Question

A comparison between violent and non-violent protesting.
There are pros and cons to each approach, as can be seen throughout history. In your opinion, which have been better? What are the potential implications of each type of protest?

Answer 1

So what is Protests?

A protest is a public expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent towards an idea or course of action, typically a political one. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to directly enact desired changes themselves. Where protests are part of a systematic and peaceful nonviolent campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and maybe better described as cases of civil resistance or nonviolent resistance. Various forms of self-expression and protest are sometimes restricted by governmental policy, economic circumstances, religious orthodoxy, social structures, or media monopoly. One state reaction to protests is the use of riot police. Observers have noted an increased militarization of protest policing, with police deploying armored vehicles and snipers against the protesters. When such restrictions occur, protests may assume the form of open civil disobedience, more subtle forms of resistance against the restrictions, or may spill over into other areas such as culture and emigration. A protest itself may at times be the subject of a counter-protest. In such a case, counter-protesters demonstrate their support for the person, policy, action, etc. that is the subject of the original protest. In some cases, these protesters can violently clash.

References to Gandhi remain common in academic, journalistic, and informal discussions of nonviolence. Yet contemporary nonviolent social movements in Iran, Egypt, and elsewhere largely rely on a pragmatic approach informed by instrumental reason that is significantly different from Gandhi’s political ethics.

Forms Of Protest

Rally or demonstration: Demonstration, rally, etc. without reference to marching or walking in a picket line or standing in a vigil. Reference to speeches, speakers, singing, preaching, often verified by indication of sound equipment of PA and sometimes by a platform or stage. Ordinarily will include worship services, speeches, briefings.

March: Reference to moving from one location to another; to be distinguished from rotating or walking in a circle with picket signs which by definition, constitutes a picket.

Vigil: Most vigils have banners, placards, or leaflets so that people passing by, despite silence from participants, can ascertain for what the vigil stands.

Picket: The modal activity is picketing; there may be references to the picket line, to informational picketing; holding signs; "carrying signs and walking around in a circle". Holding signs or placards or banners is not the defining criteria; rather, it is holding or carrying those items and walking a circular route, a phrase sometimes surprisingly found in the permit application.

Civil disobedience: Explicit protest that involves crossing barricade, sit-in of blacks where prohibited, use of "colored" bathrooms, voter registration drives, crossing barricades, tying up phone lines.

Ceremony: These celebrate or protest status transitions ranging from birth, death dates of individuals, organizations or nations, seasons, to re-enlistment or commissioning of military personnel, to the anniversaries of the same.

Attack by instigators Ethnic group victim of physical attack, by collective group (not-one-on-one assault, crime, rape). Boundary motivating attack is "other group's identity," as in gay-bashing, lynching. Can also include verbal attack and/or threats, too.

Riot, melee, mob violence: Large-scale (50+), use of violence by instigators against persons, property, police, or buildings separately or in combination, lasting several hours.

Strike, slow down and sick-ins employee work protest of any kind: Regular air strike through failure of negotiations, or wildcat airstrike.

Boycott: Organized refusal to buy or use a product or service, rent strikes.

Press conference: If specifically named as such in report, and must be the predominant activity form. Could involve disclosure of information to "educate the public" or influence various decision-makers.

Organization formation announcement or meeting announcement: meeting or press conference to announce the formation of a new organization.

Conflict, attack or clash, no instigator: This includes any boundary conflict in which no instigator can be identified, i.e. black/white conflicts, abortion/anti-abortion conflicts.

Prayer Walk: A prayer walk is an activity that consists of walking and praying at the same time. It's done not for the physical benefit but for the spiritual exercise, either publicly functioning also as a demonstration or rally.

Lawsuit: legal maneuver by social movement organization or group

Some forms of direct action>

· Protest march, a historically and geographically common form of nonviolent action by groups of people.

· Picketing, a form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in ("crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause.

· Street protesters demonstrate in areas with high visibility, often employing handmade placards such as sandwich boards or picket signs in order to maximize exposure and interaction with the public.

· Lockdowns are a way to stop the movement of an object, like a structure or tree, and to thwart the movement of actual protesters from the location. Users employ various chains, locks, and even the sleeping dragon for impairment of those trying to remove them with a matrix of composted materials.

