When Emptying The Streets Is Safer Than Filling Them
In the United States, street protests are a go-to method for expressing dissent. They’re familiar, frequent, and they make great photo-ops for news networks — especially compared to other, less flashy types of nonviolent action. (It’s hard to take a picture of a boycott.) But their notoriety means that many of us don’t know our other options, and if the riot police come out in force — as has happened in numerous campaigns from the civil rights movement to women’s suffrage to labor struggle — it’s helpful to have other, safer types of actions up your sleeve.