Just getting up to speed on what went down at UC Davis, and after watching the videos of the cops walking up, flamboyantly brandishing the pepper spray, and then hosing down a bunch of kids doing nothing but sitting with their arms crossed, and all I can wonder is what the fuck were they thinking? Maybe our society is just numbed by the abuses of authority figures, but this image is a powerful one, and one that does not reflect well on the police, the UC Davis administration, or by extension, the 1% crowd. I’ll bet the folks at CLGC, plotting to destroy #OWS, scream in anguish every time they watch this sort of blatant and disgusting police brutality, because it only fans the flames.
It’s really just amazing that any administration official would think that this is the appropriate response. It’s mind-boggling that anyone with law enforcement training thinks that was the appropriate response. Lt. John Pike wasn’t maintaining the public order or using appropriate force, what he did was to physically assault a bunch of kids who pay a hell of a lot of money to be on that college campus. He shouldn’t have a job today, and if any of his colleagues had any balls or any sense, they would have arrested him on the spot on multiple counts of assault.
And neither should that shithead chancellor of UC Davis, Linda P.B. Katehi. This open letter to her calling for her resignation points out the most salient fact:
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
The kids aren’t a threat to public order, it’s the so-called adults. Who hired these morons?
*** Update ***
Predictably, the ass-covering has begun:
During the early afternoon hours and because of the request to take down the tents, many students decided to dismantle their tents, a decision for which we are very thankful. However, a group of students and non-campus affiliates decided to stay. The university police then came to dismantle the encampment. The events of this intervention have been videotaped and widely distributed. As indicated in various videos, the police used pepper spray against the students who were blocking the way. The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.
To this effect, I am forming a task force made of faculty, students and staff to review the events and provide to me a thorough report within 90 days. As part of this, a process will be designed that allows members of the community to express their views on this matter. This report will help inform our policies and processes within the university administration and the Police Department to help us avoid similar outcomes in the future. While the university is trying to ensure the safety and health of all members of our community, we must ensure our strategies to gain compliance are fair and reasonable and do not lead to mistreatment.
The balls on this lady. She orders the cops in riot gear to go pepper spray the kids, then when everyone is horrified at what she has done, she forms a task force to figure out what happened. You don’t need a fucking task force to figure out what happened. You’re the problem. Just look in the mirror and ask yourself “Why am I such a blithering idiot?” And then resign.
Yutsano
Apparently some on her faculty agree.
SW
Where the hell is Jerry Brown in this? He should have this twit in his office groveling for her job at the very least.
chopper
lol, ‘task force’. what they really need is a blue-ribbon panel.
Xecky Gilchrist
That cop is clearly a liberal infiltrator sent to make the chancellor and the other cops look bad.
MeDrewNotYou
@chopper: I disagree. Super-committees are where are the real work is done.
Shade Tail
Interesting perspective from a former cop over at Washington Monthly.
Jennifer
Even without using my awesome psychic powers, I can predict the ultimate answer that will come out of this bogus 3-month “investigation”:
“Mistakes were made.”
PhoenixRising
The Mrs and I have been trying to parse this one since my visit to Zucotti last month. I left asking, What happens to this leaderless movement when it gets colder? and assuming the answer was, It goes away. But for reasons I can’t understand, city (NYC, Seattle, Oakland) and university officials keep sending cops to apply force to a problem that gravity and entropy can fix.
They seem to be committed to stopping something that would stop on its own if they did nothing, and I’m perplexed by that. Is is simply the administrator’s Cartman-like cry of ‘Respect mah authoriteh!’?
Or did they think they could send our police, who are a mix of Gulf War and more recent vets trained to apply non-lethal force with impunity to solve any instance of being sassed by a citizen, to do crowd control and NOT have casualties? Not sure which of those is more frightening.
JGabriel
John Cole:
I tend to think that people like CLGC are the kind to yell, with a thug-like release of thrill, “Yeah! Mace those fuckin’ hippie kids! COOL!”
To be followed by the meme, “Well, of course they were anti-American commie hippie kids. If they weren’t, that cop wouldn’t have pepper-sprayed them. So they must have deserved it.”
.
The Ancient Randonneur
Why teach cops negotiating skills? A can of pepper is much cheaper and it saves time.
Professor
This incident brings back the memory of Kent State shooting on May 4 1970. That incident is etched on my brain. Will this officer ever live this down? Hasn’t he got any student sibling? What will he do if such a thing happens closer to home? Jesus, what has America come to? Don’t we have any decency anymore?
Julia Grey
Yes.
Don’t underestimate their anger at being defied. But underneath the anger is the fear: they are terrified if they don’t “nip this thing in the bud,” it will grow to such proportions that it will actually start intruding on consciences and get people all fired up to change the status quo.
So what do they do? Accelerate the intrusion onto consciences.
I agree, dumb doesn’t begin to describe it.
Nutella
@Julia Grey:
An interesting note about why the PTB are worried:
link
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
More and more I think about how best to teach our now 4 and a half year old little girl to be wary of authority. We don’t want her to just wave away any authority she comes across without giving it a thought, but, rather, how to use her own brain when she comes up against authority that abuses its power. This is a hard thing to do, since these things can happen fast, and it’s hard to come up with an answer on the spot that lets you stand up to unjust authority and yet doesn’t make things worse.
This is something we all too often don’t teach our children, and we haven’t for far too long (the infamous Milgram experiment ran way back in the 1950’s or something). And it’s a tricky line to walk. Too little respect for authority can lead to loss of respect for the institutions of our democracy (that’s one of the problems with the teabaggers: they have no respect for our government, though they respect other authorities like the police unthinkingly), but too much respect for authority can lead to paralysis in the face of atrocities that everybody sees all around us.
I don’t know what the answer is, and my guess is we’ll do our best to instill a healthy skepticism bit by bit as she gets older. Wish us luck.
RossInDetroit
The cops are 20 years out of date with their tactics. in 1990 there would have been conflicting accounts of what happened. Nothing could be determined for sure because of ‘uncertainty’. These days clear video from 4 angles every time a cop moves guarantees there’s no doubt when they play rough.
MeDrewNotYou
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): The fact that you realize its an issue and plan accordingly is great. With parents like you, I’m sure your daughter will figure things out just fine.
@RossInDetroit: That’s why we have the bullshit “no taping the police” laws.
gbear
She’s forming the task force to figure out how to prevent it in the future. As in, what rules can we put in place to prevent students from making this kind of stand. What do we need to do to stop them from protesting publicly.
They’re not going to come up with any new rules for cops, they’re going to set up barriers to free speech.
