Protecting your constitutional right to choose what kind of guns you can and can't have and/or carry around in public is different from advocating for constitutional rights that are limited due to racism because racism in this country (and city) prevent people from securing access to quality education, employment, housing, etc. Race of suspects/defendants is also a huge determining factor in what result one faces in our criminal justice system. These are huge essential social issues, frankly not comparable to the government telling you which guns you get to play with and which ones you don't.shimmy wrote: First, I don't see how protecting my constitutional rights are any different than advocating for constitutional rights that are limited due to racism. The rights of all individuals that are guaranteed in the Constitution should be considered equal. Though, I was just using that as an example. Second, you're right when you say the possible murder of a kid. The purpose of the grand jury is to determine whether those allegations hold any merit. If they do, then the officer will be put on trial for murder and judged by a jury of his peers. That's how our justice system works. Attention-grabbing antics in a venue that has absolutely zero possibility to influence anything, nor should it influence anything, is just embarrassing.
The disobedience that served a purpose in the civil rights movement was pretty pointed. Sitting in the front of the bus because you're not allowed to sit in the front of the bus, or sitting in a diner because you're not allowed to sit in a diner, all because of the color of your skin, is a much more pragmatic way of highlighting your issue than becoming the equivalent of Code Pink at a congressional hearing. Actually, the Code Pink protests make more sense as congressmen have the power to influence the issues that they are protesting, as opposed to musicians at the symphony who have zero influence on the judicial process. Wouldn't this protest make much sense to have at the Civil Courts building? Or city hall? Or the Old Courthouse, which I thought served as a very appropriate and moving backdrop when protests were held there before? Another difference between the civil rights disobedience and this is that the civil rights movement was protesting undeniable discrimination, as opposed to this situation where all charges of murder are alleged. Hence, the purpose of the grand jury.
Furthermore, if the purpose of this is to show the grand jury that the populace wants justice, and that justice is only served in the form of an indictment, well, isn't that just arguing that popular opinion should have a bigger say in our judicial system than careful consideration of the facts? Since when is justice tied to popular opinion? Especially when that opinion is largely uneducated and ignorant of all of the facts?
The rights of all individuals that are guaranteed in the Constitution should be considered equal, but of course it is worth mentioning that from the founding of this nation, our founding fathers did not mean that those rights were to apply equally to everyone... so arguing for equality via the constitution (when the constitution was in fact written to codify an inherently unequal nation into existence) is kinda bogus.
The purpose of a grand jury is to determine whether those allegations hold any merit, but to say that "If they do, then the officer will be put on trial for murder and judged by a jury of his peers. That's how our justice system works" is totally ignorant of the fact that our justice system very often does not work the way it is supposed to, that unjust results happen from it frequently, and that statistically, the race of people involved in the case is often a factor. To say that "attention-grabbing antics in a venue that has absolutely zero possibility to influence anything, nor should it influence anything, is just embarrassing" is highly dismissive, insulting, and heinously ignorant of disenfranchised people trying to make their voices heard.
You mentioned some more "pointed" demonstrations from the civil rights era, which is great. They were often not so pointed. The civil rights era is fraught with bombings, riots, police beatings, marches, and demonstrations EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE WE SAW AT THE SYMPHONY AND THE SPORTING EVENTS. In the aggregate, these events force people to face issues and have conversations and take action. You're quibbling over what these disenfranchised peoples are doing and where they're doing it, but you're totally missing the point in so doing.
