Cecil and Celeste welcome Alycee Lane from The Article 20 Network to KBOO.
Alycee is an Oakland, California-based writer and author of Coming in From the Cold, a blog exploring political issues through the prism of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence.
The principal objectives of the Article 20 Network are to call attention to abridgments of and assaults on the Freedom of Assembly and to foster positive public attitudes toward assembly and its practitioners. The Article 20 Network's work includes:
- Education campaigns to broaden knowledge of practices and issues of Free Assembly
- Public resources to facilitate discussion about the Freedom of Assembly in our communities
- Direct action
- Observing and learning from public demonstrations
- Research and analysis to better understand practices of assembly and public and state responses to assemblies
- Seminars for organizers and practitioners
The principles and tactics of peaceful, non-violent protest have come under attack. Several pieces of legislation have been proposed across the country that criminalize protest and even offer protection to drivers who run-over protestors. A Republicans backed bill in Tennessee would apply to instances in which drivers are “exercising due care” when they strike someone “participating in a protest or demonstration” that is “blocking traffic in a public right-of-way.”
A second clause in the half-page bill clarifies, “A person shall not be immune from civil liability if the actions leading to the injury were willful or wanton.”
- KBOO