MikeBoyScout
Yes, they should have arrested Pike at the scene.
But there certainly is no reason why the California Highway Patrol can’t go pick up Pike right now.
The mission of the California Highway Patrol is to provide the highest level of safety, service, and security to the people of California.
Sir Nose'D
Many university administrators are fond of the “student as customer” model. I think the business model of spraying pepper spray down the throats of your customers (causing them to vomit blood for 45 minutes thereafter) is a great model. I will not be surprised the banks are not doing this monthly to their customers.
Okay, I said it. Where’s my Moore Award?
Chris
@Jennifer:
Damn. You know, I REALLY need to try that one in court. Walk up to an old lady and mace her in the face: “A mistake was made, judge!” Walk up to a full crowd of people along with a whole bunch of your friends: “Mistakes were made, judge!” Throw a flash-bang on a crowd of people rendering assistance to a guy lying unconscious in the middle of the street: “Mistakes were made, judge!” Good Lord, we can just abolish the entire concept of “assault” and replace it with “mistake.”
Oh, wait. I’m in civvies. I forgot. No “mistakes” for me.
MikeBoyScout
Don’t bother Chancellor. The task force already existed. It is called You Tube. The world saw what happened and reviewed the events in 24 hours.
Bullsmith
The remit of the committee will be to inform the administration on how to
betterless controversially punch hippies in the future.JGabriel
Chris: @Chris:
The judge might let you get away with it if the old lady was a less-than-filthy-rich Democrat. Try macing a Koch Brother instead. At least that way, if you get jailed, you’ll be able to say, “It was worth it.”
.
Chris
@Julia Grey:
And the only way to stop that is to drive a wedge between the protestors and the general public. Which will happen if the protests turn violent. Which is why they’ve been trying to turn them violent for two months, usually with cans of pepper spray and occasionally with more.
And which is why the protestors can’t afford to turn violent. The public’s tolerance for police brutality is FAR, FAR higher than its tolerance for the civilian kind, especially any civilians that can even loosely be associated with hippies or liberals.
Lee
In California It is illegal to use pepper spray on non-violent protests.
He should have been arrested on the spot.
Cat Lady
The ignorance of history of the arc of successful protesting is also stunning – it’s like no one in power in this country has ever read about Gandhi, or the civil rights protests, or the fall of apartheid, and how authority de-legitimizes itself. It’s so predictable, yet apparently overreaching is irresistible.
sullyVan
@Chris: Exactly! Thats why they outlawed it, (pepper Spray) for the general public. They’d shit if it was reversed, and then “Taze” you.
That Oakland video was pretty “Far Out”.
Lori
Notice how she doublespeaks here? “The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.” Not that it is chilling because it was the wrong thing to do and it was actually torture and assault. Instead, it is just generally “chilling”, and she thinks people on all sides should consider stuff. Maybe she thinks people could consider that the protestors should have left and it’s their fault they got sprayed. Perhaps she thinks that upon reflection the campus community will support new policies that say “Bring on the pepper-spraying of peaceful protestors!”. She very clearly does NOT condemn the use of pepper spray to assault the protestors in this letter.
Hungry Joe
Well, now, wait a minute. You can’t complain about the pepper spraying of non-violent students after the way mortgage bankers and doo-dah bundlers and whatchamacallit traders and derivative reptiles were all pepper sprayed at their desks after the financial meltdown. Fair’s fair, after all.
Chris
@Cat Lady:
Oh, I think they’re very aware, and I think that’s why they’re trying to provoke the protestors into violent reaction. Once the protestors turn violent, they figure, it won’t matter who started it, the public will demand that the cops “restore order” (read: break up the protests).
Most of the sixties urban riots are said to have started with acts of police brutality, but they still scared thousands of people into Nixon’s arms.
MikeBoyScout
Epic FAIL just rolls of her tongue, doesn’t it?
“The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all…”
I’d bet you dollars to donuts those gassed with pepper spray did not think it was chilling at all.
Seebach
Don’t forget: cops will always protect their own, no matter how egregious the abuse. Don’t go looking for the police to be heroes in this.
slag
Assault is exactly the right word to describe police behavior in so many of the videos and images we’ve seen. And it doesn’t matter how much those kids paid. Assault is a crime. And wearing a badge doesn’t absolve anyone of that crime, as far as I’m concerned. It’s long past time for these people to play by the rules they’re supposed to be enforcing.
Nylund
I think you all are vastly underestimating the consequences this cop and the chancellor will face. I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that they’ll receive a strongly worded letter and maybe some paid vacation time.
Seebach
@Chris: I’m wondering if YouTube will make that difference. With documentary evidence, lies are going to be really easy to prove to people willing to actually deal in the realm of “facts” and “evidence.”
The obvious step would be agents provocateur, but if they’re taped and can be identified as right-wing plants or cops, that technique will also very easily be discredited.
MeDrewNotYou
@Cat Lady: You pointy-headed liberal intellectual elitists are the real problem here with your ‘reading’ and ‘learning from mistakes.’ The greatest country in the universe doesn’t make mistakes!
singfoom
Hey now, you plebes. The police are here to maintain order, which means no one resisting. So if you peacefully resist, they will use their order-making pepper spray to guarantee compliance. /snark off
That officer should be arrested and charged for the assault of every single person he sprayed.
But, cops are kind of like corporations. They have more rights than normal citizens like me and you….
Brandon
Despite the clear civil rights violations, the clearest and easiest reason to fire this woman is because right now is college application season. While in-state students may not have much choice in CA, as Davis is and will always be 5th choice in the UC system behind LA, Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Barbara, the real and only mechanism for schools like Davis to increase their prestige is to increase out-of-state and international students. Those students also pay higher tuition and therefore provide more revenue. I cannot forsee a lot of parents skeptical about the tuition charges being too happy about their kids applying to Davis now. I know that I wouldn’t and this will only see Davis continue to lose ground to schools like Eugene and Boulder who probably all compete for the same type of out-of-state student.
In summary, this woman is now putting UC-Davis’s bottom line in jeopardy and has now likely created conditions where the school will need to spend hundreds of thousands defending itself from what will probably be inevitable lawsuits.
lawguy
The cops aren’t thinking they are just following orders. The orders come from the spiritual decendents of Jay Gould, who are busy hiring half the working class to kill the other half.
Its worked before and in other places, why shouldn’t it work here?
Cat Lady
@Chris:
Technology now lets you answer the questions that couldn’t be definitively answered before though – are you going to believe the cops or your lying eyes? The game has changed since the 60s.
