Across generations, the ability to protest has led to vital social change in areas that impact our daily lives. Driven by creativity and a sense of shared humanity, protest takes many forms from marches and vigils to sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience. Protesting is an American value enshrined in our Constitution, and governments should not interfere with peaceful protests, except to protect individuals’ safety and rights.
But the way our government engages with protesters has become increasingly militarized, with armed military vehicles and equipment like armoured cars, surveillance drones, guns, assault weapons and stun grenades. These forces are organised, trained and equipped for war and defence and have no place at a protest where police should be skilled in de-escalating conflict and keeping people safe.
This escalation is matched by the heightened use of surveillance technologies to infringe protesters’ right to privacy, including facial recognition software, CCTV and IMSI tracking technology used by ICE to track students at universities. These tactics are not only a violation of our right to free speech, they discourage people from attending protests by making them feel unsafe.
This month, President Trump called in the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles over California governor Gavin Newsom’s objections, threatening to use “very big force” if necessary. It’s theoretically possible that the show of force and the threat of a truly hands-on federal crackdown could deter violent protests, but there’s little evidence it’s worked in the past, and a poll by CNN five years ago found that most Americans don’t want the military to be called in to quell domestic demonstrations.