Activism, Uncensored: Climate Protesters Block Traffic in the Capital
They may not be soup-and-Van Gogh level PR juggernauts, but highway-jamming actions arouse strong feelings. Do they work?
In a follow-up to work from earlier this year by Ford Fischer’s News2Share crew, a week of travails of the climate-change group Declare Emergency in Washington, DC were documented.
In the interest of not stepping on the editorial toes of Ford and his crew it’s probably best to refrain from commenting too much, except to say the Declare Emergency footage is very interesting as a window on the internal thinking of an earnest protest organization. Declare Emergency had some bad luck and ambiguous results blocking traffic last April — a scene in which a man shouted “I’ve got to get to my wife. She’s pregnant! What the fuck!” stood out — and in some ways, this tape shows more of the same, with frustration on all sides.
These activists seem sincere, and clearly they feel like less intrusive tactics aren’t getting the job done, but the strategy of blocking highways once again brings angry dudes out of cars looking like they want to corkscrew heads off. “What you’re doing is not right! People are going to hate you guys!” shouts a man in a pink shirt and a hurry in this footage.
“Normal channels are not working,” says one activist.
“Like I said, I don’t think you understand the seriousness of the situation,” says another, in response to an officer asking him to get up voluntarily. “I don’t think I can move at this point.” At which point he’s handcuffed and moved.
Is this effective? The camera doesn’t judge, and leaves consideration of the question to you. As always, great job by Ford, News2Share, and contributor TJ Jones showing the lengthy narrative context around these scenes.
“These activists seem sincere, and clearly they feel like less intrusive tactics aren’t getting the job done,” ........ what right do activists have to destroy things they don’t own and didn’t build to get their message across? Or to lay in the middle of the street because they can’t reverse the industrial revolution? These tactics are like a guy hitting on a girl, her saying no, and him deciding to hold her down and rape her to get his message across since his “less intrusive” words weren’t getting the job done of him getting his way.
At some point people need to accept that if they don’t make a convincing argument they don’t get to throw a fit like a toddler. Plus, all of these things are actual crimes. If law enforcement won’t enforce the law, sooner or later, everyday people tired of the 💩 will do it for them, and that’s when things get really ugly.
Destroying artwork, dumping milk out in grocery stores, and blocking highways doesn’t work to accomplish anything aside from showing the world these grown babies have parents that never required them to grow the hell up.
This sort of action only informs me that the people involved are misinformed morons that have not bothered to study the issue that claim to support. This sort of thing might be used to bring attention to real injustice such as the Civil Rights movement of the early 60’s, but in this case all they’re doing is alienating the very people they need to support their cause.