What many of them are doing isn’t a legally protected form of protesting.

Free Palestine protesters have been shutting down roads with their protests, this is illegal.

Tesla protesters are vandalizing the vehicles of private citizens and burning down dealerships. This is also illegal, and due to its political goals, it seems to fit the textbook definition of terrorism.

> the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear

Had we not spent years tolerating these illegal forms of protest, maybe people would remember these are in fact illegal, and wouldn’t be so emboldened to keep doing them.

If someone wants to protest, that is their right. If someone is protesting by infringing on the free movement of other people, or using intimidation and violence to stir up fear to get people to comply with their ideology… that crosses well established lines.

You are taking large movements with at least tens of thousands of participants and cherry-picking actions of a few people, you are contributing to the free speech problem by making false associations.

> Free Palestine protesters have been shutting down roads with their protests, this is illegal.

If someone does something illegal, they can be charged with a crime and the legal process (access to a lawyer, courts, etc). It's not complicated and should not have any exceptions.

If someone is breaking the law, they should be charged with a crime.

How are we at the point where that statement is a partisan issue?

Where are those who attempted a coup on Jan6 now?

Pardoned?

Do you think I support that?

Well, who did you vote for?

Neither, I've lived in the US but I'm not a citizen.

I would have voted Democrat given the privilege.

... Excuse me sir, could I interest you into what happened on January 6 of 2020?

That was also wrong and I thought it was horrible.

And then? In the end, who did you vote for? The attorney or the coupist?

They were rounded up, given due process, and locked away.

The coupist then got elected and freed his minions. The coupist is not giving the same dignity to these protesters, or even some american citizens who just look brown.

What's your point here?

2021*

writing an oped isn't illegal. why is that grounds for being detained?

> Free Palestine protesters have been shutting down roads with their protests, this is illegal.

Yeah, and so? Is shutting down roads a "threat to US national security" and therefore warranting arrest without due process and green card revocation? The protesters should be charged with whatever city laws (certainly it's not a federal offense) they broke, and fined or whatever.

Most Tesla protests have been peaceful. There have been THOUSANDS of them the past few months in cities across the US. You’re cherry-picking the violent ones that get much louder reporting.

Not if we protest en mass and all stick together. The thing that will kill us is if we obey in advance and don’t do these things.

As far as I can see nobody is sticking by the F1 students who are being deported.

The deportations are just flashy cruelty to obscure everything else.

It's also cruelty to folks who have absolutely nothing to defend themselves with. They are doing this just to deter people from practicing right to assembly and protest.

I think it's more of a typical tactic by authoritarian countries to do some high profile arrests with no recourse to strike fear into everyone's hearts that the same can happen to them and they'll have no recourse; which Ivy League grad students or faculty are going to join protests now?

Trump has repeatedly suggested that he will use the military on the "enemy from within". Protests could end up looking like what we see in Belarus and Russia - masked "police" shows up and they beat them up and / or take them away.

and that makes you scared? you are playing into his hand if so. that makes me want to go to the streets even more.

They didn't use the term scared, and being scared is not implicitly "going into hiding".

It's because I'm scared that I'm going to protest on April 5 in my state capital.

context clues suggest to me that the commenter is worried about militarized violence against protestors (scared)

If those protesters were harassing Jewish students (as happened at various times during these protests) or openly supporting a designated terrorist organization, they should be referred to law enforcement.

You mean this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2MHRtONo4 and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBk3T935CI is just free speech?

Here's the deal. You want free speech don't intimidate, threaten and vandalize.

I own a Tesla. I bought one because I wanted an EV to reduce my emissions and that was the best one (years ago). Your right to free speech doesn't trump (heh, see what I did there) my right to be safe.

No, that is obviously not "just free speech". Sheesh. C'mon, man.

I am trying to make a point. Apparently very poorly.

Either way, these Tesla protests are just idiotic. The vandalism is criminal. If this is the way Americans save their democracy and the rest of us rely on them then we're all doomed.

If you're relying on someone else to save your democracy then you are indeed doomed

I went to a Tesla protest. It was entirely peaceful. I personally don't fault someone for buying a Tesla, particularly before Elon went loony. My goal for the protest is to bring to attention the fact that the owner of that car company is party to the authoritarian takedown of my country, and that people should not support that company any more if they can avoid it.

I agree that vandalizing peoples' cars is illegal, I don't think it is practically useful, and golly gee, we still have a criminal justice system (for now) that can be used to punish those who commit acts of violence.

I agree with you on vandalism, but how are the protests idiotic? And what's your suggestion for Americans saving their democracy?

Tesla is a large US company. Elon owns (less than?) 20% of it personally. They make cars in the US. I'll make Elon hurt by hurting Tesla is childish and counter-productive. Elon's not gonna care. So instead of protesting Tesla protest against the government.

Musk has power in part because he can pour enormous amounts of money into political races. A lot of that money is based on his Tesla and SpaceX holdings, so lower share prices directly reduce his ability to borrow against those shares.

We're not relying on them! The vandals are so harmful to our cause they're on the other side.

We should treat the Free Palestine and Tesla protesters the same way J6 protesters were treated. Throw them in prison until the next Democrat president pardons them.

J6 wasn't a protest

I agree. Anybody who supports pardoning the J6 terrorists is obviously NOT supporting free speech because they support people who used violence to silence speech in congress.

When somebody uses violence it is not free speech it is suppression of free speech. You can't really speak freely when somebody hits you with a flagpole or pepperspray. Or even just threatens you with violence.

The court seems to disagree. None of them were charged with insurrection.

weird. they didn't charge leaders of the confederate states of america with insurrection either (aka the civil war)

just to be clear, they aren't just detaining palestine protesters. they are also detaining labor activists: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/03/26/ice-is-kidnapping-imm...

government is going after activists for other political issues, not just palestine protestors