Washington, D.C. residents offered divided views on protests that are on the rise this year and what effect they are having on the country.
Interviews conducted this week in the district showed many people were split on the issue of protests, that range from major demonstrations like the March for Our Lives to smaller marches by restaurant workers.
Luke Baker, 19, has definitely noticed the spike in protests around the district, saying he thinks the men and women want “an overhaul.”
“That’s beautiful,” said Baker, who lives in Texas and was working at American University this summer.
“If we didn’t protest,” Baker said, society would “be a hellscape or a utopia.”
Not everyone agrees.
Keiran Bly, 28, believes that protesting is a poor way of solving problems. Bly said to make change people should run for political office.
Bly said he wished for protest fatigue, but didn’t believe that the people protesting would tire out any time soon.
The most recent figures from a nonpartisan crowd counting group show Bly may be right.
The amount of protests in 2018 has already surpassed the total number of protests in 2017, according to Crowd Counting Consortium, a public interest group founded by two political science professors.
The CCC estimated that in 2017 there was over 8,700 protests nationwide. Through May 2018–the most recent numbers available–the number of protests already had reached 9,710.
Not everyone plans on attending protests.
Rishi Mittal, 17, fears attending marches or rallies nearly a year after a self-described neo-Nazi allegedly plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters killing Heather Heyer. Mittal said he worries about “another Charlottesville” and said he prefers to watch at home on television.
Josh Ledyart, 21, hasn’t been to a protest in the last year due to a lack of free time, but he said he is supportive.
“The protests put a lot of pressure on unpopular policies,” said Ledyart, who believes the spike in protests was caused by the Trump administration’s policies that showed what he calls a “lack of respect for humanity.”
Pamela Oliver, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, attributed the rise to a “protest wave” that she said is common when one political party is out of power.
“I do think the people opposed to President Trump and the Republican policies feel both especially outraged and highly motivated to protest,” said Oliver, who is an expert in collective action and social movements.
Oliver also said in an email interview that the current round of protests had “a strong partisan element.” Oliver also cited large amounts of protests by Democrats during the George W. Bush administration and that less Democrats protested during Barack Obama’s tenure in office.
“Another thing that happens is that people who are not protesters get tired of the disruption after a while and start becoming more supportive of repressive measures to force protests down,” Oliver said by email.