Mr Hammer wrote on Feb 29^th, 2016 at 2:17pm:


That depends. In most Australian states, you need permission to hold a protest demo, particularly if you're blocking streets. The police make a judgment call whether such a protest is likely to attract violence.

Queensland has quite strict laws about gatherings. NSW is more liberal. The police didn't (or couldn't) stop the Cronulla riot, for example. They did, however, recommend that people stay home on that day.

I'm all for the freedom of assembly, but I've come to hate protests. They are inherently angry. This anger has nowhere to go. People always leave street protests disappointed. Such anger and disappointment does not necessarily translate into political action. I can't think of anything worse than marching down George Street chanting slogans in unison. Hey hey, ho ho...

It might be different when people have no other way to express their discontent. The Arab Spring centred around a number of key protests in city centres, and they had the effect of removing governments.

The most instrumental demonstrations, of course, were the US civil rights marches in the 1960s. They had such an impact, LBJ begged Martin Luther King to stop the marches. The result of this was blacks getting the vote and the end of segregation.

The KKK can hardly be compared to this. Most members insist on anonymity. Their platform is a racially "pure" America. They want blacks and Hispanics somehow removed from society. They hide their identities to evade the law and avoid social stigma. This can hardly be seen as freedom of expression.

The civil rights movement was about applying the US constitution to all members of society. The KKK want to abandon the constitution and the rule of law. The difference between these two movements is stark: one wants to uphold the law, the other wants to evade it.

Any reference to freedom of expression needs to take this into account.