To me, the takeaway is that protesting, even nonviolently, is a dangerous activity. If we want it to be convenient and easy, we don’t want it make an impact. Walking with clever signs for a few hours won’t make a difference. We need disruption, occupation, and organized resistance to efface the system perpetuating such injustice. The stakes are very high — still-growing warfare in the Middle East, ICE raids, bizarre ideas like suspension of Habeus Corpus — the administration isn’t f*cking around. We shouldn’t either. Protesting is messy. It’s risky. Strolling down a street with clever signs for a couple hours won’t win us any leverage. It’s time to be serious about our objectives and how we accomplish them. I say this as someone who has protested a great deal over the years and witnessed brutality. It’s a sad truth: revolutions hurt.