Feb

26

Counter-Protests

February 26, 2006 |

Laurie Pycroft is a new breed of campaigner, a protester who protests against other protesters. Perhaps inevitably, his actions have antagonised the opposition.

The 16-year-old, who started a pro-animal testing website which sparked an unprecedented demonstration yesterday in support of his cause, has already received death threats and hate mail. ‘One said, “We’re going to f-ing kill you”,’ Pycroft told The Observer

Pycroft, who founded the group Pro-test four weeks ago, has received up to 30 threatening emails which have been forwarded to the police, who have installed a panic button in Pycroft’s family home. ‘They have advised me to back down a bit,’ he said. Yesterday, though, he showed little intention of heeding police advice when he led a march of 800 people through Oxford in support of building an £18 million biomedical research laboratory in the city, which is now the chief target among animal rights protesters. Under banners calling for humans to come first, the crowd chanted: ‘No more threats, no more fear, animal research wanted here.’
the guardian

Part of the push back against the left is theevolution of counter-protest strategies. This is incredibly healthy in a democracy and vitally important if there is to be a real agora in which ideas are actually debated.

The animal rights crusaders - in Canada and in England - have a perfectly legitimate position. however, within that movement, as within any protest movement, there are zealots and extremists and people who, if they do not get what they want through legal means are willing to consider “direct action”.

Standing up to animal rights activists therefore takes a good deal of courage. It also taps into a fair reservoir of people who are fed up with the option of simply ignoring people who want to limit medical progress if a single rat might be harmed.

I suspect we’ll see more counter-protesting as more and more people get fed up with the left’s endless capacity for outrage. Because simply letting the animal rights activists or the blasphemy brigade take to the streets unopposed is no longer good enough.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Alan on February 26, 2006 7:21 pm

    Given the meaninglessness of “the left” this is merely humourous. It reminds me of the long joke a friend created round about the time of the Terry Fox run and all the running across Canada for causes. He had a retired general running across Canada for the arms race.I suspect that we are merely seeing more people moving from recreational to amateur self-importance. Best of all, as it seems to be with blogging, its the same people who have decided to improve their position by going with the trend that left them behind a few years back. Then the pendilum will swing again and they will in 2012 be raging against the suits and the corporations once again.

  2. Sara on February 27, 2006 1:45 am

    CPAC on Goldhawk tonight has the childcare issue and people are welcome to call in if your interested… http://www.cpac.ca

  3. Andrew Burton on February 28, 2006 8:45 am

    One of the clearest exposures of the mindlessness of the left may be the protests that halted the introduction of nuclear power back in the day. Now it is clear that had we embraced nukes then we would be much better off now.

  4. Alan on February 28, 2006 6:45 pm

    The left is so evil. Thank God they exist to comfort those that find the term useful.

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