Civil disobedience is usually, but not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance.
In its most nonviolent form (in India, known as ahimsa or satyagraha) it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement.
One of its earliest massive implementations was brought about by Egyptians against the British occupation in the nonviolent 1919 Revolution.
Law enforcement officers or soldiers have long used less-lethal weapons such as batons and whips to disperse crowds and detain rioters.
Since the 1980s, riot control officers have also used tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, and electric tasers. In some cases, riot squads may also use Long Range Acoustic Devices, water cannons, armoured vehicles, police dogs or mounted police on horses.
Officers performing riot control typically wear protective equipment such as riot helmets, face visors, body armour (vests, neck protectors, knee pads, etc.), gas masks and riot shields.
However, there are also cases where lethal weapons are used to violently suppress a protest or riot, such as the Kent State Massacre and Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have rebelled against what they deem to be unfair laws.
It has been used in many well-documented nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi’s campaigns for independence from the British Empire), in Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution and in East Germany to oust their communist governments, in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, in the American Civil Rights Movement, in the Singing Revolution to bring independence to the Baltic countries from the Soviet Union, with the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia and the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, among other various movements worldwide.
