Ryan Bridge: The power of protesting peacefully

Freedom is the thing I think we love the most about living in our country like ours: democratic, pretty liberal.

We fight, to protest, we argue, we debate. But unlike it seems most of the rest of the world, we don't get physical.

We don't kill each other for our beliefs. 

We express ourselves and then we try find a solution. 

Look around the world section of your newspaper this morning. From the Middle East, to Africa, to Europe, to Georgia. To parts of America, even. 

And you'll see places falling apart at the seams or freedom crushed into a thousand pieces. 

We have in this country, for the most part, standards about how we don these things. We have boundaries.

Two things that worry me about this. 

Protesters taking it too far as they did over the weekend and live streaming from outside the personal home of Member of Parliament. 

Their own personal home. Where their partner. Where their children visit. Where family friends stop by for a coffee. 

Their sanctuary. Their decades of family photos up on the walls. Their junk mail at the door. 

Some genius thought it'd be a great idea to get a mob outside a Senior Minister's home at the weekend. At nighttime.

It's not a good idea. It never has been and never will be. They published his addresses.

You might think you appear harmless with your flags and your balaclavas and yelling with your masks over your faces, but not all people outside of politics share this view. 

You can look scary, intimidating and threatening. 

So please carry on protesting - we're all free to do so but perhaps next time you stop and think about how far you're willing to take things and what that then think about heat that says about your as person. 

I think they should apologise.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Freedom is a thing I think we can all love
about living in this country and living in a country
like ours. It's democratic and it's pretty liberal. We fight,
we protest, we argue, we debate, but unlike most of
the rest of the world, we don't get physical, you know,
we don't go out and kill each other in the
name of our beliefs. We express ourselves and then we
try and find a solution. Look around the world section

(00:23):
of the newspaper this morning, from the Middle East to Africa,
to Europe, to Georgia to parts of America. Even your
seat places falling apart of the seams, or freedom being
crushed into a one thousand tiny pieces. We have in
this country, for the most part, standards about how we
do things. We have boundaries, and that I think was

(00:44):
crossed at the weekend. Protest is taking it too far,
as they did live streaming from outside the personal home
of a member of Parliament, a cabinet minister, their own
personal home where their partner lives with the other children,
I'm sure visit grandchildren, where family friends stop buy for

(01:04):
a cup of tea. It's their sanctuary. Everyone who's got
a home knows what that feels like. You know, they're
family photos on the walls, they've got junk mail in
the door. It's someone's home and some genius thought it
would be a great idea to get a mob outside
a senior minister's home at the weekend, at nighttime and
start yelling. It is not a good idea. It has

(01:25):
never been a good idea, and it never will be.
They published his address. You might think you appear harmless
with your flags and your balaklavas and you're yelling with
your masks on your faces, but not all people outside
of politics share this view. You can look scary, intimidating
and threatening. So please please carry on protesting. We're all

(01:48):
free to do so, but perhaps next time stop and
think about how your actions might be affecting people around you,
people who aren't in politics or making decisions. And I
think actually today you should take a good hard look
in the mirror, get a pen in a paper and
write a letter to that minister to say sorry. For

(02:13):
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