Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is an active and often public nonviolent violation of particular laws, decrees, regulations, ordinances, military or police commands and other orders. This is usually done in protest of laws or orders which are regarded as immoral, unjust, or tyrannical and with the expectation and acceptance by the perpetrator(s) of the legal consequences of this disobedience. Sometimes an individual or group may disobey a particular law as a symbol of opposition to wider policies of the government, or the government’s rule itself. -Gene Sharp