One
Man’s Protest is Another Man’s Riot
By Albert B. Kelly
Not too long ago, I was glancing through news articles and
links and I came across a piece about the Keystone XL Pipeline. I don’t know a
lot about the Keystone Pipeline except that it is a way to get oil from Alberta,
Canada down to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas with a few stops along the way.
I also know that it runs through several states and that oil, being what it is,
any spill or accident would no doubt result in environmental damage of monumental
proportions.
Various groups of citizens in the states where this pipeline
runs have been protesting and doing what they could in the courts to block the
project because of the risk of spills and the mess it would leave behind. My
understanding is that the pipeline runs through mostly Native American lands
and other marginalized communities because standard-issue Americans won’t
tolerate the risk and you know how that goes.
Aside from the pipeline itself and whatever potential risk
the project imposes on the communities and lands in its path, the thing that
caught my eye was the discussion about the number of states that either have
considered, or are currently considering, very harsh anti-protest laws and
penalties for their residents. It was a headline from Inside Climate News;
“ACLU Fears Protest Crackdowns, Surveillance Already Being Planned for Keystone
XL”, that got my attention.
While the focus of the article centers on the protests
related to the Keystone project and the various responses from law enforcement-
everything from surveillance drones to tear gas and water cannons- it also
mentions the fact that since 2016, upwards of 30 states have passed bills or
executive orders to crack down on protests. The article references the
International Center for Not-for-profit Law which has a “U.S. Protest Law
Tracker. A glance through the tracker is a mixed bag and suggests to me that we’re
forgetting how America got made.
Understand that as a mayor who values the rule of law, I can
think of few things worse than an unruly mob scaring citizens, creating mayhem,
and destroying property. Wearing my “mayor hat”, the focus is on keeping order,
protecting life and limb, and making sure my community is not ravaged by a
destructive group of crazies in the name of “protest”. As is true of any mayor,
that’s a foundational responsibility and if it can’t be met with local assets,
then it’s time to call in state and federal reinforcements.
Yet as a member of a group that not too long ago had to
resort to protest in the face of fire hoses, Bull Conner-types, and snarling
dogs to get the courts moving and secure civil rights, I don’t want to see
legitimate protest criminalized. There is a difference between legitimate protest
and a riot. As a society, we have to be careful not to blur the lines or misuse
the lawmaking process because one group or another doesn’t like a certain
message.
In our own state, a person can potentially be guilty of
“riot” if he or she is with as few as four others deemed to be engaging in
disorderly conduct which, in its most benign form includes “improper behavior”
meant to “cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm”. The statute also
refers to “tumultuous behavior” as well as “offensive language”. Heck, I’ve
been to City Council meetings that caused inconvenience, annoyance and alarm
not to mention being tumultuous with offensive language. Go figure.
Some states are making it a criminal offense to conceal any
portion of a person’s face while protesting, which could include wearing a
jacket with a hood. Other states seek to eliminate the liability of a driver
for hitting a protester with their car, and increasing penalties for protests
deemed to be near “critical infrastructure”. The problem here is that certain authorities
can and will stretch this language in untold ways if their intent is to silence
certain groups- especially the ones they’ve always silenced.
Regardless, America in so many ways evolved through the act
of protest whether in the form of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Greenwich
Tea Burning in December 1774, the whisky Rebellion in 1791, the women’s
suffrage march in 1913, the Bonus Army in 1932, or the Edmund Pettis Bridge in
1965. We’re a better people because of protest and we shouldn’t give that away
in the name of “riot”.