You suggest that concessions will help reduce the scale of the protests, but my impression is that the literature suggests that actually repression is effective.
Presented with options to get largely non-violent protestors-for-justice to go home quickly:
a) Justice
b) Repression
Your response is that b) is a tried and tested intervention. Seriously?
I don’t think this is an accurate portrayal of what Dale was trying to say.
I don’t see them actively recommending a particular policy in the post—just noting that some studies of repressive behavior find that it may lead to a certain outcome. It can be true that repression sometimes quells riots while also being true that it has many other negative outcomes and should clearly be avoided. (Though I didn’t see Dale say that, either, and I don’t want to put words in their mouth.)
Of course, the vague term “repression” and the differing social context of the examples Dale cited mean that blanket statements like “literature suggests that repression is effective” aren’t very useful, and I wish they’d acknowledged that more clearly in their post, especially given the awful consequences of policies like “harsher prison sentences for a lot of people.”
*****
As for the claim that “justice” will clear up protests quickly; leaving aside the question of which specific demands will have a positive impact on their own merit (likely many), have we seen enough demands granted so far to have a sense of what usually happens after vis-a-vis public protest? Especially in cases where actually following through on promises of change will take a long time?
The clearest example of responsiveness to protest I can recall (haven’t been following the topic too closely) was action taken by the Minneapolis City Council to ban certain restraint practices and explore “dismantling” the police department. Did either action lead directly to a reduction in public protest?
Presented with options to get largely non-violent protestors-for-justice to go home quickly:
a) Justice
b) Repression
Your response is that b) is a tried and tested intervention. Seriously?
That is not the path to human flourishing.
I don’t think this is an accurate portrayal of what Dale was trying to say.
I don’t see them actively recommending a particular policy in the post—just noting that some studies of repressive behavior find that it may lead to a certain outcome. It can be true that repression sometimes quells riots while also being true that it has many other negative outcomes and should clearly be avoided. (Though I didn’t see Dale say that, either, and I don’t want to put words in their mouth.)
Of course, the vague term “repression” and the differing social context of the examples Dale cited mean that blanket statements like “literature suggests that repression is effective” aren’t very useful, and I wish they’d acknowledged that more clearly in their post, especially given the awful consequences of policies like “harsher prison sentences for a lot of people.”
*****
As for the claim that “justice” will clear up protests quickly; leaving aside the question of which specific demands will have a positive impact on their own merit (likely many), have we seen enough demands granted so far to have a sense of what usually happens after vis-a-vis public protest? Especially in cases where actually following through on promises of change will take a long time?
The clearest example of responsiveness to protest I can recall (haven’t been following the topic too closely) was action taken by the Minneapolis City Council to ban certain restraint practices and explore “dismantling” the police department. Did either action lead directly to a reduction in public protest?