Demonstration
From Freepedia
This page is about protests. For alternate uses see Demonstration (disambiguation)
General demonstrations
A demonstration is the public display of the common opinion of an activist group, often economically, political, or socially, by gathering in a crowd, usually at a symbolic place or date, associated with that opinion. The purpose of a demonstration is to show that a significant amount of people are for or against a certain issue, person, law, etc.
A demonstration is usually considered more successful the more people participate. A growing trend in the United States has been the implementation of "free speech zones," a fenced-in area which is often far-removed from the event which is being protested; critics of free-speech zones argue that they are unconstitutional by their very nature and that they lessen the impact the demonstration might have otherwise had.
Some demonstrations and protests can turn, at least partially, into riots or violence against things (like cars and shops), bystanders and the police. These acts of destruction against private property -- which are not thought to be acts of "violence" by some, since they do not hurt people -- are targeted toward major corporations and chain stores, and rarely affect independently-owned businesses. Police often use "less than lethal" weapons, such as Tasers, rubber bullets and pepper spray against the crowd; it is believed by some that they use agents provocateurs to rile the crowd, thereby justifying the use of violence against demonstrators.
See also
