I am all for peaceful protests and demonstrations where people have the ability to voice their opinions to others in a nice manner. I feel that everyone should be able to speak their mind and tell the higher powers what changes need to be implemented in order to help society. That being said I feel that that both demonstrators and public authorities, specifically the police, should never go overboard when it comes to protests. I feel that both sides take each other much too seriously and what ends up happening is that both sides reputations are tarnished and numerous people get hurt. What I fear most of all is for a protest to get out of hand to the point where it leads to physical violence. I think we can all agree that what is happening in Syria right now is nothing short of a tragedy which can easily be prevented. In that situation the trouble began two years ago in the city of Deraa. Citizens went to protest after 15 schoolchildren had been arrested and reportedly tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall. The protests started off very peaceful, calling for the kids’ release, democracy and greater freedom and rights for people in the country. The Syrian government had a negative response, and on 18 March killed 4 people after open firing on the crowd of protestors. People were obviously were shocked and appalled that their own government could this type of heinous crime. All the protestors wanted were better freedom, rights, and democracy; but after these events many people wanted President Assad to step down as President of Syria. What is happening in Turkey right now hopefully never escalates into a major civil war and causes a huge number of deaths. In Turkey there have also been anti-government demonstrations which have grabbed headlines in the news recently. The demonstrators’ enemy are the security forces who unleashed tear gas and water cannons on them in response to what had been basically very peaceful protests against the Prime Minister’s government. 3195 people were injured in the clashes, with 26 of them in serious or critical condition. Because of the police’s actions this drove the protesters to fight back. International groups including Amnesty International have criticized the police for their actions as extremely unnecessary. Overall, I feel that the police have no right to use such violence against the citizens of their own country! Things like protests should be handled appropriately and without violence before they escalate into something major… like war.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/04/world/europe/turkey-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22762391
Piraveen's Political Persona 