81-year-old McDonald's worker Jose arrested during peaceful protest in Time Square, NYC

[MADem]

13. I am not endorsing the Ferguson thing, but police were probably relying on a local ordinance

against "loitering."

The difference between this action and Ferguson is as follows--those Mickey Dee's people blocked access because they WANTED to be arrested. See what happened? No one would know who the hell 81 year old Jose was if he stood on the picket line with a sign. No one would see him, and if they picked him out of a picture of a larger group of demonstrators, they wouldn't peg him for an octogenarian.

Now his face is seen round the world. His name and age--and where he works to make ends meet--are known to all. That was the point and the purpose of his civil disobedience.

In Ferguson, the community just wanted to protest a blatant, immediate and specific injustice--the murder of a teen by a police on their streets. They weren't interested in civil disobedience. They wanted to make it clear that they felt that police overreach had come to a crisis point. The police used selective enforcement of local laws to break up the demonstrations, and they also used violence.

The two incidents aren't the same at all, not in purpose, and not in execution. They both had a "fight the power" theme, but that's as far as the similarity goes.