This ugly scene went down on the UC Davis campus yesterday, where some 50 students were holding down the #occupy fort. Pepper-spraying kids peaceful protestors is a pretty dick move in and of itself, but what do you call it when a cop waves the bottle in the air first so as to get an audience? Ugh. In another video taken from a different angle (below, language NSFW), you can see the same cop waving the canister around and hear students advising eachother to take their contacts out. Just…wow.
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Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/open-letter-to-chancellor-linda-p-b-katehi/
I love how all these guys are filming with iPads and phones at the end of the video….
“Down with corporations! Umm except Apple, oh and the ones that make life-saving drug treatments, Converse shoes, jeans, internet routers, light bulbs,…”
Yeah, I guess no one told them about Apple’s multi-billion dollar bailout…
Can “TAKE YOUR CONTACTS OUT” be the new cry of the revolution? On a side note, is there somewhere I can tell every protest ever everywhere to rent huge fans and a generator and blow the pepper spray back at the inevitable and ubiquitous use of this weapon?
SO please tell how threatening the cops in a malicious crowd is OK, there was easily over 200 protesters surrendering the group of officers. Riot gear means nothing! when you are surrounded by that many people, use of force, to both get out of that situation is warranted, and to disperse the crowd which is demanding the LAW leave, not the people breaking the law, but the PEACE officers. Right. Cops are bad I forgot.
PM, did you watch the video? where is the threat? unless you are incapable of feeling and compassion, these examples of brutality (by human against fellow human) should revolt you … this behaviour can never be excused, justified or tolerated … this isn’t about politics … this is about society and how we as supposedly civil human beings interact with each other …
PM: Who was threatening the cops? Point out one person who might have been a threat? You can’t, can you? Being in a crowd doesn’t make you a threat; it just means that you’re exercising your constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful assembly. What’s so threatening about that?
That wasn’t policing. That was assault, and should be treated as such.
BTW: Two cops have been put on leave and the president of the entire University of California system is calling the chancellors of all ten schools on the carpet to make sure future protests are handled in an appropriate manner:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/20/MNL51M1T4K.DTL
@Scout can you point me to some info about the “Apple bailout” you mention? I’ve never heard of it either. Are you referring to stories about how Apple might need to bail out the US government as they have more cash on hand?
Or is it “hidden” on a “9/11 truth” site?
Twas a joke.
Pervasive police abuses and intimidation tactics applied to peaceful protesters — pepper-spray, assault rifles, tasers, tear gas and the rest — not only harm their victims but also the relationship of the citizenry to the government and the set of core political rights. Implanting fear of authorities in the heart of the citizenry is a far more effective means of tyranny than overtly denying rights. That’s exactly what incidents like this are intended to achieve.
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/the_roots_of_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying/singleton/
I’m really sick of people pointing out that the protesters have clothes on or cameras or whatever. A) That’s the ubiquity and unavoidability of consumerism., B) Perhaps they feel as though they can turn consumerism against itself by using it’s own tools C) Perhaps they feel they were promised something by consumerism that they never received, made all the more apparent when the people in charge of protecting them start to hurt them D) They aren’t calling for an end to capitalism, they are calling for a return to it. We built a safety net to prevent another great depression and ever since they’ve been slowly dismantling it in the name of neo-classical economics. If anything the Occupy Movement is calling for a return to that.