The Ancient Randonneur
OT: In honor of birthers everywhere! (This is a fundraising link for the Obama campaign.)
corbin.dallas
“It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms and forming a human chain to prevent the police from gaining access to the tents. This is not non-violent civil disobedience.” – Chancellor Robert Birgeneau of UC Berkley and other Administrators
via
http://www.dailycal.org/2011/11/10/campus-administrators-send-out-message-responding-to-occupy-cal-demonstrations/
The Wizard of Oz was clearly socialist propaganda.
MeDrewNotYou
@Nylund: Just imagine the emotional trauma they’re enduring now. And how much worse will it get with the stern talking-to? You people are sadistic brutes for wanting to hurt the chancellor and Lt Pike. You are the real monsters!
Chris
@Seebach:
As long as the protestors are self-policing, shouldn’t be so bad. From what I’ve heard, the asshole at Oakland who threw a firecracker at the cops was immediately grabbed and thrown out onto the street towards the cops for them to deal with. If they keep that up, they should be generally OK against ratfuckers too.
VidaLoca
Well, back in the very early 1970’s when I was a long-haired, leaping gnome in Madison, marching up and down State St. in opposition to the Vietnam War, the police taught me a good rule of thumb themselves: cops are as reliable as rattlesnakes.
Now that I’m an old fart living in Milwaukee, the police here bring the same lesson every stinking day. In other words the 1970s were no anomaly.
To be serious for a moment, do you have any friends from the African-American or Hispanic communities? Just ask them what they teach their kids. They have a lot of practical wisdom to share…
Good luck!
Tell her any that these days, any time she goes out to exercise what are left of her 1st Amendment rights, the most important thing she can do is wear a good pair of shoes that she can run in.
lawguy
@MikeBoyScout: Yes of course, the same way the people in Penn State took care of Sandusky. They all protect their own and will forever.
sullyVan
The passive resistance worked in a different era.
These people in Authority don’t want to “Know You”, or your opinions.
Its their system. As Carlin said, “You ain’t in it!”
Sure escalation is a no win, unless the numbers are enough.
Unabogie
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Done. 20 bucks to good use!
Bullsmith
@Brandon:
I think the lawsuit angle is fairly serious for Davis here. Orders to clear them out? Check. Blatant abuse of authority? Check. Physical assault and harm? Check. Recorded on camera for all to see? Check.
So far her CYA responses aren’t going to appease anyone. If anything they only show her as unable to take responsibility for her own actions. Competent leaders do not need 90 days and a panel of experts to understand that their orders were carried out. They need them to shift the blame. Frankly, I suspect she’s toast.
Baud
@The Ancient Randonneur: Got mine as well.
LesGS
I’m putting myself in the place of the parents of those students who were pepper sprayed. (Easy to do with two daughters in college.) The rage is sending my blood pressure soaring.
modody
@Brandon: Exactly. My high school senior is in the application process now and UC Berkeley was one of his top choices. As an out-of-state student with a perfect ACT score, with a love of physics, he felt it was a a perfect fit. A few videos of students getting beaten with nightsticks and pepper-sprayed is not the recruiting tools a sane institution would use to woo parents and 17 year olds to apply.
lawguy
@The Ancient Randonneur: Why in god’s name would I send money to Wall Street’s best bag man? Or for that matter most democrats? It ain’t a rapublican who is governor or California.
John O
The Man will not go down quietly. Never does.
I read the 1st Amendment the other day. These cops should be arrested on Constitutional grounds.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
You’re assuming more good faith behind the task force than need be, John. Just remember, a lie is quick. A good lie takes time. This isn’t 90 days to figure out the problem, this is 90 days for CYOA and passing the buck. 90 bucks says they try to invent some sort of ‘legitimate provocation’ that the Youtube video just happened to miss (but we swears it did, really, those violent hippies are always violent!). And if you don’t believe it, fuck you, who are you to talk about anything when you’re not even rich?
Anne Laurie
You know this already, Cole, but just to get it on the record:
If Chancellor Katehi should actually just resign, without Proper Consultation at the Highest Levels, she’s out of a job and not going to have much luck finding another one.
On the other hand, if (hopefully, when), the Board who signs Katehi’s paychecks decides — tonight, tomorrow, or after convening to examine the findings of the newborn commission several months from now — that they need “another face to represent the UC-Davis community”, she gets to negotiate a severance package. Including at least ongoing healthcare coverage and vesting of bonuses/pension benefits, plus probably a nice little “golden parachute” to encourage her not to speak or write about all the stuff she could use to further embarrass the Board. And all those powerful people will help network her into her next position, too… as long as she’s willing to be the scapegoat, right now.
Which some might find hard cheese, but you don’t get to be the Chancellor of a UC-Davis-level university without knowing who’s signing your paychecks & exactly how much fire you may be required to draw in return.
John O
@lawguy:
Agreed. There will be a lot of third party votes on my ballot this year.
If a national race is important, and I include the POTUS race even though I’m in IL, I’ll vote “traditional.” But everywhere else, both major parties can eat me.
Samara Morgan
so.
are you guys finally catching on?
this shit has been pouring out of Iraq and A-stan for a decade.
its the outside agitators interfering with our God Given Mandate to
protect brown peoplefarm brown people and take their shit.The “freed” market has exhausted its resources and being unfortunately planetbound and resource constrained, we must now farm our own for PROFIT!
trollhattan
@SW:
Damn good question. I can’t see Jerry putting up with this shit, and he’s an ex officio regent, as is the LT Gov. I don’t believe Jerry would have allowed the OPD to pull their shit when he was mayor and I don’t believe he’ll stand for this.
Also, too, Davis is a low-key campus & not exactly a hotbed of hippie activism. I’m flabbergasted at this po-leese overreach.
My Truth Hurts
“Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all– the policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”
Richard J Daley
Anne Laurie
@singfoom:
You may be too young to remember Mayor Daley in 1968: “The police are not here to create disorder. The police are here to maintain disorder!”
Baud
@lawguy: Spend your money as you wish. Why do you feel the need to care how we spend ours?
MikeBoyScout
@55 Anne Laurie:
“If Chancellor Katehi should actually just resign, without Proper Consultation at the Highest Levels, she’s out of a job and not going to have much luck finding another one.”
And jobs that pay $400,000 per year [PDF] plus bennies are hard to find these days.
RalfW
I’d be willing to contribute to a legal fund to help the pepper sprayed students sue the chancellor for violating their civil rights.
Samara Morgan
@Anne Laurie: Quitcher whining JAFI.
