Sounds like a start of a piece about Paris Hilton, huh? Nah. Several hundred people went to jail yesterday in Los Angeles for blocking a main street near the airport as part of a protest in support of unionizing Hilton and Westin hotels.

Which brings up the tactic of civil disobedience. It says something when–if this is true–the Los Angeles Times reports that, “Police, noting the number of arrests, called the event the largest civil disobedience in Los Angeles in a generation and one of the largest in the city’s history. The protest saw more arrests than any labor action in 60 years.” Could that be right? 300 people going to jail tops anything over the past 60 years. Hmmmm…

I’m all for civil disobedience (and, in fact, have my own court date next week for participating in such an effort to support the striking NYU grad students here). But, don’t we need larger numbers to make this effective? Or at least have these arrests take place day after day in order to truly have an impact. Particularly in L.A., which has no geographical center, I’m not sure how this kind of action disrupts the daily pace of the city. If CD is a moral action designed to get media attention, certainly you don’t need thousands of people.