Gay-rights activist Dan Choi has done it twice this spring. Service Employees International Union members did it yesterday. And the guy who wants to replace Eleanor Holmes Norton as DC’s congressional delegate has suggested doing it on a mass scale in the name of DC voting rights. Even Congressmen are getting in the act. Along with May flowers, the arrival of warmer weather has heralded the arrival of civil disobedience of all kinds, whether folks are padlocking themselves to the White House, blocking the sidewalk outside of that same residence, taking over a Bank of America, or suggesting that DC block commuter traffic over the city’s bridges. But if civil disobedience becomes routine, if it becomes the kind of thing you can casually suggest during a political campaign, doesn’t that mean those tactics are getting a little, well, passé?
Sure, every time Choi and other servicemembers who were outed and kicked out of the military lock themselves to a fence, the media shows up: blue skies and White House(s) make for attractive wire-service photographs. But everyone knows how the story ends: with a standard master handcuff key and a misdemeanor charge of failing to obey a lawful order. If the consequences are sufficiently small that you can afford to break the law twice in a month, it’s not much of a transgression, is it? Ditto for the people going after Bank of America. Getting a bunch of annoyed branch employees to leave for the day isn’t exactly striking a deadly blow against capitalism—it’s just a mild, local inconvenience. In a town where someone’s always showing up, sitting down, or standing around for something, it’s hard to get excited by a garden-variety protest.
So maybe it’s time for protesters in DC to step it up a notch. Delegate candidate Doug Sloan’s proposal to block traffic into the city to demonstrate the region’s reliance on DC and make the case for statehood probably won’t ever be implemented (those concrete barriers he cites are heavy), but he’s got an appropriate flair for the dramatic. Even if the disgruntled just shifted seasons, they might have more impact. Handcuffs are a lot colder when you’re wearing them during a blizzard.
Civil Disobedience Whatever
Getting locked up or shutting things down has become a regular occurrence in Washington this spring. What does it take to kick up a fuss in this city?
Gay-rights activist Dan Choi has done it twice this spring. Service Employees International Union members did it yesterday. And the guy who wants to replace Eleanor Holmes Norton as DC’s congressional delegate has suggested doing it on a mass scale in the name of DC voting rights. Even Congressmen are getting in the act. Along with May flowers, the arrival of warmer weather has heralded the arrival of civil disobedience of all kinds, whether folks are padlocking themselves to the White House, blocking the sidewalk outside of that same residence, taking over a Bank of America, or suggesting that DC block commuter traffic over the city’s bridges. But if civil disobedience becomes routine, if it becomes the kind of thing you can casually suggest during a political campaign, doesn’t that mean those tactics are getting a little, well, passé?
Sure, every time Choi and other servicemembers who were outed and kicked out of the military lock themselves to a fence, the media shows up: blue skies and White House(s) make for attractive wire-service photographs. But everyone knows how the story ends: with a standard master handcuff key and a misdemeanor charge of failing to obey a lawful order. If the consequences are sufficiently small that you can afford to break the law twice in a month, it’s not much of a transgression, is it? Ditto for the people going after Bank of America. Getting a bunch of annoyed branch employees to leave for the day isn’t exactly striking a deadly blow against capitalism—it’s just a mild, local inconvenience. In a town where someone’s always showing up, sitting down, or standing around for something, it’s hard to get excited by a garden-variety protest.
So maybe it’s time for protesters in DC to step it up a notch. Delegate candidate Doug Sloan’s proposal to block traffic into the city to demonstrate the region’s reliance on DC and make the case for statehood probably won’t ever be implemented (those concrete barriers he cites are heavy), but he’s got an appropriate flair for the dramatic. Even if the disgruntled just shifted seasons, they might have more impact. Handcuffs are a lot colder when you’re wearing them during a blizzard.
Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Washingtonian on Twitter
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Party Photos
Most Popular in News & Politics
Meet DC’s 2025 Tech Titans
The “MAGA Former Dancer” Named to a Top Job at the Kennedy Center Inherits a Troubled Program
White House Seriously Asks People to Believe Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Fake, Oliver North and Fawn Hall Got Married, and It’s Time to Plan Your Apple-Picking Excursion
Trump Travels One Block From White House, Declares DC Crime-Free; Barron Trump Moves to Town; and GOP Begins Siege of Home Rule
See a Spotted Lanternfly? Here’s What to Do.
Washingtonian Magazine
September Issue: Style Setters
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
These Confusing Bands Aren’t Actually From DC
Fiona Apple Wrote a Song About This Maryland Court-Watching Effort
The Confusing Dispute Over the Future of the Anacostia Playhouse
Protecting Our Drinking Water Keeps Him Up at Night
More from News & Politics
5 Things to Know About “Severance” Star Tramell Tillman
See a Spotted Lanternfly? Here’s What to Do.
Patel Dined at Rao’s After Kirk Shooting, Nonviolent Offenses Led to Most Arrests During Trump’s DC Crackdown, and You Should Try These Gougères
How a DC Area Wetlands Restoration Project Could Help Clean Up the Anacostia River
Pressure Grows on FBI Leadership as Search for Kirk’s Killer Continues, Kennedy Center Fires More Staffers, and Spotted Lanternflies Are Everywhere
What Is Free DC?
Manhunt for Charlie Kirk Shooter Continues, Britain Fires US Ambassador Over Epstein Connections, and Sandwich Guy Will Get a Jury Trial
Can Two Guys Ride a Rickshaw over the Himalayas? It Turns Out They Can.