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Relevant part of the Constitution, the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging [...] the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to

Relevant part of the Constitution, the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging [...] the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Full first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The real problem is, when all you need to justify a crackdown is to make a peaceable assembly unpeaceful, it's relatively trivial to insert agent provocateurs to instigate violence and fade into the background or through the police lines as they push. Therefore I think there needs to be a massive congressional inquiry into the use of agent provocateurs domestically, and laws passed to prevent that usurpation of our Constitutional rights.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
> "The real problem is, when all you need to justify a crackdown is to make a peaceable assembly unpeaceful, it's relatively trivial to insert agent provocateurs to instigate violence and fade into the background or through the police lines as they push." It has been suggested that this tactic has already been tried in the DAPL protest, with an DAPL-linked employee called Kyle Thompson: http://thedailyhaze.com/kyle-thompson-knightsbridge/ http://thedailyhaze.com/kyle-thompson-knightsbridge/
greglindahl 10y ago
There's even a name for it: "Police Riot" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_riot No need for agent provocateurs; most crowds react poorly when riot police start pushing them around. For example, to enforce a curfew against a peaceful crowd => riot => see, the curfew was justified! They were rioting!

ZenoArrow 10y ago

> "The real problem is, when all you need to justify a crackdown is to make a peaceable assembly unpeaceful, it's relatively trivial to insert agent provocateurs to instigate violence and fade into the background or through the police lines as they push." It has been suggested that this tactic has already been tried in the DAPL protest, with an DAPL-linked employee called Kyle Thompson: http://thedailyhaze.com/kyle-thompson-knightsbridge/ http://thedailyhaze.com/kyle-thompson-knightsbridge/

greglindahl 10y ago

There's even a name for it: "Police Riot" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_riot No need for agent provocateurs; most crowds react poorly when riot police start pushing them around. For example, to enforce a curfew against a peaceful crowd => riot => see, the curfew was justified! They were rioting!