A direct act of protest can backfire by suppressing further testimony.

Evidence

Buttonwillow residents who came to testify against the dump were intimidated, and some did not testify after all. Many did, however. “The possibility of going to jail did scare me,” says Juanita Fernandez, “but the dump scares me more.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 438

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Direct collective refusal reveals the contingency of official power. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 435; A protest’s message can be hijacked by splinter crowds’ destruction. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 535