Protests in the US have long been celebrated, condemned, welcomed and muzzled | Protests

Protests, rallies, demonstrations, marches, and riots date back to the earliest days of what would become the United States.

They continued with the sights and sounds that echo today across the landscapes of U.S. colleges and universities. Protest camps have sprung up and been torn down due to Israel’s war in Gaza, which has been raging since early October.

Pro-Palestinian protesters at US schools have called on their administrations to cut economic and other ties with Israel or with companies that say they support the war. The protest camps began on April 17 at Columbia University and reverberated across the country.

As much as protests have been a part of US history, protests are met with anger, condemnation, anger, and even the resort to law enforcement and aggressive tactics.

“Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder,” President Joe Biden said Thursday, summing up the enduring national paradox.

Administrators, under pressure to “restore order” near the start of college, say they support the right to speak but do not disrupt the lives of other students or violate rules of conduct. Police were called to clear campus encampments across the country, with more than 2,300 people arrested.

The right to assembly, expression, and petition for redress of grievances is enshrined in the first of the U.S. constitutional amendments and previous social actions that brought advances toward equality by previous generations, often at risk of life and limb, are praised.

But these same actions can cause anger and open opposition when they cause disruption, and those who speak out can be seen as outsiders seeking to sow chaos and influence impressionable minds.

That doesn’t mean the protests haven’t had an effect over time, says Robert Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University’s School of Public and International Affairs and an expert on public opinion in U.S. politics.

The 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest, for example, “drew attention to economic inequality in the United States,” says Shapiro. “[E]economic inequality in the United States has become, and continues to be, more visible.”

“Public opinion changes on issues as a result of the effectiveness of protests, doing one very important thing: increasing the visibility and relevance of issues.”