I went to some palestine protests a while back, and was talking to my brother about the organizing, when revealed something I found pretty shocking, we (the protesters) had acquired a permit to hold the protest. Apparently this is standard policy across the US.

More recently, my University is also having protests, and in their policy, they also require explicit approval for what they call “expressive activity”. I’m pretty sure not having a permit has been used as an excuse to arrest students in some other campuses.

My question is as the title, doesn’t this fundamentally contradict the US’s ideals of free speech? What kind of right needs an extra permit to exercise it?

When I was talking to my brother, he also expressed a couple more points:

  1. The city will pretty much grant all permits, so it’s more of a polite agreement in most cases
  2. If we can get a permit (which we did) why shouldn’t we?

I’m assuming this is because of legal reasons, they pretty much have to grant all permits.

Except I think this makes it all worse. If the government grants almost all permits, then the few rare times it doesn’t:

  1. The protest is instantly de-legitimized due to not having a permit
  2. There’s little legal precedent for the protesters to challenge this

And then of course there’s the usual slippery slope argument. You’re giving the government a tool they could expand later to oppress you further. Maybe they start with the groups most people don’t like and go up from there.

  • JurassicPork@lemmy.one
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    6 months ago

    Same thing in Canada, “freedom of speech and protest” as long as it is in line with whatever narrative and beliefs the government is putting forth. Because government knows what’s best, right?? 😒 who would have thought in 1984…oh wait 2024, feels like 1984 sometimes 😒

    • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Don’t be hyperbolic, it’s not 1984 and you still live on a democracy. You won’t face any serious criminal repercussions for saying anything in Canada or any other democracy.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Lmao… Canada doesn’t have freedom of speech, and our equivalent is not absolute. And that’s a good thing.

      The terrorists that occupied the capital are Canada’s biggest embarrassment, going around talking about their “freedom of speech” and “first amendment rights”. A bunch of scam artists riled up our biggest idiots to grift them of their money.