For three weekends this summer, a friend and I protested outside district assemblies being held in the Tucson Convention Center. Our approach was very low key and completely non-confrontational: we just held our posters and smiled.
This was our experience at the first two assemblies (for the third assembly, see the next paragraph). As soon as we arrived and took up our position outside the building, a group of three or four very serious-looking "brothers" with ATTENDANT badges came out of the building and took up positions in front of us, with their backs toward us, forming what amounted to a human chain that blocked us from view of anyone who walked in our direction. If we moved to the left, the attendants would also move to the left. If we moved to the right, they moved to the right. They made sure that no one looked at us or our posters, and certainly that no one talked to us. If anyone got too close to us, one of the attendants would take that person by the arm and escort them away. When one UBM stopped to talk to us, an attendant tried to move him. What an embarassment that turned out to be! In fact, the whole charade was an embarassment for the witnesses, and we think they knew it. We also think that somewhere higher up in the organization, a decision was made to stop this ridiculous practice because it clearly was doing them more harm than good.
At the third assembly, which ended today, we showed up for arrival and/or lunch and/or departure times all three days. Not a single attendant bothered us! People seemed much more relaxed as they passed by. Many read our posters. Some smiled and said hello. A few even stopped to talk with us (though admittedly to argue). It seemed like such a friendly crowd, compared with the previous two weekends, when people passed looking down grimly as they passed.
Do you think there was "new light" on handling protesters?