Drive, (that's' tellin' em!) a community pot-luck dinner (that's feedin' em!) and they even attempted a Port shut down protest in Long Beach. (now that's laughable!)
Wikipedia goes on further and defines the different types of protest available to protesters as follows:
"Commonly recognized forms of protest include:Public demonstration or political rally
- Protest march, a historically and geographically common form of nonviolent action by groups of people.
- Picketing, a form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in ("crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause.
- Street protesters, characteristically, work alone, gravitating towards areas of high foot traffic, and employing handmade placards such as sandwich boards or picket signs in order to maximize exposure and interaction with the public.
- Lockdowns and lock-ons are a way to stop movement of an object, like a structure or tree and to thwart movement of actual protesters from the location. Users employ various chains, locks and even the sleeping dragon for impairment of those trying to remove them with a matrix of composted materials.
- Die-ins are a form of protest where participants simulate being dead (with varying degrees of realism). In the simplest form of a die-in, protesters simply lie down on the ground and pretend to be dead, sometimes covering themselves with signs or banners. Much of the effectiveness depends on the posture of the protesters, for when not properly executed, the protest might look more like a "sleep-in". For added realism, simulated wounds are sometimes painted on the bodies, or (usually "bloody") bandages are used.
- Protest song is a song which protests perceived problems in society. Every major movement in Western history has been accompanied by its own collection of protest songs, from slave emancipation to women's suffrage, the labor movement, civil rights, the anti-war movement, the feminist movement, the environmental movement. Over time, the songs have come to protest more abstract, moral issues, such as injustice, racial discrimination, the morality of war in general (as opposed to purely protesting individual wars), globalization, inflation, social inequalities, and incarceration.
- Radical cheerleading. The idea is to ironically reappropriate the aesthetics of cheerleading, for example by changing the chants to promote feminism and left-wing causes. Many radical cheerleaders (some of whom are male, transgender or non-gender identified) are in appearance far from the stereotypical image of a cheerleader.
- Critical Mass bike rides have been perceived as protest activities. A 2006 New Yorker magazine article described Critical Mass' activity in New York City as "monthly political-protest rides", and characterized Critical Mass as a part of a social movement; and the UK e-zine Urban75, which advertises as well as publishes photographs of the Critical Mass event in London, describes this as "the monthly protest by cyclists reclaiming the streets of London." However, Critical Mass participants have insisted that these events should be viewed as "celebrations" and spontaneous gatherings, and not as protests or organized demonstrations. This stance allows Critical Mass to argue a legal position that its events can occur without advance notification of local police.
- Toyi-toyi is a Southern African dance originally from Zimbabwe that became famous for its use in political protests in the apartheid-era South Africa, see Protest in South Africa.
Written demonstration
Written evidence of political or economic power, or democratic justification may also be a way of protesting.
- Petitions
- Letters (to show political power by the volume of letters): For example, some letter writing campaigns especially with signed form letter
Civil disobedience demonstrations
Any protest could be civil disobedience if a “ruling authority” says so, but the following are usuallycivil disobedience demonstrations:
As a residence
Destructive
Direct action
Protesting a government
Protesting a military shipment
By government employees
In sports
During a sporting event, under certain circumstances, one side may choose to play a game "under protest", usually when they feel the rules are not being correctly applied. The event continues as normal, and the events causing the protest are reviewed after the fact. If the protest is held to be valid, then the results of the event are changed. Each sport has different rules for protests.
By management
By tenants
By consumers
Information
Civil disobedience to censorship
By Internet and social networking
Protesters in
Zuccotti Park who are part of
Occupy Wall Street using the Internet to get out their message over social networking as events happen, September 2011. Blogging and social networking have become effective tools to register protest and grievances. Protests can express views, news and use viral networking to reach out to thousands of people.
Literature, art, culture
Protests against religious or ideological institutions
At the end of the day, with all the protest options available to us, I have a very big problem with most of them. I lived through the '60s when the country barely survived the anarchy that took place in Washington in 1969. Protesters almost took down this country and our government as we know it. Many don't realize it but we came very close to becoming a military state in November 1969 when millions marched on Washington and broke the back of the Vietnam War. (I was a 19-year-old Army infantry soldier in Vietnam in 1969 completing my 14 month tour and arriving home on June 30, 1970).
I have a big problem with protests that would seek to block, impede or otherwise hinder a person's right to access public or private property, protests that damage public or personal property or any protest that includes blocking traffic, violence or mayhem.
From Wikipedia's list, I am against, protest marches, picketing, street protesting, lockdowns, die-ins, radical cheerleading, critical mass, public nudity, sit-ins, raasta-roko, peace camps, tent cities, riots, self-immolation, suicide, bombing, civil resistance, non-violent resistance, occupation, flag desecration, port militarization resistance, strike actions, walkouts, lockouts, graffiti and book burning. All of these types of protest in some way infringe on the rights of the rest of us.
On the other hand, how about trying the internet and social networking, a protest song, writing petitions or letters or even a boycott. Start a non-profit and really help the people who need it. Better yet, run for public office and pursue your agenda from within the system.
Dear Protesters: When you next sit down to plan out another protest to defend our rights, don't forget about the rights of your neighbors to live quietly and peacefully co-exist in your neighborhood. We don't want to be approached by protesters, have signs shoved in our faces, talked to, or to be impeded in any other way while pursuing our daily lives. WE ARE THE REAL99%.
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