What That Crazy Scene in Idaho Teaches Us About the Limits of Protest
Speaking truth to power is important but not enough.
Teresa Borrenpohl didn’t know whether she was being arrested or kidnapped.
“Who the fuck are these guys,”
she screamed as three plain-clothed security guards dragged her out of an Idaho town hall meeting — on orders from an off-duty sheriff – for yelling at the speakers.
The crowd did everything but intervene. Some of them shouted at the men in protest, while others recorded the incident on their phones.
None of these actions resulted in Borrenpohl’s rescue.
In fact, the man who’d been a natural barrier to those guards, by sitting beside her, created no friction for the sheriff who ordered him to move. He just obeyed. No questions asked.
This chilling scene from Idaho reveals a flat tire in American resistance. We’d better patch it up if we hope to prevail against the rise of competitive authoritarianism in the United States. The hole I’m referring to is the American public’s struggle to escalate nonviolent action.
Before I unpack what I mean by escalation, we need to establish that what happened to Borrenpohl was illegitimate and preventable.
Obviously, some of the crowd believed the incident was an illegitimate use of force. Borrenpohl exercised her First Amendment right to express public dissent in a town hall and — in doing so — hadn’t broken any laws. She shouldn’t have been removed, especially by unidentifiable men to God-knows-where.
It was preventable because power is based on participation. Those men were only able to remove Teresa Borrenpohl because the crowd allowed them to, beginning with the man who mindlessly obeyed the sheriff's order to move.
The 3 Types of Nonviolent Action
Gene Sharp’s 3 classifications of nonviolent action will help us unpack this concept. Sharp, known as the Machiavelli of nonviolence, classified nonviolent actions into the following categories:
- Protest and Persuasion: rallies, marches, banner hangs, op-eds, petitions, public statements, picketing, public speeches, etc.
- Non-cooperation: boycotts, strikes, lockouts, walkouts, etc.
- Direct Intervention: sit-ins, occupations, etc.
Notice: The tactics from the first category express a point of view. The other categories contain tactics of nonviolent sabotage: either by removing political resources from The Powers That Shouldn’t Be (e.g. strikes and boycotts) or by getting in the way (e.g. occupations).
By nonviolent escalation, I mean moving from the realm of expression (protest and persuasion) to the realm of disruption (non-cooperation and direct intervention).
The crowd failed to rescue Borrenpohl from the illegitimate actions of the authorities because they were stuck in the first category of nonviolent action. They protested. In the video, women can be heard demanding they release her. But, as I’ve said now for years, protest was not enough. It never is.
When the powerful ignore protest, we must remind them where their power comes from.
What The Crowd Could’ve Done
Here are some examples of how the crowd could’ve escalated from protest to forms of noncooperation and direct intervention:
- The man who sat beside her could’ve refused to move (noncooperation + direct intervention).
- Other people could have filled the remaining empty seats between that man and her (direct intervention).
- The people on her other side could’ve cleared the row and provided her an escape route.
- As the men began grabbing her, a handful of people could’ve given her a group hug (noncooperation + direct intervention).
- They call could’ve started chanting her words (noncooperation) — making the case that, if they’re removing her for her opinion, they’ll have to remove dozens of people instead of one.
Those types of responses could’ve created a dilemma for the authorities. Leave this woman alone or:
- face a PR nightmare for arresting (or abusing) dozens of citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights
- trigger bigger protests
- shut down the meeting
Creating dilemmas for the powerful is the holy grail of nonviolent action. It’s kinda the point. Force them into a corner where all of their options are undesirable.
A Call to Escalate
When I look at the scene from that Idaho town hall. I see the people of the United States. It fills me with deep concern.
Americans know how to protest. We’re all about speaking truth to power. However, expressing your values isn’t the same as impeding oppressive power. We won’t beat fascism by yelling at it and recording it.
The people of the United States must unlearn the habits that keep us in our seats when The Powers act illegitimately right in front of us. We must become as conscious of our collective power as we are of our own bodies. We must use that power to do more than tell The Powers how we feel. We have to thwart them.
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