21
votes
Holding a city hostage is ‘peaceful’ now? I’ve been to peaceful protests before. The gun rally in Richmond was not that
Link information
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- Title
- Holding a City Hostage Is 'Peaceful' Now?
- Published
- Jan 22 2020
- Word count
- 1626 words
From another Vice article on the topic:
If it were truly a "nonviolent" protest, everyone would have showed up armed only with signs and their voices. Instead, 16,000 people showed up armed. No actual violence happened, but there is absolutely an implied threat in that action.
This was "Lobby Day" in Virginia, intended to be a day for everyone to come to the capitol and lobby their legislature. It's hard to imagine 16,000 armed citizens not having a chilling effect on some people who'd otherwise like to go lobby about unrelated issues.
There's also this:
Great job with that nonviolent protest, guys.
It's pretty clear to me that the intention of this protest was intimidation. And sadly I feel like they've accomplished their mission. Really hope the Virginia legislature doesn't cave under this pressure, it would set a bad precedent.
And yet, somehow, the Democrats newly elected to the Virginia legislature on a platform including gun reforms remained unintimidated.
I thought this was an interesting take on the recent gun rights rally in Richmond VA. This is my neck of the woods and the attitude around town was certainly anxious, even for people who are politically uninvolved.
I was really nervous all throughout the day that this would devolve into another clash like the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville. Thankfully it didn't come to that this time, I can't imagine what would have happened if 16'000 armed people had clashed with police or counter-protestors.