Venezuela arrests 64 for anti-Maduro protests: rights group

[MADem]

8. Not really the same--they were engaging in a deliberate act of civil disobedience

and they achieved their immediate goal, which was to get media coverage to keep the important issue of Michael Brown's murder and the state governor's failure to act regarding appointment of a special prosecutor alive in the media:

“Civil disobedience does cause inconvenience,” said Eric E. Vickers, a lead organizer who is the chief of staff for State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat. “It does cause discomfort.”

Mr. Vickers said law enforcement officials had gone back on their word after promising organizers in a meeting on Monday that they could assemble on the shoulders and the grassy areas of the highway. He said activists would continue to seek a shutdown, perhaps as early as next week. “We’ve created a huge disturbance, brought attention to the issue, and we will be back,” he said.

Protests over Mr. Brown’s death have been largely centered in Ferguson, and the traffic shutdown was one of the first demonstrations that tried to disrupt the larger St. Louis region. Officials with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the St. Louis County Police and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, as well as those with emergency-services agencies, said the protesters were creating a hazard for themselves and others, and were threatening to delay the response times of ambulances and fire trucks.

The protests in VZ are about specific bread-and-butter issues dealing with the very simple and dire incompetence of government, not about larger civil rights issues against an entire segment of the population as a consequence of their race/ethnicity. In VZ, the issues are groceries and toilet paper, inflation and the crime rate. It's quality of life issues that impact pretty much everyone, save the ultra-wealthy.