The definition of the right to dissent is the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc. Also called free speech. Does this sound familiar? Yea one of the 6 clauses in the First Amendment, freedom of speech. One of the values given to us what the value that protected dissent. In other words, to defend the right to protest. In order to do this, many people have created websites to carry their messages and to make sure that they got across. One group of people created the website "DRAD" or Defend Rights And Dissent
On the website, they say "The Protect Dissent Network is compiling a tool kit of opposition letters, op-eds, talking points, sample action alerts, testimony, articles and other resources developed for previous campaigns. ". Not only this, they but also provide an "Anti-Protest Legislation Kit" that includes many documents attached to Google Drives on how to defend the right in your state. In the most recent attempt, on September 23, 2021, the members of DRAD protested the rights in the Crosshairs as Congress investigates January 6th, 2021 when the attack on the Capitol occurred.
Previously, before the attack and election even took place, in August of 2021, DRAD & National Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Groups Call on DOJ to Sue States that Pass Anti-Protest Laws
Author Steve Shiffrin also had something to say about this important topic. This is such an important issue that Shiffrin wrote a book about it, Dissent, Injustice and the Meanings of America. In the book, Steven Shiffrin makes this case by arguing that dissent should be promoted because it lies at the heart of a core American value: free speech. According to the Princeton review, "He advances his dissent-based theory of free speech with careful reference to its implications for such controversial topics of constitutional debate as flag burning, cigarette advertising, racist speech, and subsidizing the arts."
Another group of individuals created “Media Justice”, a website that talks about protecting black dissent and recently focuses on the matter of the FBI and demands that they stop lying and spying on black protesters. The group also brings up an interesting point; when blacks protested 60 years ago, they were hit with violence. The same thing is happening today.
The site states “Ironically, protests against police violence are being met with more police violence. Outcry against police violence has been answered with tear gas and rubber bullets. 60 years ago in Birmingham, it was fire hoses & dogs. 6 years ago in Ferguson, it was tanks and armored trucks. Today, it’s tanks, tear gas, and advanced surveillance & tracking technology: facial recognition cameras, StingRay devices that trick nearby cellphones & steal data, automated license plate readers, high-altitude spy planes, and drones fitted with night vision & infrared sensors…Congress has so far failed to hold the FBI accountable for the extensive targeting & criminalization of our movements…We look back on the FBI’s response to Black social movements of the ’60s & ’70s with scorn for good reason… History will repeat itself unless Congress chooses to do something different.”
It is sad how not only Blacks but also minorities have to fight the government to get their freedom if dissent. Specifically, blacks have to put up a second fight to gain once more the voice that they had in the world. Fight after fight, it seems as nothing seems to change and innocent people die every day because of the police brutality when they are just trying to peacefully protest what is rightfully theirs.
https://www.rightsanddissent.org/campaigns/defend-the-right-to-protest/
https://mediajustice.org/action/protectblackdissent-demand-the-fbi-stop-lying-and-stop-spying-on-black-protesters/
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