TO THE EDITOR:
This weekend, a group of protesters participating in Occupy D.C. pushed down two elderly women who were attending a conference hosted by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative grassroots organization. One woman was injured, and protesters heckled a family with two small children, attempted to force entry into the conference building and halted the flow of traffic.
I was present at the fifth annual “Defending the American Dream Summit” this weekend and witnessed this behavior firsthand. This latest incident highlights the increasingly violent nature of the Occupy movement. Last week, Occupy Oakland supporters shut down the nation’s fifth-busiest port in Oakland, Calif., throwing debris, setting fires and shattering windows.
Not only is this unacceptable, but it is also dangerous to our democracy. A staple of America’s democracy is freedom of expression, but the protesters clearly attempted to intimidate and squelch political participation by the peaceful, conservative conference participants in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The Constitution guarantees us our right to non-violent expression, whether we identify as conservatives, liberals or neither. But violence must never be tolerated.
I would encourage students to concentrate their political passions in a movement other than Occupy UNC. What makes this campus great is the diversity of student organizations and the freedom that students have to share their ideas. Students can certainly find another organization that peacefully represents their views instead of participating in protests that have been escalating violence at the national level and blocking local business owners from conducting their business.
Andrew Johnstone
Senior
Political Science
