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Violent Protests, Are They Ever Warranted?

Today violence hijacked G8 protests in Scotland. It was very savage, all sorts of chairs, tables, stones, bottles, etc, were being thrown at the Police. I aslo saw very similar scenes as Israeli settlers clashed with their army earlier this week.

I'm wondering how observers respond to this sort of behaviour and whether these extremists have any relevance?

In my opinion their violent displays are only hurting their cause, what does everyone else think? Is there ever a situation where violence should be encouraged in a protest?

Warranted They Protests Violent

I don't believe that violence is ever justified in a protest, especially within a democratic society. Violence in a protest is an attempt to change policy through terror - terrorism.

Are such protestors relevant? I hope not. If anything, I sincerely hope that such actions show the people that the protestors are unable to compete in the arena of ideas.

Violent Protests, Are They Ever Warranted? History & Civil Business Politics

I agree, I don't believe that any protest warrants violence. To me it shows a sign of desperation and immaturity. If somebody can prove their point in a mature and reasonable fashion, then that speaks louder than fighting and violence. If somebody has lost their ability to debate in a humanistic way, and feels they need to resort to physical outbursts, then that shows me they have not done the background work necessary to present a valid case. Hurting people and vandalising property tend to turn me away from the issue a group is standing up for, and if it happens to be an issue I agree with, it only makes me angry. It puts a stain on an issue stance.

Warranted They Protests Violent

The protest of the people is a very strong tactic to get people and the government to listen to your views and to create a platform for a strongly felt opinion. Violent protests create that same platform, but instead of the issue at hand, puts the violence and the extremism of the group on display and on trial instead of the issue. Violence always begets violence, there for there is not justification or warrant for a violent protest. They serve no purpose for your cause and will usually turn people against your cause. For all the good reasons for a protest, there are just a as many, if not more, reasons against violent protests.

One of the main reasons people protest with violence is that they are frustrated that they are not being heard and feel desperate. However, if this is the case, then I think that it is because there views are just not shared by many people, so their violence is still unjustified.