The UC Davis event was a shocking and disgusting display of unwarranted and unreasonable brutality on the part of the campus police towards the protesters. The protesters had taken down their tents as requested; they were sitting peacefully, not being violent in action or word. They were not threatening the (campus) police; they were not harming anyone or anything. They were practicing their constitutionally protected right to peaceful demonstration. The campus police, completely unprovoked, and in violation of their own internal policies regarding the use of pepper spray, simply walked up to them and blasted them with pepper spray at point blank range.
I don’t care what your politics are, perhaps you don’t agree with, or understand the occupy movement, and that is fine. But to cheer the deplorable actions of the campus police in this case and to cheer the unwarranted and unprovoked violence and harm perpetrated against other human beings just makes you look like sad. Are you really that committed to your political stance that you can’t see how horrible this was? Do you really feel that people, who are protesting peacefully, a right protected by the founding documents of their countries, should face such extreme punishment? Do you really feel that the police should be able to react with this level of extreme violence even where no laws have been broken?
I would hope that, regardless of their political beliefs, every person could see that the campus police were in the wrong here, and that this was a horrible event.
Sick.
ha ha ha talk about blowing it out of proportion! If they were subjected to a firing squad I would agree with you.
They had the right to leave...
Either way not going to take that video at face value - I have no idea what presided that - I also don't really care
You see a video of people doing nothing getting seriously hurt (two out of the nine sprayed needed hospital care) by the police for no apparent reason, and your first reaction is
a) "I don't care enough to even check it out" and
b) "I don't trust it what ever it looks like"
As to the latter part, it would have been trivial for you to check if the incident accidentally happened pretty much as it seems on the video. Two police officers have already been suspended and an investigation has started, as the articles I linked would have informed you. There are no conflicting reports, no claims that anyone really did anything to bring this on them.
As for not caring, that's just a seriously sad and scary state of mind to be in, and I've got nothing to add to that.
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You see a video of people doing nothing getting seriously hurt (two out of the nine sprayed needed hospital care) by the police for no apparent reason, and your first reaction is
a) "I don't care enough to even check it out" and
b) "I don't trust it what ever it looks like"
As to the latter part, it would have been trivial for you to check if the incident accidentally happened pretty much as it seems on the video. Two police officers have already been suspended and an investigation has started, as the articles I linked would have informed you. There are no conflicting reports, no claims that anyone really did anything to bring this on them.
As for not caring, that's just a seriously sad and scary state of mind to be in, and I've got nothing to add to that.
Cool then a couple of bad cops could be off the streets.
still dont care about a bunch of kids being pepper sprayed.
in other countries stunts like this get you killed - that's extreme violence.
Seeing the campus police do that is a terrible shame. Completely uncalled for. It's images like that that give protestors the fuel they need to protest even more, and rightfully they should.
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Cool then a couple of bad cops could be off the streets.
still dont care about a bunch of kids being pepper sprayed.
in other countries stunts like this get you killed - that's extreme violence.
I'll refrain from harsher words your post deserves, but as someone who lives in one of those countries where this could get you killed I'll say that what you've written is absolutely idiotic. It is a great piece of good fortune to live in a country where the right to peaceful protest exists and that right is worth fighting for and keeping whether or not you agree with this protest.
I think your post is extremely selfish, short shortsighted and repugnant in how it takes for granted what many have suffered for you to benefit from.
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Seeing the campus police do that is a terrible shame. Completely uncalled for. It's images like that that give protestors the fuel they need to protest even more, and rightfully they should.
Well, if they protest against police brutality, it will be the first coherent message they will have formed.
But yeah, that was all kinds of overboard. The way to deal with passive resistance is to get the two biggest cops you have pick the squatters up one at a time and move them.
Protesters had argued the encampment was essential to ensuring their right to expression guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Justice Brown, however, rejected this argument in his ruling and said the city's trespass order was "constitutionally valid."
"Although proclaiming a message of participatory democracy, the evidence, unfortunately, reveals that the protesters did not practise what they were preaching when they decided to occupy the park. Specifically, they did not ask those who live and work around the park or those who use the park, or their civic representatives, what they would think if the park was turned into a tent city."
"The applicants have failed in their onus to establish that the city actions in any way offend their charter rights. They have failed to demonstrate the camping in the tents is in any way an expression or that they are needed or used to express any ideas. Their act of camping out and effectively taking over a public park is not protected under Section 2."
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
OccupyOttawa is getting evicted as of right now apparently, they were given notice this afternoon. Maybe it is a good time to go for a walk. All the media was around the park this afternoon when I went by city hall with more of a presence than I had seen before.
The banner reads "Illegal Eviction 12:00am"
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Somewhere Leon Trotsky is an Oilers fan, because who better demonstrates his philosophy of the permanent revolution?
1. The protest at which UC Davis police officers used pepper spray and batons against unresisting demonstrators was an entirely nonviolent one.
None of the arrests at UC Davis in the current wave of activism have been for violent offenses. Indeed, as the New York Times reported this morning, the university’s administration has “reported no instances of violence by any protesters.” Not one. 2. The unauthorized tent encampment was dismantled before the pepper spraying began.
... 3. Students did not restrict the movement of police at any time during the demonstration.
...Indeed, Lt. Pike, who initiated the pepper spraying of the group, was inside the circle moments earlier. To position himself to spray, he simply stepped over the line. 6. UC police are not authorized to use physical force except to control violent offenders or keep suspects from escaping.
... 7. The UC Davis Police made no effort to remove the student demonstrators from the walkway peacefully before using pepper spray against them.
One video of the pepper-spray incident shows a group of officers moving in to remove the students from the walkway. Just as one of them reaches down to pick up a female student who was leaning against a friend, however, Lt. Pike waves the group back, clearing a space for him to use pepper spray without risk of accidentally spraying his colleagues. 8. Use of pepper spray and other physical force continued after the students’ minimal obstruction of the area around the police ended.
The line of seated students had begun to break up no more than eight seconds after Lt. Pike began spraying. The spraying continued, however, and officers soon began using batons and other physical force against the now-incapacitated group. 9. Even after police began using unprovoked and unlawful violence against the students, they remained peaceful.
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Some reporters have reported being threatened by protesters in the last two months, but for the most part the criticisms have been confined to signs and shouts, particularly when Fox News cameras are nearby.
More apparent reports of police brutality. In Occupy Seattle, a pregnant woman was among the protesters when the crackdown happened. When the police started moving in she screamed out "I'm pregnant, let me through" and got a boot in the stomach and pepper spray in the face. She subsequently miscarried. While I think she never should have been there in the first place, I'm don't think the police should have used anywhere near this much force against her, especially after she told them.
More apparent reports of police brutality. In Occupy Seattle, a pregnant woman was among the protesters when the crackdown happened. When the police started moving in she screamed out "I'm pregnant, let me through" and got a boot in the stomach and pepper spray in the face. She subsequently miscarried. While I think she never should have been there in the first place, I'm don't think the police should have used anywhere near this much force against her, especially after she told them.
