Have you ever participated in any kind of protest? Do you wish you did/didn't?

Yes I did a couple of years ago. It had to do with the pandemic and it wasn't planned. I just saw people doing it and joined. It was a good experience and it was better to do it than just talk all the time about doing something.
 
Yes, I frequently write my Congressional representatives when they vote against what I believe on an important issue.

I have never wanted to go to a so called 'protest' seems like more of a chance to meet and greet new people and maybe have a party after the protest...than actually protesting something...
 

Just mild ones like protesting the widening of a road through the neighborhoods. That one worked. Or the building of another super Walmart. That one didn't, and I must admit I sometimes shop there. I do sign a lot of online petitions on subjects that matter to me. Not sure how much good it does.
 
I was extremely active during Vietnam. Worked vigorously with SDS: Students for a Democratic Society. Did community anti-draft work; organized marches with Mobilization. Proud of the work I did. Was compelled to act and had the energy to do so. Wish I could have been in Washington D.C. last week for the 60th Anniversary of "I Had A Dream."

Worked hard for women's causes as well; did my work with enthusiasm and fervor. Never Give Up.
 
In the spring of 1970, nearly 650 students staged a walkout over the firing of Josue Garza, one of the few Hispanic, bilingual teachers in the district, amid the larger push for equal rights in the community. Uvalde students walked out of their classrooms in protest of the removal of a Latino teacher in the spring of 1970. Garza was a fifth grade teacher at the school in 1970 and said he wasn't afraid of speaking out for the Latino community over injustices he saw at the school.

Well, my sister and I sort of 'walked out'. My father walked us straight back to the school office. o_O :rolleyes: :oops: šŸ„“



Someday, when you have time, read about this time in Uvalde, Texas.
 
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I love going to protests. I've only been to one recently (I think it was the end of last year) but it was fairly sizable and had bunches of newspeople and helicopters following the march's progress through town. When I set out I wasn't sure I was going to be able to find the park it was starting from, but even tho I was starting out from the farthermost metro stop, right away I saw several women getting on the train carrying signs, and I talked to them and they had come from a couple different states to attend the protest. Turned out to be easy to find the park, all I had to do was follow the throngs of women.

The only protest I've ever attended that I might regret a little was one during college where a boy and I used it as a free date activity and I don't think we even asked what it was about (smallish protest outside some embassy, I don't even know which one!).

The most pitiful protest I've been to was after I got Lyme Disease and there was a protest near Congress about the poor health coverage for it, and we were all sick with it so mostly we lay under some trees unmoving.
 
When I was working as a PI here in Ontario, our company was hired on a regular basis by clients whose property was going to be the subject of a protest . One example was the Hudson's Bay annual fur auction here in Toronto. The folks from PETA and their followers were expected to show up, and try to prevent buyers from entering the sales building. We instructed HB to file for an emergency injunction, to bar any protest on their private property. It was granted by the courts.

The building was about 150 feet from the public sidewalk, so it was easy to put in place barriers and park large trucks on the property as physical blockades. We stationed a number of our investigators who were equipped with video cameras on the property, including the roof. We had it covered. We also instructed HB to tell all the buyers to park three miles away, at a secured parking garage, then we brought them to the site in a armored bus. By doing this, we avoided the problems of protestors blocking a long line of private cars, and possibly damaging them, too. AS usual the bus took a lot of hits from eggs, paint bombs and stones, all of which we were able to record on video. No injuries.

The Toronto Police had their Public Order Unit there, but the POU stood back and only got involved when some people tried to cross the barrier lines. They were arrested for criminal trespass and removed to the jail to be processed photographed and finger printed, then released again. The video that we shot was later used by HB to sue PETA in civil court. HB won a sizeable judgement against PETA, which the courts enforced. The protestors were tried and found guilty of trespass, fined , and they now would have a criminal record in Canada. JimB.
 
Yeah, twice. One was outside the White House over the Vietnam War. No big deal- just walked around. The other was a hospital strike in NYC. We had a picket line around the hospital In Queens _we didn't even have signs. This big truck drove up, and it had the long-awaited equipment upgrade in the Xray dept. The Xray people on the picket line badly wanted it, but the driver, a teamster would not cross a picket line. So, we formed a picket line around the truck, and walked it to the loading dock. Since it was inside a picket line, it never crossed it. It was like smuggling the Pope into a strip club, or something.
 
When we went to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, my sister and I had to stand in line for hours to pick up our event tickets.

We struck up a conversation with the lady and her mother who were behind us and it was interesting to learn that she was with the U.S. State Department (I think it was the State Department, but that was 13 years ago and my brain is 13 years older......it could have been another government agency....) and was in charge of setting up the team that would be protecting the U.S. athletes.

She received several calls while we were in line concerning security concerns. There were over 200 "protest groups" coming to Vancouver to demonstrate/protest, some with the intention of disrupting the games and traffic so there were constant alerts going out to the various security teams there whenever a protest broke out or a known trouble-making group was sighted. They were protesting everything you could think of to protest. All the security teams from Canada and every country were on high alert.

She got one call that made her laugh: a call came in about a group marching down a street chanting. It turned out that it was a group of elderly Japanese ladies who couldn't find their tour bus and were walking around looking for the bus while chanting Buddhist hymns or some sort of ritual. We were highly reassured about the lack of danger from that protest.
 
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