According to the often-cited 3.5% rule, if 3.5% of a population protests against a regime, the regime will fail. Developed by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, who researched civil resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006, the rule has seen renewed interest in leftist circles recently, especially with No Kings protests attracting historic numbers.
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This shows the outsize impact a single protester can have, the study’s authors say. That’s because having one more attender at a demonstration rallies more support for a political cause than acquiring one more vote during an election does.
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In the context of civil rights, the movement’s ability to elicit violence from its opponents – such as in 1965, when armed police violently attacked peaceful protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama – only strengthened public support for the cause. “When the state is perceived as engaging in excess use of force, that tends to generate very sympathetic coverage, and that drives concern,” explained Wasow.
I feel the effectiveness of the protest is proportionate to how afraid they are of the protesters. And, today, they are not at all afraid—and therefore the effectiveness is nil
There’s a reason why the person remembered most for Stonewall is the one who threw the brick. There’s a reason why you were never taught about the Railway strikes, or the Battle of Blair Mountain, or Haymarket Square.
The wealthy love peaceful protests. So much easier to just ignore.
And don’t you dare tell folks all of these direct acts of political action were, and still are illegal!
Liberals in this network hate being pointed out the facts that law really is for the rulers, not the people.
If they weren’t afraid of them they would just let them protest.
They seem terrified to me.
As this article is related to the US, I don’t see much fear from them at all. No King? Nothing happened. ICE protests? Meh, normal reactions outside of Los Angeles, and even that has cooled off entirely.
They saw nothing came of a year of protesting. They have no fear.
One could argue that the excesses of ICE against peaceful protests have helped somewhat in that they’ve created a legal basis for the judiciary to limit their power.
But, that only matters if there is a material change, and there certainly hasn’t been enough of that. Innocent people are still being rounded up and the concentration camps are still running.
Bu-but some meanie heads are gonna quit their jobs and be replaced with other meanie heads!!! That means we win right???
I think they become a lot less afraid of us when they know they can easily justify violent responses because of violent acts by protestors.
It is way scarier to them when any violent act they take to force protestors to shut up delegitimizes them in the eyes of any observer.
Courts have at very least issued temporary restraining orders (TRO) against excessive force like after they shot that pastor in the head in Chicago.
Just one example but I think there are plenty more.
California passed that “No secret police” bill.