You are fine with freed market economics and American exceptionalism as long as its non-Americans that are gettin’ raped.
sukkx that this chickens are coming home to roost, eh?
Anne Laurie
@My Truth Hurts: Darn my slow typing fingers!
jnfr
Those kids were awesome. I’d be honored to be in school with them.
lawguy
@Baud: I responded to a request for money. I stated my objection to giving the Thief in Chief any and wondered how confused must one be to give some of their own to a campaign that is more heavily funded by Wall Street than anybody else.
I think of myself as a Kraft-Ebing in a political way.
RareSanity
@Jennifer:
My guess is that all devices, capable of recording video or audio, and those capable of capturing still images, cannot be carried on the UC Davis campus, without a permit from the Chancellor’s Office.
Because we all know that the only real problem here, is that the incident was recorded, not that it occurred in the first place.
Baud
@lawguy: Not very confused at all. We’re really kind of enlightened.
John O
@lawguy:
Now that’s just stupid. I’m pretty sure if Obama had Putin-like powers Wall St. would be pretty tightly leashed.
Raven
When you have time watch the video “Two Days in October” or read the book “They Marched Into Sunlight”
Brandon
@lawguy: That would be relevant, except that Ofc. Pike is being paid in excess of $110k in annual salary alone, exclusive of benefits.
@Bullsmith: What’s odd to me is why they had to do it Friday. Why not wait for Saturday or Sunday when the camp will likely be less populated as many students leave campus for weekends or have things to do like laundry, study, date, etc. The response was so ham handed that I can only think of one thing, that the chancellor and/or head of university police wanted to send a clear and unambiguous message. Unfortunately for these people, the only message they are sending is that they are morons who have probably spent way too long in an accountability free zone where they could say whatever they wanted unchallenged. Even if this woman does survive as chancellor, she lacks credibility to do her job effectively and it will likely cripple the university for years. Unfortunately, I am getting increasingly skeptical that this incident and subsequent lawsuit alone will be this woman’s undong. I suspect that the systemic effects of this incident (or perhaps her obvious management failings leading to the incident) will at some point manifest themselves in the rankings and that will be what ends her reign. PSU were trying to circle the wagons until the bitter end, I see no reason why the response at Davis would be any different. Rankings on the other hand are like the gospel to these people.
arguingwithsignposts
@Samara Morgan: oh STFU WAI WEC Assange ass-kisser.
Keithly
You know, the pie filter and adblocker can really do a lot to restore tranquility and perspective to any number of threads.
LesGS
@VidaLoca: I just had a conversation with the 19 yo daughter about my feelings about the pepper spraying. One of the things I’ve realized is that my feeling of shock is revealing of my white privilege. And given the recent conviction of a cop here in San Diego for seeking to coerce sexual favors from women he pulled over, maybe we need to start teaching our kids that any encounter with a police officer begins with them turning on their cellphone’s camera. (Of course, assuming that they have a cellphone/camera may also be revealing of my privilege.)
Seebach
@Brandon: Why the fuck is a campus police officer making over 100k? He’s not exactly breaking up any crime rings.
Fuck, the Koch brothers may be onto something. Police unions DO need to be broken up.
xian
@Brandon: what’s Santa Cruz, chopped liver?
j
It won’t be too long until some GOP plant starts yelling “PIGS”.
And THAT will be “leaked” to FOX, which will round the corner to 9/11 and turn it into “How can they call the “FIRST RESPONDERS” ™ “pigs”??!
Even though these storm troopers WERE acting like little Hitlers. Especially that tubby one who did the actual deed. He’s just another small brained, small dick loser with self esteem issues who wanted to join the “force” just so he can act like a “big man” with “authoritahhh!”.
Fuck him. Everybody knows his name by now. I’m waiting for Michelle Malkin to tell me about his counter tops.
sullyVan
@Keithly: You mean hear your own voice.
Brandon
@modody: Congratulations to your son. My daughter is barely starting school right now, but my thinking has changed drastically as a parent. I would expect that your son would probably still apply to Berkeley because the school is prestigeous enough and there are other quality of life factors about living the bay area that counter the negative publicity from the police action there. But what does Davis have exactly? I am sure they have some good programs, however from what I understand it is the quality of life factors for people who like the small town crunchy lifestyle and outdoor activity. I can think of at least 3 or 4 similarly situated western universities of equal or better academic reputation that offer equal or better quality of life factors than Davis. And the kicker for me as a parent is not so much what happened, it is the response of the university chancellor. And when I read her remarks, the only thing I can think is what if one of those kids were my kid and I was contacting the school trying to get answers, is this the crap that they would try to feed me? Because if it was, I think my very next phone call would be to get a referral for an attorney. And my third phone call would be to my kid to start filling out transfer applications.
@xian: My bad, thanks for pointing that out. Davis is in fact 6th choice after Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara are probably in a tie for 4th.
Caz
Maybe it’s time these Woodstock idiots stopped disrupting the lives of those who work for a living and are productive to society. This is not a political movement – it’s a bunch of misguided anarchists whose goal is to take part in an event like Woodstock. “Hey, man, I was at the OWS protest, man. Dude, I was there, it was quite an event.”
How you continue to support these idiots is beyond me. You do realize that we are paying taxes that are going towards the police, EMS, and sanitation services required to tend to the mess they are making. And for what? To make a point that rich people need to be punished or something? They don’t even have a message – it’s just a bunch of rioters causing problems. It has nothing to do with free speech.
Why don’t you post a blog about how this is similar to the tea party. I would LOVE to hear that comparison!
lawguy
@Brandon: You know that he is indeed a working class stiff and thinks of himself as one. Not only that he is treated like one by his employers.
A long time ago with the air traffic controllers strike I realized that working class wasn’t defined by just how much money someone made.
andrewsomething
@RossInDetroit:
I think this is pretty correct. Pepper spraying nonviolent protesters who are sitting down is nothing new. The real difference is that it happens to be occurring simultaneously in many places and is well documented by video.
Here’s police in Humbolt applying pepper spray directly into people’s eyes with q-tips in 1997: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QwcxaQCO1Q&feature=player_embedded#t=358s
Seattle 1999: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbones/125523970/sizes/l/in/set-72057594102343815/
St. Paul, RNC 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA6V1JE1zbM Here they run off the people recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKzD14FeL9I&feature=related
Hell, they even do it in Canada (2010 G20 protest): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GaYbq484abs#t=56s
These were just a few I could find of people sitting down. If you wanted to extend it to peaceful crowds in general, I’m sure there are much much more. It’s not, even the first time this year on a UC campus (this was before OWS): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/ucpd-denounced-for-using-_n_832464.html
John O
@Caz:
It IS similar to the Tea Party. The main difference is the TPer’s don’t know who the enemy is.
