thescruffypiratedotorg

Wow. This is one of the most disturbing things I've seen. Because I could see myself sitting on the ground with those students. And because of the complete lack of emotion on the part of the police officers.

I don't even know what to say. I'm not quite sure what I feel. Mostly shame. Makes me not want to be an American anymore. But really there is no place safe. For all our compassion as humans we can still do this to each other.

Wish I could participate in the protests even more. But considering the Occupy Denver protesters were arrested last week, I don't know how to do that.

I get the feeling that the majority of Americans (if the two people I overheard at Panera a few weeks ago are any indication) think the protesters are just a bunch of young people out to have a good time. I'm not even sure what their goals are, but from what I've seen of the protesters (and their signs and chants), I think their message (or lack thereof) has merit. But it doesn't seem like anything can really come of what they are doing.

But now it seems just as much about protesting for the right to protest. Which seems to me to be more important. And seems like it could actually get results.

Police officer pepper-sprays seated, non-violent students at UC Davis

19 November 2011 07:11am UTC • 57 views • 1 comment

Tagged with occupywallstreet, police

1 comment

1. Dread Pirate Benjamin

   22 November 2011 11:36pm UTC

   The above video doesn't show much of the interaction before the spraying, so as Keri (always trying to be just and fair) pointed out, it is hard to know what the situation was really like.

   Here is a video that shows more and from different angles.

   As far as I can gather, the police moved into the quad and arrested some individuals. I don't know why those individuals were arrested. At that time the students formed a perimeter sitting down. Thus, in order for the police to leave with these arrested individuals they had to get past the students. The students refused to move. They were then told they were going to be pepper sprayed and then they were. Then the students in the path were forcibly removed, and a few of them arrested. One of the individuals (a woman) was hospitalized with chemical burns. Shortly after all of it (I believe based on the drastic turn the events took), all the students were released (as far as I know) without any penalties.

   As far as I have been able to find, none of the students made any sort of physical or violent act throughout the event towards the officers. They sat there and took it. Or they stood by, watched, and emotionally took it.

   I still maintain that the callousness displayed on the part of the police officer is incredibly upsetting. Incredibly angering. Incredibly depressing. I think pepper spraying, at point blank range, a group of non-violent protesters by the people in charge of taking care of its citizens is a gross example of abuse of power on the police's part. I find it hard to believe that there was not some other way. Who were they protecting?

   But that is an important question. Presumably the students were not on their own private property. So, it could be that the school requested the protesters be removed, or the whoever owned the property. Or it could have been that they were living in a public area for an extended amount of time, which, I think we can all agree, we'd rather not let people just live in our public areas.

   So, were the police wrong to try and remove the protesters? Maybe not. I don't have those details. But I can imagine situations where no, I don't think they were wrong. I think the protesters were wrong for not working with the people in charge to make their efforts legal. However, if they weren't allowed legal means of protesting, then it was the people in charge's fault for not letting them express their anger.

   However, even if the protesters were doing something illegal, did they deserve to be pepper sprayed?

   Obviously, I'm not a lawyer, and not well versed in what rights the first amendment gives us, but I feel like the first amendment in spirit thinks it is important that the citizens of a country be able to voice and express their opinions ("the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble").

   It is easy to yell at the police in difficult situations without clear answers and say that what they did was wrong. Believe me, very easy. So, maybe I'm wrong, maybe the only course of action was to pepper spray those students. But I find that hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that the only way to deal with these protesters is to beat them and arrest them and pepper spray them. And if the police are going to other more peaceful, more diplomatic efforts, then they need to be publicizing those efforts. But based on the fact that no other efforts have been publicized, I find it doubtful that they are.

   In New York the police are going to great efforts to prevent people from filming, photographing or documenting the confrontations between police and protesters. My guess is that the police don't want what they are doing to be documented because they don't want to be "unfairly" judged. But why are they worried about being unfairly judged if what they are doing isn't questionable?

   These protests have shown (not that we didn't already know) that there is something wrong with relationship between the police, us citizens and our reporters and the attitude the police and the people in charge have towards dealing with criticism and confrontation. And those problems are worth protesting about.

   This is no longer about being "the 99%". This is about fighting to live in a country where you don't have to fear being pepper sprayed with no legal option for recourse because you were non violently being irritating.

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