American Protest
Tags: Patriotism, America, Blm, Free Speech, Protest

I’m remembering that today is December 16, the anniversary of a truly wild evening in which thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in the East Coast city where I used to live to share their collective outrage and demand justice. The events of that memorable night have impacted my life — and by now the lives of millions of others — in ways that were almost unimaginable as they were happening.

At this particular rally, several speakers first addressed the crowd to share how they had been oppressed by a government working against them; they spoke of economic injustice; of being denied civil rights; of how they were routinely abused by leaders and politicians who did not and could not represent their interests. It became clear to everyone who was there that many of the protesters in the crowd had grown exasperated waiting for out-of-touch lawmakers to address these structural inequalities, especially since the lawmakers themselves benefitted from these inequalities.

Although this rally was intended as peaceful protest, some who were in the crowd that night had other ideas: they had planned a direct action — a chaotic and, yes, *non-peaceful* act they hoped would put the spotlight on the injustice they had endured for so many years, finally forcing the government to recognize the underlying causes of the protest movement.

As the protest wore on and the crowd grew restless, one of the community organizers finally told the crowd that the event itself could do nothing more to save them. Many there took this to mean that it was time for “direct action.” At that, the most aggressive protesters left the organized rally and took to the streets en masse. And they were prepared to cause complete mayhem: they obscured their identities and rushed to a nearby commercial district essential to the functioning of the city and to the large businesses operating there.

Moments later, as we’ve all since seen and can never forget, the protesters unleashed their full fury. Trespassing and without regard for property or law, the anti-fascist agitators lashed out and destroyed the property of faceless corporations that, in league with the government and without accountability, contributed to and profited from the economic injustice the protesters had been fighting against all along.

Chaos reigned, and by the time the night was over, the protesters had destroyed over $1.7 million in property. That’s quite a lot, but it is insignificant relative to the wealth of the global corporations affected, and insignificant relative to the suffering the protesters and those they acted on behalf of had endured for years without relief.

The events of that night shocked the world, inspiring similar movements in other cities but also creating a backlash among many members of the general public. Eventually, however, these local movements coalesced into a national movement, one that the government violently confronted. It’s true that the protest movement was not universally embraced even by the general population, including by those who were well-meaning and identified in some ways with the goals of the protestors: many spoke out against the movement as a whole and against the events of that night specifically, condemning it as a lawless act of barbarism, and urging conciliation and patience, rather than further protest or direct action. And of course we’ve seen how the wheels of government quickly turned to crush the protesters with new laws and, predictably, the deployment of government security forces to suppress the movement.

Yet one prominent figure who supported the protesters said that such a “striking” and “bold” act was necessary to undo structural inequality and to address economic injustice. While justice for all remains a still-distant goal, I’m reminded by these words and this anniversary that chaotic acts of non-peaceful protest that may seem radical, destructive, and self-defeating can later be almost universally viewed as entirely justified and in fact *essential* to induce lasting change. Indeed, the man who wrote these words — and who never wavered in support of the movement or the principles behind it — was later elected President of the United States.

If it were up to me, as a further reminder of the importance of protest and direct action to achieve justice, we’d honor that evening and those bold protesters every December 16 with a party.

After all…. the city where all this took place was Boston, the prominent figure who praised the protesters was John Adams, the year was 1773, and the private property they destroyed was British tea thrown into the harbor!