MikeBoyScout
Our principles With a mission to advance the human condition through improving the quality of life for all, UC Davis uses a framework that connects its land-grant history to a transformative vision for the 21st century.”
See the investigation will show that what happened was the human condition was advanced and quality of life was improved by using that land which was granted to UC Davis and the vision of the students sitting on that land was transformed with the magic of pepper spray.
/snark
Mike in NC
Two words that always go well together are “fucking” and “cops”.
Amanda in the South Bay
@lawguy:
I dunno sometimes. Seriously, moving up from barely above poverty level wages to a 6 figure salary…not all members of the 99% are even remotely equal. That extra 80K or so a year is a big fucking deal
MikeBoyScout
@82Caz: I suspect that you don’t pay taxes Caz. Has anyone here ever seen Caz pay taxes? For example, have you paid to use the service to comment here? No? Then you are just a rioting freeloader causing problems.
Caz
From Julia Grey:
“But underneath the anger is the fear: they are terrified if they don’t “nip this thing in the bud,” it will grow to such proportions that it will actually start intruding on consciences and get people all fired up to change the status quo.”
Seriously?? Trust me, no one is worried this is going to grow into any proportion of anything. They are breaking the law and the police are using appropriate means to restore order to public places. Actually, it would benefit the status quo and everyone else if the cops did nothing, because these OWS idiots are just losing popularity among Americans the longer they continue their quasi-riots.
And if the goal is to change the status quo, then how about occupying Washington, D.C.?? That’s where the problems with status quo are. And I bet all these idiots voted for Obama, and now they are pissed at how things are going, caused and perpetuated by the very people they voted for.
If you want to change the status quo, then try some useful free speech or vote for someone else. You don’t unlawful disrupt the lives of people who work for a living during tough economic times. The only ones that endears you to are the other Woodstockers and maybe Buffoon-Juice.
Why don’t you invite these people to stay at your place and act like this for 2+ months? I’m sure you wouldn’t mind this group camping out at your house or blocking your way to work every day.
I don’t know who’s more clueless – you or them.
jnfr
@Keithly:
What Keithly said.
gbear
@John O: Right on.
sullyVan
@Amanda in the South Bay: Damn straight. When I was making over $130K, I had everything you could imagine, coming from $40K, it was unreal.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Professor:
Well… according to Ann Coulter, or Panzer Skank, as Henry Rollins likes to call her…
Perhaps the ‘Kent State Solution’ would actually be more, uh, efficacious than pepper spray in a situation like this…
Absolutely disgusting…
arguingwithsignposts
@Caz:
There is a third alternative you’d consider if you had a clue.
Caz
If I were mayor of one of these cities, I’d give the protesters an hour to move out, and those who refused would be dealt with with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other similar non-deadly force to restore order quickly. And I wouldn’t have waited 2 months. After two days of this crap, I’d clear them out.
When this progresses to actual riots, are you still going to support these criminals?
Chris
@Caz:
http://occupydc.org/
Thank you. Next?
Special Patrol Group
Is there a pool for how soon until some right wing dipshit says the students sitting arm in arm getting hosed down with pepper spray are Teh Real Fascists?
MikeBoyScout
@89 Caz:
I don’t know who’s more clueless – you or them.
As the one without understanding or knowledge you’ve pretty much defined yourself as clueless.
Raven
@Caz: Fuckin right and then we come for your reactionary ass.
sullyVan
@jnfr: Fuck you too
Caz
It is similar to the tea party? I don’t recall ever seeing any tea party groups camping out for days on end, relieving themselves wherever, leaving heroin needles on the ground, raping women, disrupting businesses, preventing people from going to work, blocking bridges, etc.
I do recall tea party rallies having a coherent, peaceful political message and demonstrating lawfully for change to the status quo.
I guess it depends on what your definition of “similar” is.
Parrotlover77
cops can get away with murder. literally. I can think of two instances in my hometown where cops used questionable lethal force on college students and the town was outraged but they got off because the blue shield extends all the way into the court system. there are lots of good cops and less bad apples I hear but man… they need to stand up. what the hell? I’m getting skeptical of their existence.
lawguy
@Caz: I suspect that this is indeed how revolutions start. They don’t go from zero to 60 over night. Right now more and more people are talking about the fact that 1% of the population controls the government and it doesn’t matter who you vote for.
Not a lot of people were doing that in 2008. Now there are more than a few like me who worked and voted for Obama and have voted for democrats all our lives who finally realize that neither party is going to dump the oligharchs who really run this country. Something else is needed.
OWS is only a start with any luck……….
Seebach
Anecdote that I thought was interesting that will probably bore other people to tears.
I was in college for the Iraq War protests. Once Scott Ritter started making noise about how we were going to attack Iraq no matter what, I joined up with the campus antiwar group.
The day of the “Shock and Awe” bombings there was a big protest that went from campus to downtown. Time came to clear the area, but many people tried to block a street as civil disobedience. I’d already received a citation, so I wanted to stay out of further trouble. I backed away and went to the end of the road.
A few minutes later, some of the protesters were running away, and a huge jet of pepper spray followed one of the protesters. It wasn’t too close, but had the protester run in my direction, I could have very easily have been hit. One of them hit the ground and had trouble breathing, a paddy wagon was called in and he was taken in. Some girls were pleading with the cops to let him have some water, and they refused to do so.
One of the girls yelled to the head cop wearing a cowboy hat and suit jacket, “Oh, you’re such a GOOD Christian.”
He was so pissed off, and yelled at her about what a good Christian he was. She struck a nerve on this guy, and it was kind of exhilarating to see after he’d been so unsympathetic.
I have to say, it really does change your perception of the police when you see this in person. You can know, academically that cops harass minorities and abuse their power, but when you see it, it’s incredibly different.
I still totally regret that the anti-Iraq War protests accomplished nothing. Ritter was right, and I was right, and the pepper sprayed protesters were right, and the friend of mine who was pushed over by a cop, had his head banged on the conrete and had to get stitches, and lost his case in court was right.
I don’t think the cop that pushed him down was ever punished. The jury found he was justified, and I guess we were asking for it.
The end.
Smiling Mortician
@Caz:
Anyone who could say this after watching the video from UC Davis is capable of breaking the axis plotter on the Stupid/Evil Chart.
scav
Coherent is not the word that springs to mind when I remember the Tea Party signs Caz. Tell somebody when you need a kleenex dear because you really do leave a sticky mess when you fantasize like this in public.
