Friday, March 5, 2021

Blog Post #3 - Civil War & Reconstruction

On Friday, February 12th, a “Defund the Police’ demonstration/protest was organized by the Black Lives Matter Movement promoting the economic reformation of the police. During the event, tensions between the roughly 100 protesters and the police began to grow increasingly more hostile with 11 protesters arrested and 2 cops injured. The NYPD’s spokeswoman reported that each of those arrested were charged with obstructing governmental administration, assault, disorderly conduct, and unlawful assembly. Sam Costanza, a Photographer for the Daily News was recognized by one of the BLM protesters and wrongfully accused of being a Cop. According to the FoxNews report, “About a dozen people surrounded the photog, shoving him and beating him with their fists and other objects” leaving him with a broken nose before receiving assistance from authorities. One protester who chose a rather unique approach to non-peaceful protesting was 19 year old Angel Rivera who was untimely arrested for biting an officers thigh and kicking another’s foot. From the NYPost’s article covering the events which occurred that night, “Rivera was charged with two counts of assault on a police officer, two counts of assault, one count of resisting arrest, obstructing governmental justice and unlawful possession of a noxious matter.” Noxious matter referring to a container of some kind able to spread suffocating fumes or vapors with the intent to immobilize another person. 


When considering the events which took place in Manhattan on February 12th, one must consider the reasoning as to why authoritative measures had to take place to stop the protest and minimize potential risk. When the protest began, we can assume that it began peacefully with minimal aggression or hostility from either side (protesters & police). At this time the protesters were well within their 1st Amendments rights to continue their assembly. It wasn’t until some protesters and other citizens there began showing more signs of violence and combativeness, when their 1st Amendment right to peaceful assembly had to be taken from them. This in turn, increased aggression requiring additional police intervention. When applying the first bedrock principle to this protest, it’s possible that some protesters were frustratedly unaware that 1st Amendment protection is not absolute and continued their aggression believing the police to be acting unconstitutionally.







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