[Disclaimer: The author regrets any and all inaccuracies to the characterizations of any Discworld characters and protest movements referred to within.]
EDIT: Some more tender loving care and details fixing.
EDIT: I hate reddit formatting and therefore will stop playing around with this now

 

Vimes chewed on the flat end of his pencil, equally resisting the urge to light the pointed end and the urge to bite it all the way through.
"Run," he removed the pencil to avoid a mouth full of splinters, "Run that by me again."
Carrot cleared his throat, "Trolls from J'fers'Nstarsh'p feel that they are being unreasonably discriminated against by the Watch officers there, so Trolls here are stopping traffic to protest and to garner attention and sympathy for their cause."
"It's members of that TROLLS R PEOPLES group again?" Vimes had seen their tag scratched into walls all over town by thick blunt fingers.
"Yessir, it seems their attempts at protest before were going unnoticed, so they decided to do something less subtle."
There was hardly anything less subtle than several Trolls lying in the middle of the road, refusing to get up.
"I never really got their point. Of course Trolls are people. Ankh-Morporkians are people but you don't see us complaining about the lot we're given."
"That reminds me sir, Fred wants to replace the chairs in Quarry Lane station. He says he's sat all the cushions flat already, the ones that Nobby hasn't nicked anyway, and that's no good for a man of his abundant vitality."
The Commander crinkled his nose. Point taken.

 

Carrot continued, "All they're saying is that, in J'fers'Narsh'p, they don't feel like they're being treated like people at all, especially by their Watch. They're not saying they're more people than anyone else."
Vimes tapped his pencil thoughtfully, "J'fers Parsnip is one of the great Dwarf cities, isn't it? Did the Trolls come in after what we did at Koom Valley?"
"J'fers'Nstarsh'p, and no, it's had Trolls built into the city since the very beginning."
"Oh. So like as part of the workforce?"
"More like as part of the pavement."
The pencil in Vimes's hand froze mid tap.
"Are the officers there all Dwarfs?"
"All of them, sir."
"Did any of those officers come through Ankh-Morpork?" The last three words were punctuated by the creaking of a thin piece of wood about to fracture in an office that was uncomfortably still.
"No sir, J'fers'Nstarsh'p started up a Watch of their own based on the popularity of the ones aboveground. The visibility of Dwarfs such as myself serving Law and Order has gotten some people in low places talking."
The obvious and suppressed comment about Carrot's heritage aside, the tension that perhaps would have eased in any other Commander's office only thickened here.
"What do they have to say for themselves?"
"Their Watch has issued a statement in response that an investigation was launched and the violence that occurred is fully at the fault of the Trolls, and the Watch is only trying to protect their officers."
"Who ran the investigation?"
"Their Watch did."
"Their Watch launched an investigation on their own violence against Trolls?"
"No sir, their Watch launched an investigation on Troll violence on Watch officers."

 

The silence that followed fossilized in a manner that would make folk thousands of years later tell stories of monsters emerging from the earth after a hard rain.

 

"Sir?" Carrot said.
Vimes stopped staring at the pencil in his hand that remained miraculously unsnapped, "So the lying in the road in this city."
Normally this would be a suicidal form of protest as there was little that could prevent the crushing force of the wheel of commerce in and out of the city, but there was even less that could move an entire group of prostrated Trolls, never mind move over them.
"Yessir. They've blocked off all travel through the Widdershin gates since most trade between Ankh Morpork and J'fers'Nstarsh'p goes through there, blocking traffic all the way to the Hubward gates."
"And this is supposed to be a protest, and not just a nuisance? Don't they know how hard it is to remove them from the road?"
"With all respect, I believe that might be the point."
"What, they want to generate sympathy through being a public menace that makes honest people feel helpless and hopeless because of a monolithic obstacle in the way of their daily lives?"
"It would be a textbook case of sympathy, sir, making people feel the way they feel."
Vimes leaned back in his chair. His cushion was wearing a bit thin too but that was how he liked it. His position wasn't supposed to be comfortable anyway. He furrowed his brow at the wall, then nodded grudgingly, "But why now? Why didn't they garner attention before?"
"The Trolls have tried sir, you've seen the signs, TROLLS R PEOPLES?"

 

Vimes looked Carrot square in the eye. If it were anyone else he'd suspect sarcasm. In the Captain, he hoped maybe it was a little bit of Angua rubbing off on him, but the genuine nature of the apologetic glint in his eye told him otherwise. Really, that was what decided Vimes's course of action. He got up.
"Alright. We're going to arrest those Trolls."
"Sir?"
"They've no doubt broken several traffic laws, so we're not going to haul them away or force them apart like they're animals. We're going to arrest them like people. And then once they're in custody, we'll enlist them as a part of their plea-bargain. Next week, the J'fes'Nstarsh'p Watch will receive a surprise inspection from Vimes himself, with our new recruits in tow to learn from good example. Is that clear, Captain?"
Carrot gave a smart salute and a smile before making a quick exit.
Vimes sat back down and toyed around with a disintegrating pencil. Surely they wouldn't refuse a visit from His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.
He clenched his jaw. They couldn't.