Civil Disobedience In Society

What is the best way for one to change laws in society? Obviously there are many methods, such as by legally voting on issues. However, another tactic is by means of civil disobedience, in which one protests laws by refusing to obey them. As with other lawbreaking, such actions can harm a nation, but this is not always the case. When it is performed properly, civil disobedience can, as in certain specific cases, help to bring about benefits to society through efficient law reform.

To find out what proper civil disobedience is, one only needs to look as far as the reformer Martin Luther King Jr. In a letter he wrote, this man specifically defined civil disobedience with the words "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty". Based on that, civil disobedience involves first selecting a law that can be deemed unjust (such as the immoral segregation laws that King spoke out against), disobeying it in a way that others will notice (disobeying it privately would not result in it being changed officially),
and allowing oneself to be imprisoned or fined as the law states should be done to those who break it. These principles must be carefully followed, as protesting just laws or refusing the penalty would make the protester just as wrong or worse than those who made the laws. In order to really see what this law changing tactic is like, one must observe some examples of it.

There have been numerous cases of civil disobedience in modern society.
For instance, Rosa Parks practiced it when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in 1955. She also submitted to the subsequent arrest afterwards, making it true civil disobedience. Another example would be Arizona's SB 1070 law, which allowed police officers in that state to arrest anyone who they suspected of being an illegal alien that could not give identification papers proving otherwise, which some thought to be unjust because it might cause a person to be arrested based on their race. After the law took effect, numerous people intentionally went to government buildings without identification papers in order to protest against it, and endured the resulting arrest as Parks had. While knowing what civil disobedience looks like in reality is important, the results that it brings about are even more crucial to
consider.

Civil disobedience has often brought about change in the laws that it targeted. After an entire Boycott of the buses where Parks lived, the racist laws surrounding them were eventually changed. The situation also ended up helping to drive the nationwide campaign for civil rights. Had Parks not possessed the courage to fight for what she believed in, countless people might still be living in an unfair and segregated society. In addition, after a great deal of controversy, SB 1070 has been altered to prevent police officers from taking extra time after pulling someone over in order to check for valid immigration documents. Evidently, regardless of what side one takes in either of these controversies, civil disobedience caused the laws they involved to be altered without excessive delay or bloodshed.

Using the correct methods of civil disobedience, Rosa Parks and other protesters have aided the development of society by causing laws to be changed. Of course, the method is a large part of what makes civil disobedience what it is, as disobedience by itself profits few people. Rosa Parks and those against the SB 1070 law both employed that method in their resistance. Finally, their resistance caused the laws to be changed without the long wait that may come with using the official methods of law changing, and without the loss of life that violent protest could bring. For the these reasons, civil disobedience should be considered a viable way of change the rules of society.