Demonstrations for and against anything should be required to be separated by time and/or space. Masks and other disguises should be illegal. Any person who shows up to counter a permitted demonstration should be ejected and/or arrested. Freedom of speech allows groups to push their point of view but it should not be allowed to destroy another group’s ability to push its own point of view, especially where the group has obtained a permit and followed reasonable regulations. I know that’s a pipe dream but I believe freedom of speech should include the right to express a point of view without harassment and violence.
“Anyone who shows up to counter a permitted demonstration should be ejected and arrested.”
What are you saying here? Free Republic was founded to counter demonstrate left-wing demonstrations. That is the original meaning of “to freep”. When I was younger, and healthier, most of the Free Republic events I attended were counter-demonstrations. Sometimes we were vastly outnumbered; on a few memorable occasions we outnumbered the original protesters (Ah! Good times; good memories!)
The difference is that right from the start we eschewed violence (altho’ I confess to losing my temper once, and waving my cane about. I swear I never touched the pun...er kid, ‘tho’.) No bricks; no knives, no box-cutters; no sap-gloves; no fireworks, no empty glass bottles, no frozen bottles of water. No roughing up opponents; no sucker punches, no ‘knock-out games’; no throwing old people to the ground and kicking them. But the Left didn’t follow those rules, and I could see what was going to come: sooner or later, it was going to end in street fighting. And now it has, but not by our doing. “The (right-wing) is vicious, they fight back when attacked.”
“Please put brain in gear before putting mouth in motion.”