Andrew Meyer

[kandrathe]

It's the first.

Ah well. It's not a pretty situation, in any case.

No not pretty, it's true. There was an incident while I was in college where 40 to 50 people handcuffed themselves in a chain in such a way to block egress of a crowd, which then got out of control. Many of them, including a friend of mine, ended up with serious injuries and broken limbs. There was also a pretty serious bombing around that time by an animal rights group opposed to animal testing. The protest groups milk it afterwards for all the PR and news coverage they can get. Its a game of doing something outrageous enough to keep the press trucks showing up, while not too dangerous or illegal to get anyone injured of convicted of a serious crime.

The press feeds the protester beast by offering exposure and coverage, then the protesters feed the media beast with good entertainment value and ratings. Not to mention the press tend to lean politically the same direction of the protesters. It's an incestuous and evil pact. In a way campus protests are a kinder, gentler "terrorist" in that rather than violence against people used to disrupt their environment, the campus protesters use bull horns, drums, and civil disobedience sufficient to provoke a police response. They try to be louder than anyone else including professors trying to hold classes, and from what I've seen they are not interested in hearing or discussing peacefully alternative points of view.