Pongo
’The use of pepper spray as shown on the video was chilling and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.’
Actually, no, Ms. Katehi, it doesn’t. This was–without question–NOT the right way. The fact that you are still unable to see this only raises other questions, like how someone leading a major university can have this much trouble deciding whether chemically assaulting her own students while they are engaged in unarmed and lawful dissent is justified or not. That this poses a cognitive dilemma for you only reinforces how unfit you are to be leading a major university.
Hark, what’s that sound in the distance? Why I think it’s a failing, lower-tier distance education program–with no real live students to tax your moral compass (!)–just waiting for someone with your skill set…
Caz
And all of your responses to everything I’ve said just go to show that you have nothing really relevant or thoughtful to say about anything. You all just basically have a “Hell yeah, wreak havoc!” attitude, until it actually affects your life.
Calling me names and posting witty one-liners just proves my point that Buffoon-Juice is an echo chamber of thoughtless, ignorant, socialist psyco-babble.
Compare the political effects the tea party has had with that (if any) of the OWS “movement.” Night and day. Either you realize this or you’re totally ignorant. Neither one would surprise me.
Even the politicians who were supporting these idiots are now distancing themselves from OWS. Wonder why that is, hmmm.
arguingwithsignposts
@Caz:
Yes, with a lack of spelling.
Jennifer
@Caz: yeah, I seem to recall that they broadcast that “peaceful message” by carrying assault rifles or signs that said “We came unarmed – THIS time.” Or by spitting on congressmen.
sullyVan
If folks here can’t see a wiki-leaks/OWS connection, you really are just spank’n it.
Little Boots
people gotta stop sucking.
they do.
Chris
@Jennifer:
Or calling them the N word.
Which proves they’re not racist.
Hill Dweller
Those suckers in the Tea Party were manipulated by corporate lobbyists in order to gut government regulations and destroy the social safety net.
Seebach
@Caz: The Tea Party advocates staying with the status quo. Rage for the machine, friend. Rage for the machine.
John O
@Caz:
Well then you would be violating the Constitution, big time, you wank.
arguingwithsignposts
@sullyVan: adbusters? ahem, way before wikileaks. try again.
Jennifer
I’m sure Caz fetishizes the soldiers who “protect our FREEDUMB!” He only has a problem with citizens who try to actually exercise those freedoms.
JoyceH
I don’t understand why everyone talks about ‘the cop’ singular. If you look at the video posted at Americablog (the “New Video Surfaces” post, there are clearly two cops spraying the kids who are sitting down.
Who’s the other guy?
sullyVan
@arguingwithsignposts: You get the point. Its not a game of try again, its what has occurred mass media.
xian
it’s fun watching trolls lose their shit, and it’s instructive hearing nonviolent resistance described as violence.
Little Boots
they’re losing. they know it. they are losing.
Comrade Dread
Oh, no. What you will get out of the process will be:
1. The officer involved will be placed on administrative leave during the investigation (read: paid vacation.)
2. After just enough time has passed that the incident is no longer in the media spotline, a report will be released saying that he acted in accordance with departmental guidelines in the use of pepper spray.
Nothing further will come of it, save a blogger or two asking whether it should be appropriate in the land of the free for a cop to shoot pepper spray (or a taser) into a non-threatening citizen.
Pongo
@Caz:
Shorter Caz: ‘YOU DAMN KIDS–GET OFF MY LAWN!’
Keithly
@sullyVan: Why the either/or dichotomy?
jon
Did any of the students file a lawsuit yet? I know I’d pay off my student loans and put a nice down payment on a home if that happened to me. I might settle for just the student loans.
cynn
John, amen. It’s after six and I still hear the helicopters over Dever. I will walk up and join them. Bad move, Denver.
Cat Lady
@Little Boots:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
cathyx
So many new posters here tonight. Lobbyist money?
Little Boots
@Cat Lady:
exactly. we got this.
sullyVan
@cathyx: Gimme a break, your name changes here at will. 2+ years. No Corporate sponsor ,Christ.
Citizen_X
@Caz:
Oh, Jesus fuck. THE YEAR IS TWENTY-FUCKING-ELEVEN. The sixties were a loooonnng time ago. When the fuck are you righties going to get over it?
Cain
@Cat Lady:
I know many members of congress have some kind of Gandhi tidbit in their office. I know that Obama did as well. Gandhi was the ultimate rabble rouser. Satyagraha takes guts. We are prorgrammed for violence, that’s how we deal with threats. It takes a thinking person to resist that urge and to “turn the other cheek” so to speak.
MikeBoyScout
The QUAD
But… GET OFF MY LAWN!
RossInDetroit
Oh, this ‘pepper spraying’ is just a perception problem to the Chancellor. They’ll rebrand it as citizen seasoning or aerosol deterrent or airborne tension amelioration or something. ‘Pepper spray’ is so pre-video.
Little Boots
@Cain:
do they?
I’m pretty sure they have something from Ayn Rand or Tim LaHaye.
cathyx
@sullyVan: And you are one of them. My name has never changed.
Jenny
Newt breaks out a club and goes full metal hippie-punching.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/11/19/372836/gingrich-occupy-wall-street-should-go-get-a-job-right-after-you-take-a-bath/
I’m trying to keep my hopes in check, but I’ve thinking, more and more, Gingrich gets the nomination.
Cain
@Nylund:
I don’t think so.. UC Davis and brutality is spread all over the internet. I can’t imagine that alumni are happy about this incident. I expect the inquisition for our dear Chancellor for making the UC look bad.
Also if it is true that it is illegal for the cop to pepper spray non-violent persons, then you’ve also got a crime committed.
I’d also bet that the cops family are none to happy to see this guy’s face idly pepper spraying kids acting like he’s putting round up on weeds. That’s what that video looked like. If he has kids, I’m sure he’ll be answering to them. His friends, his neighbors, it’s going to suck for that guy.
Little Boots
@Cain: @Cain:
I think you’re right.
they are losing, and they are panicing.
scav
I think the admin at PSU are breathing a faint sigh of relief though.
Seebach
Tweet:
@CaliforniaAggie Police have been called on protesters interrupting press conference about police reaction to protesters. #ucdavis #occupy
Jenny
@scav: yup, this is great news for
McCainPenn State.sullyVan
@cathyx: So. You introduced Corporate $$$ as Trolls commenting. Get a grip.
Cain
@Bullsmith:
That’s your typical corporate MBA style response. She’s acting like a CEO not an educatioanl administrator.
She is really screwed.
