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Protest movements have had a long history in the United States. When a group of people feels they are being marginalized, sometimes they will gather in a show of numbers. Parades, rallies, and speeches are the usual forum, but sometimes protests transform into violent [[riot]]s and hooliganism. One of the earliest and most famous protests in American history was the [[Boston Tea Party]], a protest against British-imposed tax laws known as the [[Townshend Acts]].  After the American Revolution, protesting became enshrined in 1789 as one of five protections enumerated in the [[First Amendment]].  The full text is as follows:

Protest movements have had a long history in the United States. When a group of people feels they are being marginalized, sometimes they will gather in a show of numbers. Parades, rallies, and speeches are the usual forum, but sometimes protests transform into violent [[riot]]s and hooliganism. One of the earliest and most famous protests in American history was the [[Boston Tea Party]], a protest against British-imposed tax laws known as the [[Townshend Acts]].  After the American Revolution, protesting became enshrined in 1789 as one of five protections enumerated in the [[First Amendment]].  The full text is as follows:

:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or '''the right of the people peaceably to assemble', and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or '''the right of the people peaceably to assemble''', and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In more recent American and world history, protests have become a favorite tactic of liberals and revolutionaries, which are usually riots and not protests. A frequent pattern is to announce a "peaceful" protest and then provoke the authorities into using a degree of force which appears excessive. This tactic worked well at [[Kent State protests|Kent State]], where after student rioting and an alleged sniper attack, members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine others. In several cases, liberals and revolutionaries often used the term "protest" to refer to what would be better described as [[riot]]s, and during at least the 1960s also mistook that for "free speech" and a demonstration of unpopularity for something, to the extent that several anti-war protestors assumed that North Vietnam having no protests meant that the North Vietnamese government was actually "popular" among the people of North Vietnam (when in reality, if the people attempted to speak out against the North Vietnam Communist regime, they would have been killed).

In more recent American and world history, protests have become a favorite tactic of liberals and revolutionaries, which are usually riots and not protests. A frequent pattern is to announce a "peaceful" protest and then provoke the authorities into using a degree of force which appears excessive. This tactic worked well at [[Kent State protests|Kent State]], where after student rioting and an alleged sniper attack, members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine others. In several cases, liberals and revolutionaries often used the term "protest" to refer to what would be better described as [[riot]]s, and during at least the 1960s also mistook that for "free speech" and a demonstration of unpopularity for something, to the extent that several anti-war protestors assumed that North Vietnam having no protests meant that the North Vietnamese government was actually "popular" among the people of North Vietnam (when in reality, if the people attempted to speak out against the North Vietnam Communist regime, they would have been killed).