In a demonstration of support for the Occupy movement, a small group of protesters was sitting, arms linked together. Campus police told them to move. The students didn't. And that's when an officer walked down the line of seated men and women, pepper-spraying them. Some took it straight in their faces. Many of the several hundred others who were there screamed in terror and frustration.
When I first saw the video of the campus policemen spraying the peaceful protestors, I was wordless with shock and horror. The policeman went down the row twice in case the dose of pepper spray was not enough the first time around. The protestors demonstrated incredible discipline in limiting their response to chanting, 'Shame on you! Shame on you!' For shame, indeed!
On Saturday, after a news conference she held, Katehi remained inside one of the university's buildings for a couple hours. Outside, protesters regrouped. And when she emerged, there was one of the most amazing scenes so far related to the Occupy movement. As Katehi and another woman walked three blocks to an SUV, they passed through a gauntlet of several hundred students — who remained silent in a powerful show of their disdain.
The students, once again, showed amazing discipline by their silence when the chancellor of the university walked through the group on the way out of her office.
Why do the protestors inspire such fear and cruel overreaction by the police? I'm sure many of the officers have faced situations which threatened much more danger than the groups of protestors. And I'm not referring only to the UC Davis.
There is this from Juan Cole at Informed Comment, to which I've already linked in another post.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan let slip in an interview with the BBC that she had been on a conference call with the mayors of 18 cities about how to deal with the Occupy Wall Street movement. That is, municipal authorities appear to have been conspiring to deprive Americans of their first amendment rights to freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances.Perhaps the Dept. of Homeland Security and the FBI might consider strategizing with local authorities on guidelines for using pepper spray against the protestors.
Likewise, A Homeland Security official let it slip in a phone interview that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security had been strategizing with cities on how to shut down OWS protests. The FBI is said to have advised using zoning ordinances and curfew regulations, and to stage the crackdown with massive police force at a time when the press was not around to cover the crackdown.
Campus police are notoriously ill-trained and low paid. Lots of things could be going on for the guy with the pepper spray vs UC students. Not excusing - just thinking.
ReplyDeleteAnn, I know what you say is true, but this sort of behavior must change. How will it change without taking note?
ReplyDeleteAnd I must add that the protestors are untrained, and yet they exercised incredible discipline and restraint.
ReplyDeleteProud of the STUDENTS (and other activists) @ my alma mater!
ReplyDeleteJCF, UCD BA 1984.
Keep them in your prayers...
Unconscionable behavior on the part of Lt. Pike. He and another officer and their chief are all on administrative leave right now, thank God. He casually stepped over the students and did this when they posed no threat to anyone. And the Egyptian military is citing the US example on how to crack down on protesters now as people are being injured and killed in Tahrir Square.
ReplyDeleteJCF, you should be proud. That you were of the class of 1984 explains a lot.;-)
ReplyDeletePaul, I agree. The spraying seemed shockingly cold-blooded to me, and the second round nearly unbelievable.
I hear Congress is considering making pepper spray a vegetable too.
ReplyDeleteOooo wicked, Paul (A.).
ReplyDeleteMakes sense Paul A.
ReplyDelete