Demonstration

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.

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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.

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Some demonstrations and riots turn, at least partially, into 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.

Related Topics:
Riots - Violence - Police - Tasers - Agents provocateurs

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See also

• Non-lethal force
• Less-lethal weapons