About two weeks ago, there was a protest on Pitt’s campus for the lowering of tuition prices. I don’t know the exact details, who was involved, or how it all started, but there are numerous videos circulating Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter across Pitt’s social media platforms. If any of you would like to see the video I decided to share, please check my Facebook page.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to argue either side of what happened. I’m also not here to shame those involved.

I’m here to argue the use of the term “peaceful protest.”

For some of you, you think you know what “peaceful” means, thanks to context and social clues. In case some of you don’t know, here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “quiet and calm; without noise, excitement, etc.; not fighting a war; not involving violence or war.” If we look at the numerous instances in which people have participated in “peaceful protests,” we see discontinuities in the characteristics of “peaceful.”

And in no way am I placing every video of a peaceful protest in this category. There are so many people out there participating in protests that withhold some characteristic that is associated with “peace.”

What I’m saying here is that too often, protestors think that yelling vulgarities at police officers, using obscene hand gestures towards them, and using physical force towards them is “peaceful,” or a right of theirs protected by the constitution.

I think not.

Let’s talk about how police officers and figures of authority/safety (whether it be a college campus or a city/state) sacrifices their lives each and every day for us. I am not saying each and every officer is perfect. There have been many officers that have made mistakes, but let’s not mark against all officers. Let’s not place all officers in the category of wrong doings. It hurts me to see figures of authority, like police officers, being treated with disrespect because they’re just doing their job. This is a particularly sensitive subject for many, but sweeping generalizations of any group, including the police force, only serves to further a growing divide present among much of modern society.

But let’s talk about that. Police officers and officers of authority are to protect what we feel is a “safe space,” a place in which we can live freely without the worry that something bad can happen to us. On a college campus, we should feel safe in as many places as possible. So, in reference to the video I shared on Facebook (see hyperlink above) we can see a violation of that safe space. But this violation is not by the officers. It’s the students. Officers were given a noise complaint about a protest in the towers lobby and the patio outside. Their job was to rid our “safe space” of the disturbance being caused to other students not a part of the protest. While the officers were attempting to do this, simply asking everyone to leave, students were yelling profanities, videotaping, and physically attacking the officers doing their jobs.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am all for Freedom of Speech. We all have voices and they all need to be heard. But there’s a way to do it. Screaming vulgarities at a police officer doing his job is NOT the way to do it. Remember what “peaceful” really means and practice it. Being offended is roughly defined by taking a negative feeling to a perceived insult. Each and every one of us gets offended by different things. For most of us, it’s a laundry list of things we get offended by. And that’s okay. But, again, there’s a way to handle it. Take your offense to something and make an action. Start a committee. Write a petition. Peacefully protest. Don’t take your anger from one thing out on someone doing their job. The first amendment protects us and allows us to express ourselves, however our rights end unequivocally where someone else's begin. We cannot will our opinion into being at the expense of someone else's simply because we hold our view to a higher value.

All I can really ask of you, my dear readers, is this: just think about it.