Where did the meme come from that civil disobedience requires you to sit in jail afterwards?

[PorridgeGun]

37. It came from people who have two issues..

A. No real experience with the modern US prison system. Even a short county jail stint can be turned into a death sentence for inmates disliked by the jail administration who aren't protected by mass media coverage these days.

B. An authoritarian streak that results in heads burrowing firmly into the sand at the mere suggestion that all might not be well with the US justice system.

I've seen this syndrome at work first hand in the women who worked in the administration building of a California prison. There were things that just "weren't talked about" and subjects that couldn't be brought up unless you wanted a sneering glare and later retaliation from the guards. I was concerned about this even as an employee of the State at the time.

I once witnessed an ambulance carrying an elderly inmate having a suspected heart attack stopped at the exit gate for more than half an hour (as the guards lazily ambled around) for "security" purposes. The real reason, of course, was that the inmate inside happened to have been a troublemaker (ie. activist type) and the guards were doing their best to turn his prison stint into a death sentence.

This sort of thing happened every day. If you were a state employee driving a truck you were waved straight through. For the media and civillians they'd hold 'em up until they could get a couple guys parading around on the roof brandishing mini-14's to give the entirely false impression they were entering some sort of dangerous environment rather than the outer administration bloc of a low security prison.

I don't think I knew a single "free staff" employee who didn't over time grow to loathe and in some cases develop a visceral hatred for prison guards. The same was not true of the inmates they worked with.