WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS DID NOT ENVISION WHEN THEY GAVE PEOPLE THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE

The First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the government from abridging "the right of the people peaceably to assemble"

by Howie Katz 

Big Jolly Times
July 24, 2020 



When the Constitution was signed, the United States population was 4 million.  The founding fathers never envisioned a country from the Atlantic to the Pacific with a population of more than 300 million.

In their wildest dreams, the founding fathers did not envision automobiles, airplanes, television  or the internet.  And in their wildest dreams, they did not envision an assembly by thousands and thousands of protesters.

When they added the Bill of Rights to the constitution, the founding fathers envisioned an assembly of at most several dozen people.  People then traveled on horseback and if an assembly blocked a roadway, one could easily ride around it.  If the assembly blocked the entrances of buildings, one could still walk around the edge of the gathering to gain entrance to a workplace or shop.

That was then and this now.

For the past two months, the US has been embroiled in unending mass protests which began with the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis cop.  Many of the peaceful protests included some rioting in which the police were assaulted and firebombed, historical statues were destroyed, stores were looted, and buildings set on fire.

Even when a mass protest is entirely peaceful, it can be unlawful.  If the protesters block a freeway, they are breaking the law.  If the protesters are preventing people from going to and from their place of employment, shops or home, they are breaking the law.

When the police try to stop such breaches of the law, the peaceful protesters then throw water bottles and other objects at the cops who are just trying to do their job.

When the founding fathers gave us the right to assemble, there was no media that could inflame the whole nation. 

Had the founding fathers envisioned the chaos this country is now experiencing, they might have placed some restrictions on the time of day when and the particular places where people have the right to assemble.  And well they should have.

NOTE: Instead of saying founding fathers, it would have been better had I said members of congress.