· Die-ins are a form of protest where participants simulate being dead (with varying degrees of realism). In the simplest form of a die-in, protesters simply lie down on the ground and pretend to be dead, sometimes covering themselves with signs or banners. Much of the effectiveness depends on the posture of the protesters, for when not properly executed, the protest might look more like a "sleep-in". For added realism, simulated wounds are sometimes painted on the bodies, or (usually "bloody") bandages are used.

· Protest song is a song that protests perceived problems in society. Every major movement in Western history has been accompanied by its own collection of protest songs, from slave emancipation to women's suffrage, the labor movement, civil rights, the anti-war movement, the feminist movement, the environmental movement. Over time, the songs have come to protest more abstract, moral issues, such as injustice, racial discrimination, the morality of war in general (as opposed to purely protesting individual wars), globalization, inflation, social inequalities, and incarceration.

· Radical cheerleading. The idea is to ironically reappropriate the aesthetics of cheerleading, for example by changing the chants to promote feminism and left-wing causes. Many radical cheerleaders (some of whom are male, transgender, or non-gender identified) are in appearance far from the stereotypical image of a cheerleader.

· Critical Mass bike rides have been perceived as protest activities.

· Toyi-toyi is a Southern African dance originally from Zimbabwe that became famous for its use in political protests in the apartheid-era South Africa, see Protest in South Africa.

Written demonstration

Written evidence of political or economic power, or democratic justification may also be a way of protesting.

· Petitions

· Letters (to show political power by the volume of letters): For example, some letter writing campaigns especially with signed form letters.

Civil disobedience demonstrations

Any protest could be civil disobedience if a "ruling authority" says so, but the following are usually civil disobedience demonstrations:

· Public nudity or topfree (to protest indecency laws or as a publicity stunt for another protest such as a war protest) or animal mistreatment (e.g. PETA's campaign against fur). See also Nudity and protest.

· Sit-in

· Photobombing or disrupting an event being broadcast live

· Raasta roko (people blocking auto traffic with their bodies)

· Silent protest

As a residence

· Peace camp

· Formation of a tent city

· Camp for Climate Action

Destructive

· Vandalism – smashing windows or spraying graffiti is sometimes used as a form of protests, and is sometimes employed by black bloc groups.

· Riot – Protests or attempts to end protests sometimes lead to rioting.

· Self-immolation

· Suicide

· Hunger strike

· Bombing

Non-destructive

· Silent Protests – Protests/Parades in which participants are nonviolent and usually silent, in an attempt to avoid a violent confrontation with Military or Police Forces. This tactic was effectively used during the Arab Spring in cities such as Tehran and Cairo

Direct action

· Civil resistance

· Nonviolent resistance

· Occupation

Against a government

· Tax resistance

· Conscientious objector[citation needed]

· Flag desecration

By government employees

· Bully pulpit

· Judicial activism

Job action

· Strike action

· Walkout

· Work-to-rule

In sports

During a sporting event, under certain circumstances, one side may choose to play a game "under protest", usually when they feel the rules are not being correctly applied. The event continues as normal, and the events causing the protest are reviewed after the fact. If the protest is held to be valid, then the results of the event are changed. Each sport has different rules for protests.

By management

· Lockout

By tenants

· Rent strike

By consumers

· Boycott

· Consumer Court

By Internet and social networking

Blogging and social networking have become effective tools to register protests and grievances. Protests can express views, news and use viral networking to reach out to thousands of people. With protests on the rise from the election season of 2016 going into 2017, protesters became aware that using their social media during a protest could make them an easier target for government surveillance.

Literature, art and culture

Culture jamming

Against religious or ideological institutions

· Recusancy

· Book burning

A comparison between violent and non-violent protesting

Violent Protests

§ As someone who has been involved in both types of protest, violent and nonviolent, I can honestly say that most of the ones that turned violent was because the police overreacted.

By doing so they just made things worse. Instead of just backing off from someone who admittedly was a loudmouth jerk, they chose to engage with that person, creating a situation where other people around him felt it necessary to join in. By doing so, they were unwittingly playing into the hands of the police who represents the system both of us for protesting.

§ smashing windows or spraying graffiti is sometimes used as a form of protests, and is sometimes employed by black bloc groups.

