Enhanced Protest Techniques on Display in Portland, Oregon

Enhanced protest techniques were on display last night in Portland, Oregon when a lone protester stood in front of a Portland Police vehicle like Tank Man in Tiananmen Square (https://ift.tt/1iSen0j). This unidentified man stood in front of a Portland Police SUV as it attempted to enter the Central Precinct on September 19, 2020. The SUV stopped briefly before turning around and driving away. This is a great example of how enhanced protest techniques can win the day. What are enhanced protest techniques? Enhanced protest techniques is a euphemism for the use of tactics outside the bounds of what mainstream society considers acceptable behavior. The tactic could be unacceptable because although technically legal it involves conduct that is likely to be ill-received by the target, or constitute conduct that only violates minor letters of the law and enforcing those laws would be a greater burden for society than acceding. Successful protest movements almost always depend on enhanced protest techniques for their success. In this case, this protester illegally blocked a Portland Police vehicle and likely did so knowing that Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt had already announced a new policy of not prosecuting people for such things (https://ift.tt/3ixdUGr). The protester also was likely aware that de-escalation policies in law enforcement require that when forced to choose between turning around, running someone over, and trying to make an arrest while surrounded by a hostile crowd, that the officer should just turn around. Law and order supporters would likely describe this behavior as a crime that the protester should have been arrested or possibly run over for. They would say "the law is the law, he is breaking the law, the cop should have just kept driving." They would ask "how can you support breaking the law?" Then call you a criminal and have no interest in your input for the rest of their lives. We call such people blind sheep because they only do what they see as normal, not breaking the law is normal for them, and they are of average to below average intelligence. At the same time we are not advocating for people to engage in anything we consider real crime. There is nothing wrong with someone blocking the street to protest Police brutality in Portland, Oregon because the community has agreed for the most part that nobody should be prosecuted for that. It is a great place to get to and would not be possible without enhanced protest techniques. Every police officer has what is called "discretion" which means he or she can pick and choose when to enforce the law and against whom. Enhanced protest techniques can play a critical role in the discretion phase of criminal proceedings. Enhanced protest techniques can create additional factors to consider that may make exercising their discretion against you undesirable. In Portland, Oregon heavy handed responses by law enforcement only swelled the protesters ranks, overwhelmed the courts with more cases than they could possibly prosecute, and as a result a partial amnesty was the best option. Enhanced protest techniques are to thank for the current state of the city. A state where the government has no choice but to honor the First Amendment rights of people protesting police brutality. We support enhanced protest techniques as long as those techniques do not involve damaging private property or physically harming anyone. We reject the idea that following rules written by others for the purpose of controlling you is more important than the pursuit of liberty and justice. We support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and many of Anitfa's actions in support of BLM. We support them when they are pursuing liberty and justice; are willing to use enhanced protest techniques when necessary; and refrain from physically harming people or private property. We wish that they would put a stop to beatings and private property damage by policing their own people better, but as a whole those drawbacks and the importance of avoiding them pales in comparison to the importance of liberty and justice. #civildisobedience #mikeschmidt #antifa #blacklivesmatter

source https://copblaster.com/blast/25972/enhanced-protest-techniques-on-display-in-portland-oregon