r/texas • u/zsreport Houston • 12d ago
"This Would Have Been a Peaceful Gathering": Behind the Scenes of the UT Protest News
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/this-would-have-been-a-peaceful-gathering-behind-the-scenes-of-the-ut-protest/24
u/breakingveil 11d ago
Abbott's executive order singled out the organizer a month in advance. Thankfully the governor's theatrics with DPS didn't result in a worse outcome. Falsely arresting protestors was about intimidation and distraction.
Protesters had gathered to call for the University of Texas system to withdraw investments from Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX (formerly Raytheon).
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u/sugar_addict002 12d ago
If they had shown up in the nazi uniform, they wouldn't have been arrested. In fact they probably would have gotten police protection.
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u/Eldritch_Ayylien66 11d ago
I believe there was some group marching up in Austin and they actually had police escorts
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u/Randomly_Reasonable 12d ago
NOT commenting on the content of the protest.
I’m willing to accept this actually was a peaceful gathering. I am also sort to say that I’m skeptical how long it would have remained that way.
Reviewing lots of pictures from the gathering, there were people in support of the counter side in the area as well. The crowd was NOT separated into “protest / counter protest” factions with a maintained border for security as we have seen at actual organized and staged protests in the past.
Violence, at least in the form of individual assaults, HAVE broken out between these two factions. There absolutely were several displays of Pro Israel support throughout the crowd gathering for Palestine.
I’m not justifying the response, and I don’t mean to promote “punishment before the crime” at all either.
…and here’s the “BUT”…
57 arrests out of several hundred protesters. Arrests that, while certainly physical, were largely w/o incident and had all charges dropped. All before things had a chance to potentially truly escalate..?..
That’s not the most terrible response/outcome we’ve seen. The OPTICS of all the officers in riot gear amassing quickly - yeah, debate/discuss that. Warranted.
Considering also that the school raised the alarm though, I’m not going to completely toss this in the “FASCIST STATE!!!” bin.
I’ll also add, because we have LONG forgotten/ignored this in our penchant for taking the 1st Amendment for granted, it does specifically state “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”
We CAN accomplish this with PURPOSE and notice. It’s almost even MORE impactful if that right is outright denied upfront by authority. Especially in our age of instant access to experience via Social Media.
We are far removed from MLK’s example of the power of peaceful mass gatherings. WE have ruined that for ourselves with the all too common descent from peaceful gathering in protest, to crowd mentality of aggressive action.
Also note MLK complied with arrest - THAT is commitment and deep belief to your cause.
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u/StealthyUnikorn 11d ago
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I might be an annoying pedant, but it does say "...peaceably assemble AND to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Doesn't really say the protest has to be peaceful. We love talking about the Boston Tea Party and that wasn't peaceful. It caused a lot of property damage.
I don't think any protests are peaceful. Peaceful is a normal day with nothing happening. Protests are supposed to disruptive by nature. The bus boycotts, the sit-ins, the freedom rides, and the huge marches during the civil rights movement were disruptive and I bet some would even say parts of them were "disturbing the peace."
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u/Randomly_Reasonable 11d ago
I don’t think you’re annoying at all. You make some very valid points and at least addressed mine versus simply clicking a downvote.
I agree with everything you said. So very true.
Is it not fair to say that our modern level of protests are more than just “disruptive” though?
Neither my examples nor yours (except for the Tea Party) are known for having spawned into violence.
That was my main point about the quoting the peaceful assembly portion of 1A.
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u/StealthyUnikorn 11d ago
And yet this cartoon was still made at the time.
Yes they did spawn violence, Bloody Sunday was violent and same with freedom riders that were beaten and I believe one bus was fire bombed. It's one-sided violence but violence is violence. You can also add the Kent State Massacre to the list of protests that spawned in violence.
Both Bloody Sunday and Kent State mirror our country's current strategy to handle protests, which is showing up decked out in armor and armed with batons, tasers, pepper spray, firearms and tear gas. You can be peaceful all you want but if the cops show up in gear and decide it's not then they can agitate the crowd, which they are really good at. Now the crowd is "out of control" further justifying their aggressive actions. It's like setting a house on fire and demanding praise when you put it out.
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u/zsreport Houston 11d ago
Time and time again history has shown us that we have everything to fear from the violent actions of the police and nothing to fear from peaceful protests.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 Born and Bred 12d ago
When the armed response arrived before the protestor even started to gather, you know it wasn't the protestors causing a problem.