§ Protests or attempts to end protests sometimes lead to rioting.

§ Self-immolation is the act of killing oneself, typically for political or religious reasons, particularly by burning. It is often used as an extreme form of protest or in acts of martyrdom.

§ Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one;s own death. Mental Disorders including bipolar disorders anxiety disorders are risk factors.

§ A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke the feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not solid food.

§ In cases where an entity (usually the state) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a prisoner), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of force-feeding.

§ A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, the impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects.

§ violent protests can provide immediate attention but its long-lasting effect merely exits. violence is as short as loud. As soon protests turn violent you offer the state a chance to easily crush you with a valid reason. Violence has its own selected participants and as a society moves towards its moral civilization its rarely accepts violence as a way of protest, because once you achieve something by violence you would surely use it as a weapon for your next wish.

Nonviolent Protests

§ Nonviolent resistance (NVR or nonviolent action) is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods, while being nonviolent.

Nonviolent resistance is largely but wrongly taken as synonymous with civil disobedience. Each of these terms—nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience—has different connotations and commitments. Berel Lang argues against the conflation of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience on the grounds that the necessary conditions for an act instancing civil disobedience are: (1) that the act violates the law, (2) that the act is performed intentionally, and (3), that the actor anticipates and willingly accepts punitive measures made on the part of the state against him in retaliation for the act. Since acts of nonviolent political resistance need not satisfy any of these criteria, Lang argues that the two categories of action cannot be identified with one another.

§ Protests/Parades in which participants are nonviolent and usually silent, in an attempt to avoid a violent confrontation with Military or Police Forces. This tactic was effectively used during the Arab Spring in cities such as Tehran and Cairo

§ A peaceful protest, also known as nonviolent resistance or nonviolent action, is the act of expressing disapproval through a statement or action without the use of violence. This type of protest has been used to advocate for a number of different causes, including human rights issues, anti-war campaigns, and expressing disapproval of various political/governmental policy issues. Some general methods include boycotting certain products, participating in a march or a sit-in, displaying a particular symbol, and handing out flyers.

§ In the US, non-violent protests of the Viet Nam war were more effective and powerful than violence. That’s because the goal was to affect the awareness, views, and sentiments of US citizens as a whole. However, in the history of the US Labor movement, protesting companies using scab labor during strikes could not have been done effectively by non-violent protest.

            Mass Killing in Violent & Non-Violent Campaigns

In Violent Campaigns Its 68.15% of campaigns that experienced mass killing and 31.85% of campaigns that did not experience a mass killing.

In nonViolent Campaigns It's 23.12% of campaigns that experienced mass killing and 76.88% of campaigns that did not experience a mass killing.

Violent & Non-Violent, which have been better?

Probably more often than you would think. However, it is usually not a direct result, even when the protests are massive. However, it is a way for the authorities to gauge the temperature of the public. Changes may be more subtle, or they may not change exactly in the way the protesters were asking for. Items in draft legislation that nobody has seen yet may become stronger or be softened, replaced, or deleted entirely. So Peaceful protest is much more effective than violence.

What are the potential implications of each type of protest?

Violence in its many forms can affect the health of people who are the targets, those who are the perpetrators, and the communities in which both live. In this article we review the literature on the health consequences of many forms of violence, including child physical and sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, elder abuse, sexual violence, youth violence, and bullying. The biological effects of violence have become increasingly better understood and include effects on the brain, neuroendocrine system, and immune response. Consequences include increased incidences of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide; increased risk of cardiovascular disease; and premature mortality. The health consequences of violence vary with the age and sex of the victim as well as the form of violence. People can be the victims of multiple forms of violence, and the health effects can be cumulative.

Nonviolence and peace are natural, ubiquitous, and normal in the human species throughout its evolution and adaptation. In fact, for well over a million years evolution has selected for a human nature that is naturally inclined toward nonviolence, peace, cooperation, reciprocity, empathy, and compassion in the context of nomadic forager societies that comprise 99% of human existence.

Major nonviolent resistance advocates include Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Te Whiti o Rongomai, Tohu Kākahi, Leo Tolstoy, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, James Bevel, Václav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Wałęsa, Gene Sharp, Nelson Mandela, and many others.