Hospitals blocked by protestors

[Allison]

Walking on a highway or protesting in public places isn't hurting anyone, maybe inconveniencing, but not hurting. The hospital might be a different situation. I support the protesters' rights to oppose an Ayn Rand militarized police state.

Personally, I can't get over the fact that police are shooting unarmed people, who are trying to get away from them- from a distance. People who are not threatening them or others. That wouldn't happen in my neighborhood. In cities across the country, there are increasing successful lawsuits against police who use undue force, and it's very difficult to get past that blue wall of police protecting each other.

Why not give the protesters one thing they've asked for- cameras on all police officers, cameras you don't/can't turn off? Seems like a simple solution that would defuse much of the tension at this point.

The hospital might be a different situation? What is wrong with you?

As someone with a parent who arrived at the hospital near death. Yes, it is hurting people.

As someone with a parent on life support and in ICU recently, yes it is hurting people.

As someone with a frail, scared parent who has been in a hospital for 5 weeks and wants family at the patient care update meeting because they are scared about their future, yes it is hurting people.

 

[christineann]

Physical evidence does not conform or change to fit political agendas.

Bless our law enforcement officers, and may they all come safely at the end of their shifts.

 

[Acklander]

I've marched in protests before, though not in this one. The protest organizers, when applying for permits, lay out the protest route and times effected so police/hospitals/emergency etc. can work around it. I've been in ones that travel along highways and on/off ramps as well. Traffic is routed around the protest, for safety reasons, so it's not like a large group is running in traffic on the highway.

 

[OurBigTrip]

I've marched in protests before, though not in this one. The protest organizers, when applying for permits, lay out the protest route and times effected so police/hospitals/emergency etc. can work around it. I've been in ones that travel along highways and on/off ramps as well. Traffic is routed around the protest, for safety reasons, so it's not like a large group is running in traffic on the highway.

I highly doubt that the protesters are getting permits.

 

[Acklander]

I highly doubt that the protesters are getting permits.

No idea. I wasn't involved at all. There were lots of protests. Maybe some had permits, maybe none had permits, maybe all had permits. The permits aren't a requirement - constitutions guarantee the right to protest. The permits are more of an organizational formality so emergency services, and police know where they are going to be from a practical stand point. If they didn't have permits, organizers could have given verbal information. Or maybe the information was by observation only. Point is, contingency plans are in place so business can continue as usual around the protest area.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

No idea. I wasn't involved at all. There were lots of protests. Maybe some had permits, maybe none had permits, maybe all had permits. The permits aren't a requirement - constitutions guarantee the right to protest. The permits are more of an organizational formality so emergency services, and police know where they are going to be from a practical stand point. If they didn't have permits, organizers could have given verbal information. Or maybe the information was by observation only. Point is, contingency plans are in place so business can continue as usual around the protest area.

Permits can be required. Marching in the streets is not arbitrarily constitutionally protected as traffic laws must still be followed and pretty much will always require a permit. Hence why police slowly require folks to disperse. People can complain, but their rights are not violated.

ACLU spells it all out on their website.

 

[Muushka]

Walking on a highway or protesting in public places isn't hurting anyone, maybe inconveniencing, but not hurting. The hospital might be a different situation. I support the protesters' rights to oppose an Ayn Rand militarized police state.

Personally, I can't get over the fact that police are shooting unarmed people, who are trying to get away from them- from a distance. People who are not threatening them or others. That wouldn't happen in my neighborhood. In cities across the country, there are increasing successful lawsuits against police who use undue force, and it's very difficult to get past that blue wall of police protecting each other.

Why not give the protesters one thing they've asked for- cameras on all police officers, cameras you don't/can't turn off? Seems like a simple solution that would defuse much of the tension at this point.

I give up. What is a "Ayn Rand militarized police state"?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I give up. What is a "Ayn Rand militarized police state"?

Poster has been dropping political hints of their political leanings in other posts they have been making. This is another political reference. So probably should not discuss.

 

[OurBigTrip]

I give up. What is a "Ayn Rand militarized police state"?

Any place where people aren't permitted to burn down buildings and block highways.

 

[Muushka]

Any place where people aren't permitted to burn down buildings and block highways.

My kind of place!

