Op-Ed: I was an activist in the ’60s. Here’s my advice to Portland’s protesters (via latimesopinion)
The first job of government authorities is to protect the public from harm, even — or especially — when they are asserting their rights of expression.The goal of demonstrating is to reach people who otherwise would not take up the cause of racial justice. The message is most effective when it is accessible, compelling fellow citizens to rethink hidebound attitudes and prejudices.
needs to jettison threatening tactics. Frightening people is always counterproductive, even if it is sometimes emotionally satisfying. The objective should be to convert everyone with whom you have contact, whoever they may be, police included.In 1968, battered by government harassment, assassinations and military escalation, significant portions of our movement for social justice were unable to dial back their threatening posture.
The goal is to transform Portland’s practice of policing and treatment of Black people, not to hold the city hostage. Thanks to the courage and commitment of thousands of Portlanders, the issue of racial justice has been identified and framed in the city. Now it is time for official Portland to deliver on its citizens’ demands, and for the movement to join in the civic process and leverage change out of the powers that be. Unfortunately, that process will never take up Black Lives Mattering as long as the city is hamstrung by nightly battles.
David Harris has been a journalist for 50 years and is the author of 11 books, including the forthcoming “My Country
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