No Pasaran reports on a couple of pro-free speech protestors who turned up at a march through Paris. The march was run by Islamic groups protesting about the recent cartoons depicting Muhammed.
One, in red and white, is (silently) wearing a sign with the Danish flag saying “Support Denmark, Support free speech”. Besides (silently) wearing a sign reading “Free Cartoonist” on it, the other, the founder of the BAF protest warrior-type organisation, is holding a (fake) severed hand, a pen among its fingers.
The pro-free speech protestors were then forced to abandon their protest by French police, who feared the two men would be lynched.
Theoretically, I’m 100% with these guys. They should be able to stand up wherever they like and peacefully exercise their right to free speech without fear of being lynched. They should not face the threat of violence for their views. And the majority of blogs I’ve read this morning (Michelle Malkin for examples asks us to send our thanks) seem to think they did the right thing.
But, in practice, these two free speech protestors were morons.
They went up to a crowd of agitated people, and they recklessly provoked them. They challenged the crowd to attack them because of their beliefs, a challenge which could have had tragic consequences.
Lets not be in any doubt about this – these are two well educated men. They knew exactly what they were doing. Yes, they wanted to make a point about freedom of speech. Which is laudable. But they also deliberately and wilfully set out to provoke a violent reaction from the crowd. They even brought a cameraman along with them to record the crowd’s response. This was unforgivable.
What they did was the equivalent of going into a crowd of Iranians burning an American flag in main square Tehran – and saying “F**k the Ayatollah”. Or, to pick an allegory from closer to home, it was the equivalent of a Muslim turning up at a post-9/11 or a post London bombings rally, and shouting out “Osama Bin Laden – he’s my man”.
Now I’m not particularly concerned about the health of these two maverick protestors. In my opinion, they’d be getting exactly what they asked for. And I must say, I’m not particularly concerned about what happens to those who do the attacking either. Throw the book at them. Throw them in jail, deport them, whatever the law allows. Responding to such provocation is equally reprehensible. What I am concerned about is the associated dangers of such violence – the dangers to others if the situation had escalated.
Did these two men consider the safety and wellbeing of the French policemen and women who would have tried to save their lives in the event of an attack? Considering their reluctance to let the police usher them away, I’d imagine not.
Did they consider what would happen if their actions incited a riot?
Did they consider who would foot the bill for the millions of francs worth of damage that comes with most riots
Did they consider the danger the French police would have faced in attempting to calm the situation?
And did they consider the safety of passers by, innocently caught up in any ensuing violence?
No, of course they didn’t. They had a political point to make.