Street protests and marches are no longer effective as a way to get your message out. If you have a permit (and you must have a permit else you’ll probably get arrested), law enforcement will box you into specific areas and monitor everything. Yes, you can march around, yell, and have a rally. Woo hoo, how exciting.
Police will video the event and track cell phone communications. There will be way more law enforcement than what you see, especially at a high visibility protest like the current pro-Palestine marches at the DNC. If it gets rambunctious, maybe you’ll get kettled! It’s all kind of pointless. Because who hears your message?
Instead, maybe have a press conference. Present your demands and take questions. Make the demands clear and understandable. Then march. The point of a street protest is to get media attention for your cause. However, there’s a problem with having a press conference.
Who gets to lead the press conference? The pro-Palestine protests in Chicago have many groups involved. Some will disagree on issues. Who gets to speak? Also, many groups mean many causes and issues. The message gets muddied because there are so many causes.
Quick. What are the demands of the pro-Palestine street protests in Chicago? I don’t know and neither do you. Any messages they have is completely muddled and they aren’t near the DNC either. They’ve effectively been neutralized by law enforcement who have decades of experience dealing with this.
Photo is Inauguration protesters kettled at 12th and L NW, Jan 20, 2017 DC.