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Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by tyrust on Saturday October 17, 2026 @08:27PM (#50136618)
Your claim is that if someone is bothering you then they should be arrested?

I dunno about you, but that's not really how I want our society to work.

As other people have point out, the robot could have navigated around the blockage. Just as you could walk away from someone bothering you without getting the police involved lol.

Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by JuniperMesos on Saturday October 17, 2026 @08:52PM (#50136755)
> Your claim is that if someone is bothering you then they should be arrested?

No, my claim is that people who violate public order laws in the public street should be arrested even if they claim that the reason it's important for them to violate those public order laws is because they're protesting something and a protest won't be effective unless it annoys people. I want that to not be an effective defense against getting immediately arrested and physically removed from the scene by cops.

Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by tyrust on Saturday October 17, 2026 @09:16PM (#50136868)
I might agree with you to some extent. At the same time, I find your apparent desire to immediately weaponize the police against protestors fairly disturbing. "Immediate" arrest and physical removal should not be the default first response in a situation like a peaceful protest.
Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by JuniperMesos on Sunday October 18, 2026 @08:10AM (#50140374)
If it's an actual peaceful protest, that just involves people advocating for something in the public commons that doesn't disrupt the ability of anyone else to the use the public commons, then sure this is a reasonable point. I was responding to the person who said sarcastically "Yea, protest should happen where it doesn't bother anyone. Right.", who would likely not find that kind of actually-peaceful protest likely to be effective.

And I do actually want immediate arrest and physical removal to be the default first response in a situation like an effective protest. I do not want people to get away with disrupting the public commons and then claiming that they were justified in doing so because they were carrying out a protest. Indeed, I want the police to immediately arrest and physically remove anyone at all who is disrupting the public commons. The police are a weapon, and I want that weapon used effectively against people who disrupt the public commons, so that the public commons can be usable by everyone.

Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by tyrust on Sunday October 18, 2026 @10:36AM (#50141483)
Thank you for your honest answers, this is an interesting thing to think through.

I don't think that the entirety of the public commons needs 100% uptime. Occasional disruption could happen for any number of reasons like temporary events, construction, and protest [0].

"Immediate" action is such a strange requirement to have. Such a desire seems like a waste of police time. Like in TFA's example , the commons were ever so slightly disrupted: anyone could have gone around the woman. Occasional minor to moderate disruption of the commons for the purposes of free expression is a feature of our society that I think should be maintained.

[0] https://www.aclusocal.org/know-your-rights/protesters/

Re:Retired Penn professor arrested for blocking Uber Eats robot by jemmyw on Monday October 19, 2026 @04:11AM (#50149691)
Their argument also leads to a situation where they're saying that only certain activities (i.e. the ones they want) are acceptable in the public commons. But as the commons it could host activities you disagree with, that are mutually exclusive to the ones you do agree with. Like one person doesn't like buskers and feels they're impinging on their enjoyment of a common area whereas others enjoy the entertainment.