Seebach
Those on Twiiter, check out @CaliforniaAggie.
Apparently students have formed a walkway for the Chancellor to leave the building. She may be too chickenshit to face the students.
John O
The chancellor may go down as a sacrificial lamb to the Powers that Be, but that’s all it will be. The Man will do what is necessary to survive.
Until It can’t.
I lost my job of 27+ years this week. OWS seems like a good option right now.
Little Boots
question from another site, which made me wonder. do you think people get more attractive? in other words, do you think the average person is more attractive now than, say, 20 years ago?
sullyVan
@John O: Thats the spirit! Don’t become the 101st Chairborne Division.
Baud
@Little Boots:
I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I am.
sullyVan
@Little Boots: Yes. Except in South Texas.
Little Boots
@sullyVan:
In fairness, Rick Perry is not awful … physically.
cathyx
@Little Boots: Yes, because of advanced techniques.
Little Boots
@Baud:
somehow, I believe that.
RossInDetroit
@Little Boots:
Depends on whether you think people look better 2 sizes larger, because that’s sure happened.
sullyVan
@Little Boots: Eeewwww! That 3rd thing….Condom!
cathyx
@sullyVan: Because you replied, I’m guessing you’re one of them.
Raven
@RossInDetroit: Two “SIZES”???
Baud
@Little Boots:
{{blush}}
sullyVan
@cathyx: No, just tired of that BS meme.
Let it go.
Little Boots
@RossInDetroit:
what about the teefs. the teefs are better, aren’t they?
or not.
yeah, we are all kinda huge, there’s that.
Jesse
@Caz: If you think pepper spraying a line of people sitting on the ground is an appropriate means to restore order, you are a sociopath. Seek help.
The “effect” of the Tea Party was and is to keep the government gridlocked in an era of real problems. This isn’t something you should be proud of.
Raven
@Little Boots: I’m 25 pounds lighter than I was 20 years ago at 42.
Little Boots
and if Doug were born today, would he be more attractive?
And could somebody please tell me why I won’t leave Doug alone?
tam1MI
@Caz:
Why don’t you post a blog about how this is similar to the tea party. I would LOVE to hear that comparison!
The difference is that the Tea Partiers ringed their rallies with thugs brandishing unslung AK-47s and they were left alone. The OWS people engaged in peaceful, nonviolent protest and they were greeted by cops in full riot gear and faces full of pepper spray.
Perhaps the OWS folks should take a page from the Tea Party…
Raven
@tam1MI: Most of em were slung.
maya
@Caz:
You do have a point, Caz. Just think what political effects OWS could have if only they had the financial and media backing of the Koch bros, FOXNews (and most of MSM), FOX & friends, Glenn Beck and the Banksters?
Unfortunately for OWS, those sources mentioned above who funded, guided and promoted the Tea Party movement, are part of what they are protesting about – control of this country by the 1% and their minions; which now includes the Tea Party. It is a stalwart and consistant, bought and paid for 27%. No argumant there.
It is also unfortunate that so far, OWS doesn’t appear to be 4 sale.
Jesse
Allow me to add, there is no legitimate law-enforcement use for the technique of forcing someone to *swallow* pepper spray. That is nothing but sadism, and has absolutely nothing to do with “restoring order.”
Jenny
@Little Boots:
no. people in 1991 were plenty attractive (ie Michelle Pfeiffer, Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Richard Gere, John F Kennedy Jr).
Raven
@Jenny: Oh, I get it now.
MikeBoyScout
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/19/us/california-pepper-spray/index.html
See, there’s no specific policy forbidding campus police from pepper spraying students peacefully sitting in the QUAD, so it was just a simple mistake. Could have happened to anyone.
Raven
@Jenny: Except no one on your list was anywhere near average.
cathyx
@sullyVan: So of all the posters here, you responded. Why? I know you’re new here, if you are innocent of being a troll, why do you get worked up when I accuse new posters of being paid by the lobbyists? If I were new to a site and someone responds to new posters the way I did, I would assume that they weren’t talking to me.
Jennifer
@tam1MI: Perhaps the OWS folks should take a page from the Tea Party…
Dress in Revolutionary War drag, ride around in Hoverounds, and wave misspelled signs?
sullyVan
@cathyx: You bore me, Frost.
We’re 2 peas in a pod on the next post.
cathyx
@sullyVan: I rest my case.
Little Boots
see? I knew we were gorgeous! (especially me)
and not Doug (goddamit, i gotta stop!)
sullyVan
@cathyx: You are one of those that just has to have the last word.
Liberty60
She’s appointing a task force?
Why not a bipartisan blue ribbon panel?
I’m sure after months of investigation and thousands of pages of reports, they will somehow figure out this mystery.
I am sure they have their top men working on it.
Their TOP men.
DCF
And now, for something completely different:
Love + Solidarity from Antarctica
‘Where pepper spray is passe’
cathyx
@Little Boots: Were you at the meet-up? I picture DougJ to be kinda cute. Is he?
moops
The Chancellor’s voicemail is giving the Full response right now. I spoke with UC Davis Police to report the assault and request that charges be filed.
Chancellor’s office (530) 752-2065
UC Davis police (530) 752-1727
you should make a note and give them a call later in the week if nothing is done promptly.
Charges should be filed based on eye witness testimony already.
pepper spraying non-violent protestors is a felony in California. You don’t get to commit felonies and walk free just because you are a police officer on duty.
You are arrested, and jailed and released on probation if that is appropriate.
call often, state this clearly.
I’m also thinking the state attorney general should be notified….repeatedly
Yolo County District Attorney
(530) 666-8180
not sure who has jurisdiction here….
Little Boots
@cathyx:
I was not.
I picture him bitter.
but I got issues.
cathyx
@Little Boots: And what does bitter look like?
Samara Morgan
@arguingwithsignposts: stings doesnt it?
the American Dream is all turned to grey goo.
Little Boots
@cathyx:
Like Doug.
Oh, come on, that was too easy.
arguingwithsignposts
@Samara Morgan:
no more than your usual internet ramblings. tell us again who cheered the loss of Vietnam, asshat.
moops
@Cain:
It’s going to suck for that guy ??? Lt. Pike. really ???
My sympathy is actually a large negative value right now.
His friends will shun him ? boo hoo!!!!
Serving time, then unemployed, then protesting next to the hippies, then being shunned by the hippies, is the path for this asshole.
