# What should be done about "professional protesters" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742 "2015-04-28T20:06:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/41 "2015-04-30T02:22:05Z")
why are we equating protesters to rioters? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/42 "2015-04-30T03:34:24Z")
A current case. Wonder how many outsiders think Baltimore might make them some easy money? > **[Illinois teen admits to stealing guns to sell in Ferguson, Missouri](https://www.yahoo.com/news/illinois-teen-admits-stealing-guns-sell-ferguson-missouri-213626705.html)** > > By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - A southern Illinois teen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal firearms charges in a plot to sell guns and loot businesses in Ferguson, Missouri, which had been the site of sometimes violent protests over a... > [@](#): > > A southern Illinois teen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal firearms charges in a plot to sell guns and loot businesses in Ferguson, Missouri, which had been the site of sometimes violent protests over a fatal police shooting. > > Dakota Moss, 19, of Centralia, admitted in federal court to burglarizing a farm and home supply store and stealing 39 guns in November of last year. Moss and a juvenile accomplice stole the guns in order to sell them in Ferguson, prosecutors said. > > The two also had planned to participate in rioting and looting of businesses in the Ferguson area, though they never went through with it, prosecutors said. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/43 "2015-04-30T13:57:06Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > You know 'It’s these outside agitators causing trouble. Our coloreds is happy" is literally like 200 years old. Seriously. Thank you. Now tell my mother this. And apparently almost everyone in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/44 "2015-04-30T14:43:01Z")
“I hate those outside agitators” (from “The Graduate”). There is a difference between peaceful protest and looting/burning/throwing rocks. These rioters need to be arrested and prosecuted. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/45 "2015-04-30T16:23:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A current case. Wonder how many outsiders think Baltimore might make them some easy money? > [Illinois teen admits to stealing guns to sell in Ferguson, Missouri](http://news.yahoo.com/illinois-teen-admits-stealing-guns-sell-ferguson-missouri-213626705.html) I don’t know why everyone is being so skeptical here. In Ferguson, it was well established that a sizable number of protestors were from outside the area (Chicago, New York, etc.) and that these people were a disproportionate fraction of those arrested for violence & looting. On some nights, non-locals even seemed to be the majority of the people arrested. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/46 "2015-04-30T16:36:03Z")
This isn’t even a new phenomena, no one remembers the anarchists who would travel to G8 and other economic summits to start protesting? ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/47 "2015-04-30T16:59:35Z")
> [@kjckjc](#): > > I think they are joking. The Olympics have traditionally been for amateur participants, professionals were not allowed. So only amateur protesters and instigators should be allowed, it is about preserving the purity of the sport. And in Baltimore, the purity of protesters. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/48 "2015-04-30T17:17:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > How do I get paid for protesting? And how can I get paid for not protesting? ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/49 "2015-04-30T18:31:17Z")
Yeah, it’s all those outside agitators, riling everybody up. Seriously, protesting is a good thing. It may actually cause some of the people in positions of power to wake up and realize there is a genuine crisis in terms of the way many police officers behave on the streets of U.S. cities. Obviously, looting and violence are criminal acts and should be prosecuted. But protesting? This is what democracy looks like. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/50 "2015-04-30T21:13:43Z")
Protesting is fine IMO. Throwing the first rock from either side causes more people from both sides do it too. They are in the wrong. Arrest & prosecute ANYONE on any side of any line who goes violent. Police or protester who does not use retreat as the first defense from violence is in the wrong. The only exception should be business owners that are self defending their property. They get to pile them like cord wood. From either/any side. If the first offender is not instantly subdued by those around them, from either side, they are 100% wrong. Even if it is a blood relative. If you can not do that, then expect jail at best, death at worst. IMO, any person doing anything destructive or stealing is not a member of the protest, they are criminals with special conditions and should be considered armed and dangerous. And treated like they are just that. Any police officer who does not arrest an officer who has seen another officer break instructions, will also be prosecuted just as servilely as a normal citizen, and done in a civilian court. No thin blue line allowed. None of this will ever happen. So anyone who expects anything different or that anything will be learned for the future is deluded. Those that resort to violence, from either side will never be changed. They can only be eliminated IMO. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/51 "2015-04-30T21:21:19Z")
Projection, thy name art Fox News. Real paid protesters are people like these [actors protesting on behalf of the Tea Party](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/09/1376605/--Tea-party-protest-against-Everglades-conservation-turns-out-to-be-just-a-bunch-of-paid-actors#). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/52 "2015-04-30T22:18:55Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > And how can I get paid for not protesting? Get a t-shirt that reads CISPROTESTER. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742/53 "2015-05-01T01:51:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > When you’re professional protesters, are you saying they’re being paid to protest? And if so, who is paying them? > > If, on the other hand, you’re saying there are fulltime protesters who go from protest to protest, then you’re probably right. But I don’t necessarily see their actions as illegitimate. They may feel that local incidents are part of a wider problem and they’re opposing that problem by participating in various local protests. For example, a person who thinks that police brutality is an issue may have participated in protests in several different communities lately - they’re protesting the issue of police brutality rather than a specific police department. A right wing equivalent might be somebody who protests outside abortion clinics in several different communities. There are professional _activists_ who are supported by a variety of NGOs and non-profits. Many who work in social justice also volunteer in it. I know someone who has traveled all over the US and to foreign countries for her activism: helping clean up after Hurricane Katrina, providing training in non-violent protest and conflict resolution to activist groups, leading activist groups at protests, speaking at conferences regarding social issues, developing resolution and training plans regarding specific issues, etc. etc. etc. The fact that she travels doesn’t make her activism somehow less legitimate. Many / most of these issues are systemic and so take place pretty much everywhere in the country. They’re not localized so why should her activism be? In fact, she and others like her can provide coordination amongst widely geographically distributed groups working for the same cause that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. And coordinated groups are much harder for those in power to ignore. I’m neither surprised nor outraged that folks have stepped up to lead that coordination. Thank the gods for them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-professional-protesters/718742.md?page=2)