I am not surprised after he interrupted a church ⛪️ service along with anti #ICE 🧊 protesters.
If you are going to protest ICE 🧊 agents, peacefully protest ICE 🧊 while they are out in the streets. Not at their house, & not at house of worship.
👉🏾 Former #CNN anchor #DonLemon taken into custody, sources say https://www.cbsnews.com/news/don-lemon-in-custody-former-cnn-anchor-sources-say/
@darnell Peaceful protests take place at houses (including at the local political level). And arguably, protesting ICE when they don’t have weapons would be safer and more peaceful.
“Protest” doesn’t mean quiet and easily ignorable. Please save your cries for peacefulness for those disturbing it (ICE, not those trying to preserve/restore it).
@helianthropy Protesting on private property & disrupting a religious ceremony is illegal. It violates the 1st Amendment & most Americans would not want strangers disrupting their houses of worship.
Yes, what ICE is doing is horrific, but that does not justify violating the constitutional rights of others.
I expect the courts to come down hard on Don Lemon, given his status.
@darnell As a Black person, sitting at the front of the bus was illegal, eating at the lunch counter was illegal, voting was illegal, running away from your slave master was illegal. Civil disobedience is another peaceful form of protest (though this wasn’t exactly breaking an unjust law).
Also, isn’t the first amendment about the government infringing upon the people’s free speech? Arguably, arresting Lemon might be a violation. I don’t know how it all went down, but I’m not seeing specific arguments about him going beyond doing journalism.
@helianthropy Disrupting a church service (or any religious service) is considered a serious offense in America 🇺🇸. If the government allows this disruption to go unpunished, it would result in hundreds of thousands (potentially millions‽) of religious buildings being disrupted by protesters, violating the first amendment rights of religious folks.
This would be vehemently opposed by people from all political sides. They can protest outside of the church, but not inside.
@darnell @helianthropy is religious speech especially protected? Activists regularly heckle or even shut down all sorts of events, shareholder meetings, press conferences, fundraising dinners. Are these first amendment violations?
Is violating the first amendment even a criminal offence? I thought, probably wrongly, that the first amendment was a 'shield, not a sword'. In other words it provided a defense to what would otherwise be an offense, but didn't create new categories of offense.
These are genuine questions. I am not an American so I know very little of US constitutional law
@RobertoArchimboldi @helianthropy Yes. Activists have been arrested & fired from jobs from disrupting businesses.
If it is private property, protestors need to protest on the sidewalk (which is considered public property).
If the church was on public land (say the city park), & protestors showed up, they could legally argue their right to protest due to being on public property.
@darnell what a baseless take and sharing an article from a fascist-collaborating organization, no less. The gestapo deserve no peace. Rattle their houses so they can't sleep.
@DirtyAnCom Disrupting religious ceremonies on private property is a great way to not only hurt your own cause (as most Americans would be enraged by their actions), but give an excuse for Trump to go after journalists (we do not need that to happen).
I am all for protesting ICE, & I am vehemently opposed to the tactics that they are using. But that does not justify me violating other people’s constitutional rights.
@darnell do you understand what the role of journalists is?
I mean. Who woulda thunkit that covering an event was the same as being complicit in it. I learn something new every day!
@DirtyAnCom Do you understand what private property is‽ Or the right to assemble & worship as one sees fit without disruption‽ Most Americans 🇺🇸 would oppose this becoming the norm.
If you want to protest a church, protest outside of it. Do not enter the building, otherwise you are trespassing & trampling on their rights.
@darnell
Wow. I respect your point of view as always but I really can't disagree hard enough, both on the direct action itself and on being able to cover the disturbance as a journalist.
@ohmu It’s private property so it’s technically trespassing, especially since it is causing a disturbance. It would be like interrupting a business or blocking a private road.
Also, since it is a religious building, it falls under the 1st Amendment—& the courts would not look kindly on anyone disrupting a religious ceremony on private property (especially the Supreme Court).
@darnell
Thank you for replying.
Yes. It's absolutely civil disobedience.
I've been thinking about this all morning since you posted. I'm very aware of the role of churches in liberation movements. As in, I need to probably check myself here.
But this still feels different to me.
@darnell "peaceful" protests doesn't prevent ICE from shooting people anyway, so why does it matter if protestors interrupted a church service
@CathyBikesBook Because you lose the narrative, & turn public opinion against you. Also, the last thing we need is justification for the Insurrection Act to be used.
That would turn the US military & any conservative militia against the general population.
Not an ideal scenario.
