How to Protest Using Civil Disobedience

Some protests are best handled through getting the proper permits and obeying the laws about public assembly. Others, though, require the use of civil disobedience, especially if you're drawing attention to unfair laws and practices. A peaceful protest using civil disobedience can help draw attention to injustice and change laws.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Understand what civil disobedience is. By definition, it's a peaceful and open protest in which participants violate laws that they find unethical or unjust.
2. Look for inspiration from the past. Thoreau's 1849 essay "Civil Disobedience" is a classic text. Examining the Civil Rights movement will also give you inspiration. View the PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize" for an inside look at the effective use of civil disobedience in the Civil Rights movement.
3. Be sure that your protest merits civil disobedience. If you want to draw attention to a problematic law that you can readily break in public, your protest probably does merit civil disobedience. If you want to draw attention to other laws or issues, the legal route is the best one.
4. Gather a group of people interested in protesting using civil disobedience. Make sure they are truly dedicated to the cause you are pursuing and aren't just participating because they want to break laws. The people protesting should also be peaceful.
5. Break the law you find unjust in public as your protest. Your approach depends upon the law you're drawing attention to.
6. Stay peaceful and non-confrontational whatever spectators and law enforcement officials do. One of your main goals is to prove that the law you break should be done away with. If you become confrontational, you will have the opposite effect.
7. Realize that you will likely be arrested, or at least fined, for breaking the law. Before you break the law, investigate its consequences. All protesters must be willing to accept the consequences of breaking the law, and you must do so peacefully for your protest to be effective.
8. Repeat the protest, having new people use civil disobedience if you are imprisoned because of your actions. The more you repeat the action, the more successful your protest will be.

Tips & Warnings

• Hold your protest in a busy area of town, or in conjunction with another public event. Alert the media to your protest to make sure that it gets noticed.
• Use civil disobedience to protest laws that are truly problematic. It's not worth the time and effort to protest laws that aren't unethical or unjust.
• If spectators become violent, call the police for protection if you are not able to leave the protest site. Realize, though, that the police may not take your side.
• Don't complain about getting arrested or being fined. Part of a protest using civil disobedience is accepting the consequences in a peaceful way.
• Don't call the police on yourself. Though it can be tempting to alert the police to your presence, this strategy works against you because it shows that the police are not necessarily interested in enforcing the law you are protesting.