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Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

If it's true that they didn't make any arrangements with police or the city, then I hope they're going to get billed for the policing, any damage, and the cleanup.

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Does that work if they didn't say anything to incite acts that required policing or damage? Doesn't freedom of assembly mean freedom to call others to gather peacefully in a public place? I don't even get how needing a license to gather a large crowd is legal, denial of the license, delay of the gathering or financial cost are all restrictions on freedom of assembly. I would think that like freedom of speech, the government would need proof of imminent harm to others to stop you. You don't need a license to stream to a large crowd on the internet for example.

If you invite 6.5 million people to a gathering with no support and it takes 1000 police to subdue a massively disruptive crowd on the verge of rioting — you really think the person who invited the crowd has no culpability?

How can you be culpable for the actions of others when all you did is ask them to assemble. Are you supposed to presume a large crowd would break the law and become unruly?

It's reasonable to understand that past certain numerical thresholds, people stop being individuals and they become masses. And just on laws of averages they're going to get increasingly messy.

Yes, but there are many large assemblies, even presidential inaugurations exceeding a million people don't get unruly. Is there evidence they would be messy like you said were it not for policing?

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

MIB? Nice quote but in my experience I have observed both. I have seen multiple videos in the middle of BLM protesting and rioting where the crowd protects a cop to safety in the middle of cops dismembering protesters. And there was jan6 when they killed cops.

Depends on the person and the crowd! And their state of mind. A panicked crowd is ad irrational as a panicked individual, except their actions are amplified by their numbers. There are a few who act on their own and the masses who follow along because they think the crowd knows best.

I have been in traffic jams, get curious and take a random residential road trying to find a way out, and like 5-6+ cars follow me, even try to loose them and they follow me to a dead end street lol.

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