 

[Heidict]

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from my daughters school that she had been involved in an accident and they were taking her to the hospital in an ambulance. I left and met them at the hospital. I had no problems getting there, other than some wet roads, but I can't imagine the anger I would have felt towards the protesters had they been blocking the highway.

I have no sympathy for them or their cause when they do boneheaded moves like this.

 

[minniecarousel]

There were protesters on the freeways in Oakland Monday & Tuesday nights. Scared the crap out of my sister. She eeked thru before they closed down the freeway. Her husband was at a meeting across town and would be taking the same way home. He's not real good at turning his cell phone on. So she couldn't get through to him. She just kept remembering when he was grazed by a stray bullet in a drive-by several years ago. No one knew if the crowd walking on the freeway would become violent.

So many businesses were vandalized in Oakland. Many owned by local residents. So pointless.

 

[Art 1]

In Boston and Providence at the moment. Ambulances can't get through. This is not peaceful, this is life threatening. How can this be any solution?

They ought to bring in Rome Plows and push them all out of the way.

 

[robinb]

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from my daughters school that she had been involved in an accident and they were taking her to the hospital in an ambulance. I left and met them at the hospital. I had no problems getting there, other than some wet roads, but I can't imagine the anger I would have felt towards the protesters had they been blocking the highway. I have no sympathy for them or their cause when they do boneheaded moves like this.

I hope you DD is okay!

 

[dakcp2001]

There are 2 instances I'm aware of where these particular protest caused a delay in emergency care. A toddler in Mass had to be rerouted via ambulance to New Hampshire for treatment, thats a longer ride. I do not know the child's outcome. The second was a motor vehicle accident in the Mass Rhode Island line area, the first ambulance en route couldn't get through so they had to call another company on the other side of the protest to go respond. Then when they got there there was confusion on where to take the patient.

Protests are fine. Blocking hospitals is criminal behavior, and not a protest. 45 people were arrested for it. Marching on highways in the dark is just plain idiotic.

 

[Heidict]

I hope you DD is okay!

She is good, thanks. Huge egg on her forehead, a cut and a good concussion. Not a good start to our Thanksgiving holiday.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Perhaps you should read a factual account of the case rather than whatever drivel you are reading.


And I don't care if the police are shooting anyone that moves. When protestors do things that block access to hospitals, when they loot and pillage and riot, they are no longer protestors. They are criminals.

And I do not support criminal behavior.

Any sympathy I may have had for their misguided point of view or their lack of ability to comprehend the FACTS of a case is lost when their actions become criminal.

i have to assume that this means you are either one of the lawyers, the judge, or one of the 12 jurors on the grand jury where the evidence was presented. Outside of this small group where all facts supported by evidence vetted by both local, state and Federal investigators were available and presented. I would surmise that neither you, I, or anyone else in this discussion has enough true and verified information to make a valid decision in this situation. All we truly have here are our opinions, nothing more.

 

[CPT Tripss]

i have to assume that this means you are either one of the lawyers, the judge, or one of the 12 jurors on the grand jury where the evidence was presented. Outside of this small group where all facts supported by evidence vetted by both local, state and Federal investigators were available and presented. I would surmise that neither you, I, or anyone else in this discussion has enough true and verified information to make a valid decision in this situation. All we truly have here are our opinions, nothing more.

True, and in reality, all the Grand Jury delivered was also opinion. More informed than mine, but still opinion.

 

[LBIJim]

They ought to bring in Rome Plows and push them all out of the way.

I heard that the organizers of these marches in NYC were promising to disrupt the Macy's Parade yesterday with hundreds of protestors. Maybe a dozen showed up, who were quickly removed from the scene.

If a larger group had gathered, police should have just released the gas from one of the helium balloons, letting a gigantic Hello Kitty fart blow the protestors into the Hudson River.

 

[Art 1]

I heard that the organizers of these marches in NYC were promising to disrupt the Macy's Parade yesterday with hundreds of protestors. Maybe a dozen showed up, who were quickly removed from the scene.

If a larger group had gathered, police should have just released the gas from one of the helium balloons, letting a gigantic Hello Kitty fart blow the protestors into the Hudson River.

Yes, it seemed like the cops took care of them very efficiently.