Protesting in the US

[CheRev]

A friend raised an interesting point to me: that it's getting harder to protest in the US due to the lack of effective public places to do it.

The city and town centres that we have in Europe (albeit diminishing with the increase in all out capitalism) have been replaced in the US by shopping malls thus reducing the amount of effective places to protest as the shopping malls are private property. This leaves town centres that lack the people to make any form of protest effective thus reducing the effect it has.

My friend isn't from the US and as such is only basing this on the one or two trips he made there. Is the above the case? If not, is it going in that direction?

[Forward Union]

You can still protest on private property, including shopping centres. Not legally of course, but a nice, fluffy demo wont get you in any real trouble. In the UK the Officer in charge will just place a section... ...9 (i think)on you, this gives him the right to impose some restrictions, normally including an expiratory date for your little stunt, and then just oversee the duration.

In fact, this makes life much better for us. People are often shocked and appauled by the fact that corporations have the legal right to shut you up. Especially as corporate land often appears to be public.

It might also be useful to make the restrictions of free-speech a focus of the protest.

[Janus]

No, you can't protest on someone's private property in the US. If you do, there's a good chance that they will have you thrown out. As far as protests go, most of them are still conducted in public areas such as on streets, sidewalks, parks, city halls,etc.

[CheRev]

No, you can't protest on someone's private property in the US. If you do, there's a good chance that they will have you thrown out. As far as protests go, most of them are still conducted in public areas such as on streets, sidewalks, parks, city halls,etc.

But is the effectiveness of the protests reduced due to the large majority of people doing their day-to-day errands/socialising in these malls that are outside of the city centres, thus reducing the amount of people the protesters can get their message across to?

What I'm trying to get at here is that the government may say we have free speech (which we all know is bullshit anyway) but at the same time we are becoming more and more limited in the way that we can protest. This will either lead to protesting being further marginalised or a radicalisation of the process. I vote for the later... I think protesting has become such an organised event nowadays that it's becoming inefectual; getting permission from the police etc.

[Ultra-Violence]

But is the effectiveness of the protests reduced due to the large majority of people doing their day-to-day errands/socialising in these malls that are outside of the city centres, thus reducing the amount of people the protesters can get their message across to?




no and let me tell you why i have lots of examples
i live in losangels and the three major protest spots are as folloe: olympica and braod way, holly wood and vine, or wilsher by the federal building.

and this really improves the effectivenes of our protest people stop what their doing come out of the stores and her and look at what were saying and doing. too many times have people come up to me and said thank you i apreeciate what your doing or even better the join the protest its excitng really. and i forgot to mention above olympic and broadway is the heart of downtown lots of commerce there and holly wood and vine is very busy as well. the federal biulding is in beverly hill wiht all the ritch fat cats and lots of support up their dont know why :wacko:

[Janus]

But is the effectiveness of the protests reduced due to the large majority of people doing their day-to-day errands/socialising in these malls that are outside of the city centres, thus reducing the amount of people the protesters can get their message across to?
Depeding on where you protest and your numbers, you'll have a greater and possibly more sympathetic audience than if you were to protest in front of a mall or other shopping center.


but at the same time we are becoming more and more limited in the way that we can protest. This will either lead to protesting being further marginalised or a radicalisation of the process.
Yes, there are obviously quite a number of limits placed on protests,etc. but the point of such protests is to create awareness and consciousness and if the state cracks down then the message becomes even more clarified.