(08-04-2012 07:36 AM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Cops got aggressive after some of the "Black Block" Anarchists from Occupy LA joined the protests.

Yeah right.

(08-04-2012 04:24 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-04-2012 03:54 AM)rice09 Wrote:  file permits to help ensure a smooth protest.

I detest the notion of asking permission to protest from the very thing you are protesting.

Maybe the laws should be changed so that instead of the city having to approve, the organizers just have to accept liability. That way the insurance company will be lending its expertise. All I know is that our current situation is unsustainable. Right now, nobody is taking responsibility for the crowd crowd, nobody has a plan for how to keep the protest from turning violent or providing a screen for those that have not interest in the cause but want to conduct criminal behavior, nor do they have a plan for redirecting traffic or pedestrians, providing restrooms, or trash cans. It would be irresponsible for the police not to monitor such a situation, but nobody is writing them any checks for doing so, so they have to either go over-budget on the taxpayer's dime or make the city less safe by putting fewer cops on patrol.

I guess that under true Libertarian philosophy, everyone should only be responsible for their own actions and there is no reason for the organizers to have liability for any but their own actions. But if a crowd leaves a mess because nobody provided trash cans, it really does not feel like a superior practice for the city to use cameras or whatever to track down every person that dropped a piece of garbage and send them each a $10 bill for clean-up. If the city developed that capability, I feel our civil liberties would be much more threatened than simply requiring the organizers to prevent the situation from coming up in the first place.

(08-04-2012 12:45 PM)rice09 Wrote:  

(08-04-2012 04:24 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-04-2012 03:54 AM)rice09 Wrote:  file permits to help ensure a smooth protest.

I detest the notion of asking permission to protest from the very thing you are protesting.

Maybe the laws should be changed so that instead of the city having to approve, the organizers just have to accept liability. That way the insurance company will be lending its expertise. All I know is that our current situation is unsustainable. Right now, nobody is taking responsibility for the crowd crowd, nobody has a plan for how to keep the protest from turning violent or providing a screen for those that have not interest in the cause but want to conduct criminal behavior, nor do they have a plan for redirecting traffic or pedestrians, providing restrooms, or trash cans. It would be irresponsible for the police not to monitor such a situation, but nobody is writing them any checks for doing so, so they have to either go over-budget on the taxpayer's dime or make the city less safe by putting fewer cops on patrol.

I guess that under true Libertarian philosophy, everyone should only be responsible for their own actions and there is no reason for the organizers to have liability for any but their own actions. But if a crowd leaves a mess because nobody provided trash cans, it really does not feel like a superior practice for the city to use cameras or whatever to track down every person that dropped a piece of garbage and send them each a $10 bill for clean-up. If the city developed that capability, I feel our civil liberties would be much more threatened than simply requiring the organizers to prevent the situation from coming up in the first place.

The Constitution grants free assembly...it does not grant breaking the axiom of non aggression during that assembly. I have no problem with fining those during a protest for breaking that axiom. The problem of course is how to do that. Under our current paradigm..it seems almost impossible.