Like many of you, I live in a country where my right to express my views freely is protected by the constitution. I am glad I do. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that reliably sees a peaceful transfer of power from one party to the next; while we may strongly disagree along social and economic lines, we generally try to restrain ourselves to maintain respect and not let our emotions outmaneuver common sense.
So when an ambulance has to divert because of a road closure caused by a protest, it becomes a painful, frustrating real world lesson in free speech politics. Given the amount of negative press in the mainstream media this has received, the protestors did a fair amount of damage to their cause. Read between the lines, and you’ll see that the ambulance never even had a chance to head in that direction; they were advised to head to another facility before going enroute (great communications, by the way.)
Would the protestors have moved if they knew an emergency ambulance was heading toward them? Maybe, maybe not. Having worked in that area, I know that it’s also not likely that there would have been a good alternative route to the trauma center. Had the patient been truly critical, this would have made for a really negative story.
The police-related protests are verging on collapsing upon themselves. Given the looting damage caused by criminals, the loss of income by small business owners, and the loss of time by people simply going to work, the message is being killed by the messengers. It’s certainly not the way to get a point across.
