They sure demonstrated something!

Two days after the big gun-nut demo in Albany there was another protest on the capital grounds this afternoon. I was lucky to walk by when I did or I would have missed it. The protesters were speaking out against the "stop and frisk" police policy so hated by progressives. "Stop stop and frisk." was their chant. Another, to the standard tune, was "Hey hey, ho ho, stop and frisk has got to go!" They waved signs that no one could read. Their slogans were handwritten, whether with pens or markers, on brown cardboard. There were five protesters total. One of them had a tambourine and kept time for the chants. Before I was out of earshot they gave up and left.

I can't be surprised that a "rally" against stop-and-frisk didn't draw one tenth of one percent of the turnout for the gun rally. Most people, even if they agree objectively that stop-and-frisk is objectionable, are going to see it as something that happens to other people, while anyone with a gun at home can fear that the government will come and take it. Having said that, maybe the saddest thing about this poor excuse for a demonstration today, given the policy protested, was that all of the protesters were white. They couldn't even bring out the likely most aggrieved people and they may not even have tried. From all appearances what I saw was a demonstration of pure moral exhibitionism, utterly indifferent to whether it made any impression on anyone. An impression was made, however, whether they liked it or not, though maybe only on me -- and now you.