Why is protesting important

The police, the entity being protested, have unleashed so much brutality that in just three weeks, at least eight people have already lost eyesight to rubber bullets. One Twitter thread dedicated to documenting violent police misconduct is at entries and counting.

And nobody seems safe—not even a year-old avowed peacenik who was merely in the way of a line of cops when he was shoved so violently that he fell and cracked his skull. Chillingly, the police walked on as he bled on the ground. After the video came out to widespread outrage, and the two police officers who shoved him were suspended, their fellow officers on the active emergency-response team resigned to support their colleagues.

Plus the pandemic means that protesters who march in crowds, face tear gas, and risk jail and detention in crowded settings are taking even more risks than usual.

Sustaining such widespread protests for weeks under these difficult conditions is no easy feat, and there are indications that these protests are already having immediate impacts. In Minneapolis, where the killing of George Floyd was the initial spark, the mayor called for sweeping structural reform, the city council passed a resolution to disband the police force and replace it with a community-led model, and the police chief pulled out of negotiations with the police union.

Many other localities have been considering similar initiatives to scale back police departments. Does that mean high-risk or difficult-to-pull-off protests can always work to scare authorities into implementing change? Sadly, repression works. No matter how brave the protesters may be, a state often has a lot more capacity to inflict costs than ordinary protesters have to withstand them.

During the Arab Spring, about one-third of the citizens of Bahrain marched for months on end—a staggering number, comparable to more than 70 million people marching in the United States. Instead of buckling, their government responded with widespread arrests, torture, and executions, even of teenagers, finally silencing the weary population.

In response, the military and the police opened fire, gunning down an estimated 1, people in a single day. Unsurprisingly, protests mostly died down, and the country has since been ruled by a ruthless military dictatorship.

These are not historical exceptions. In , the Chinese government killed hundreds or, by some estimates, even thousands of protesters in Tiananmen Square, where about 1 million people had peacefully assembled for months, crushing the pro-democracy movement.

Why do they sometimes give in to protest movements? The key to understanding that is also the key to understanding the true long-term power of social movements. Movements, and their protests, are powerful because they change the minds of people, including those who may not even be participating in them, and they change the lives of their participants. Voting is only one way that people can exercise their power to create policy change—now, as national protests grow and Black athletes boycott their games, we are being shown that there are other ways to influence policy.

It was those ongoing protests that led the Minneapolis City Council to vote to eliminate their police department. And it was protests that prompted international corporations—including Apple, Bank of America, Comcast, Nike, and dozens more—to invest billions in fighting racism and inequality. We also ignore why people have taken to the streets in the first place: Their voices are not being heard through conventional means. Public protests are manifestations of dissent and an expression of the urgent need to change policy.

By driving media coverage, catalyzing congressional action, and shifting public opinion, nonviolent protests have been a force behind positive social change.

Often protests occur when governmental policies are inconsistent with the needs of citizens. This can lead to urgent calls for change and one way to bring about this change is in the form of protests. However, it is crucial that protest movements do not make the same mistakes as governments. They must amplify the voices of the marginalized and the disenfranchised. This involves making sure to include a wide range of voices and not just listening to concerns and solutions of the first people to join a protest.

Protests are often seen in contexts where governments support those at the top and disadvantage those at the bottom. A protest can only bring about valuable policy change, when it is well-planned, focused, and the demands are clear. Protesters must express their displeasure and constructively present their demands as one voice.

Proactive leaders must engage all protesters in a dialogue and find common demands to meet their needs. This way a protest can mirror the way the general public feels about a given policy. You should leverage social media for the benefits of protests. Social media has changed and is continuously changing our lives. These small actions created a unique sense of global unity, which we should build on when it comes to protests. Creating a campaign, a new group, or even proposing a new overlay for your profile photo are all happening today.

These campaigns can go viral and are a great mechanism for creating momentum for your demands for change.

It is clear that our actions on social media can lead to positive change. Protest movements should take the time to create frameworks and mechanisms, to help transform momentum into real positive change in an inclusive, transparent and efficient manner. You should create frameworks for protest participants which work together to approach problems and create inclusive solutions. These groups gather the concerns of the protesters, sit down to analyse the responses and then develop specific demands and solutions that represent what protesters want.

This requires professionalizing a protest movement and will create a reliance on people from professions like law, community organizing and economics, but should be open for any protestor to join.

This would enable protest movements to capture varying opinions that enrich the specific solutions being prepared. The work of these groups would not only pre-empt standard excuses used by governments to avoid change, but would also enable them to project an image of seriousness to the world, an ingredient necessary to secure support for the struggle.

You need to professionalize your approach to communicating the protest internationally. Our right to free speech and assembly encompasses a wide scope of protest activities ranging from flag burning to picketing. In the United States, individuals and groups that wish to protest can make their voices heard in public spaces like parks and sidewalks.

Some cities, however, require local permits to protest and have local ordinances determining the size, volume, and location of protesters. Throughout history, this permit system has been misused by some local governments in order to block unpopular protests. During the civil rights movement, many black activists found their peaceful protests blocked by white town governments who refused to issue permits or arrested peaceful protesters.

It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions, and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. That is why freedom of speech is protected against censorship or punishment Protesters and activists have also advocated for change through acts of civil disobedience, or deliberate disregard of laws.

Acts of civil disobedience came to the forefront during the civil rights movement of the s and s. By employing nonviolent civil disobedience in the form of sit-ins, occupations, and boycotts, civil rights activists powerfully displayed their strong opposition to segregation laws, voter discrimination, and violence against black individuals.