While we have a right to peaceably assemble, we have no right to conduct an assembly at which there is a clear and present danger of riot, disorder, or interference with traffic on public streets.
That the Vancouver Police Department aided and abetted a few hundred people with nothing more productive to do other than to disrupt traffic on the Interstate 5 Bridge is outrageous. Several thousand citizens had travel times extended and costs increased: the very citizens whose tax payments pay for our police department. Peaceful demonstrations should be confined to parks or other open spaces.
So-called peaceful demonstrators are also aware that their demonstrations are used as cover by those who want to loot and vandalize, and if they are unwilling to police their own demonstrations and make citizens arrests of miscreants, then they should all be held collectively responsible via fines of a few thousand dollars each to cover all of the costs incurred to both property owners and taxpayers.
Ignoring thuggish behavior invites more thuggish behavior. We’ve had an arrest and a murder charge in Minnesota. What more can be reasonably asked?