His kids ALREADY think he is a complete asshole, I absolutely testify to this fact. Maybe his wife is having second thoughts right now, but she can do better. His parents might be wondering where they went wrong, but he doesn’t give a crap what they think.
look at him… He was a crap sack from start to end. His fellow officers might now be wondering if he just made all their lives crappier in that episode.
sullyVan
@Samara Morgan: YES. Now its ON.
cathyx
@Little Boots: This is what bitter looks like. I don’t picture DougJ like this.
http://famosos.culturamix.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/christopher-walken/christopher-walken-1.jpg
sullyVan
Also too. I’ve been defined as a “Paid Troll”. Who is sending my funds?
I’ll be waiting at the post box.
Thx, T. Roll
Thats me spittin image.
Scott Alloway
@Caz: Caz, you’re a fucking idiot.
Been there, done that.
Montysano
@Caz:
This has to be DougJ.
Little Boots
there is new thread.
Samara Morgan
@arguingwithsignposts: i should say the “freed” market turned into grey goo.
Do you know what grey goo is AWS? from the wiki, ( i corrected robots to nanobots for the juicitariat).
Kane
The faculty of any university should encourage and celebrate their students peacefully demonstrating on campus. And the grounds of a university campus that students and their parents pay for should always be a safe haven for students to exercise a core First Amendment right. When the response of a chancellor of a university to unarmed peacefully demonstrating students is to call in pepper-spraying cops in riot gear, then the campus by definition is no longer a university. It’s a police state.
MikeBoyScout
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/passive-occupy-protesters-take-1233248.html
Oh dear! A protester curled into a ball!
Well, fuck all, why didn’t they just blast that protester full of lead?
/snark
Samara Morgan
@arguingwithsignposts: cheered?
i never said that– i SAID some commenters here insisted that America didnt “lose” in Viet Nam.
i suppose it depends on the meaning of the word “lose”.
lawl
Samara Morgan
@Kane: Julian Assange has predicted that America will turn into a police state on its way to non-linear system collapse.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
President Obama, not standing up for the 99 percent in America… Every day.
.
.
Yutsano
@Samara Morgan: You do realize none of us are interested in your cult of personality ramblings. Julian has become your false god. And you are blissfully unaware of your apostasy.
MikeBoyScout
@201 Uncle Clarence Thomas:
Our only hope is that the EU will lead an effort to protect the protesters from violence and then our government can join in.
sullyVan
@Yutsano: Sounds like Obamabot supporters.
I agree he is.
Yutsano
@MikeBoyScout: Personally I’m hoping Canada invades. That would be even more awesome.
@sullyVan: Yup. Another ratfucker.
Jennifer
@MikeBoyScout: A protester curled into a ball!
Those dirty fucking hippies have the ability to strike out with lethal force from fetal position in .6 seconds. You’ve gotta get the jump on them.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Cat Lady:
Fix’t.
Yes it has, thus the reason cops are fighting hard to discourage the use of video recording by the public. They and their supporters know that sooner or later people are going to get sick and tired of seeing cops abusing the public.
If the police were behaving honorably then they wouldn’t fear people recording their actions, they would welcome it.
SammyV
@RossInDetroit:
Ok, I really like “citizen seasoning.” That’s A material.
TooManyJens
Linda Katehi won’t be fired. She was provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before she went to UC Davis, and was in charge of admissions at the time of the clout scandal. She was never named, but her immediate superior and one of her associate provosts were. She claims that she had no idea that the illicit admissions were taking place. Either that’s a lie, or she has no idea what happens in her own office. Either way, she was rewarded for this performance by being hired at UC Davis, where she is being paid $400,000 per year — a 27% increase over what the previous chancellor was paid.
She won’t be fired. She’s exactly where she’s supposed to be, doing exactly what she’s supposed to do.
portlander
What were they thinking?
Um, “another day at work”?
I mean it’s not like police hosing non-violent protesters with pepper spray is anything new… Yes, technology has improved to spread the video but you can find plenty of videos from 2003 and 1999 of the same thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4RYITtEpoY
moops
@TooManyJens:
I don’t think that is how this is going to work.
She is currently endangering UC Davis applications with her behavior. So long as this incident is widely disseminated she becomes a financial liability and a drain on revenue.
out of state enrollment is king in UC. You mess with that, you get turfed.
portlander
Took a few minutes to find it but this is the video with the most casual pepper spraying I’ve seen (from 2002):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEiQCLu8nGQ
pics:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/294542.shtml
Cain
@John O:
I’m sorry man, I’m really sorry. :( I hope you’ll find another job ASAP.
TooManyJens
@moops: It depends on whether she can make it go away quickly enough by pretending to do something (90-day task force, JFC). Or by just stalling long enough that people get distracted by the next big thing. If not, then maybe she will be fired for being a liability, but she won’t be fired for doing the wrong thing.
Cain
@Little Boots:
It depends. I feel more attractive now than I did 20 years ago. I’m relatively the same person, same build, etc. I’ve aged a bit, got some grey. But several women have met my eye plenty of times..
then again when I was 22, I looked like I was 15. :-)
sullyVan
Now that its “After Hours”.
OT
On attractive….20 years ago.
My question is…haven’t female breasts become more ample?
Not like the 70’s, man.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
@MikeBoyScout:
Yes, perhaps a (totally legal and not warlike at all) kinetic action by the EU upon the US is in order, complete with drone assistance.
.
.
Tyro
Trust me, no one is worried this is going to grow into any proportion of anything.
and then…
When this progresses to actual riots, are you still going to support these criminals?
“OWS is irrelevant and nothing will come of it” and “OWS is in danger of turning into dangerous violent riots! We have to stop it right now!”
I guess this is sort of like how conservatives simultaneously claim Obama is a Muslim AND he follows a crazy pastor at his Christian church.
Mike G
@Seebach:
Which is a depressingly small proportion of the US population.
BobS
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: Maybe he’ll invite the cop and the kids over for a beer.
moops
@TooManyJens:
you can all scroll back and see lots of phone numbers you can call for the next month.
The key here is not disappearing.
You should also be calling your own representative in CA. UC is not free to run as it pleases.
Bostondreams
@Caz:
I am not sure if you actually understand the concept of free speech. Or are you simply unaware of the broader elements of the First Amendment?
Why such bitter venom concerning people protesting inequality and the failures of the current system? A system made worse during the past ten years.
TooManyJens
@moops: Unfortunately, I am from her old school, not her current one, so I don’t have a representative in CA. I will write the University anyway, just as an outraged citizen.
Rick Taylor
Via Atrios, it appears that what we saw in the videos wasn’t the worst of what happened. A junior faculty member wrote:
luc
The stupidity of the chancellors letter and of the university police head’s statements alone are a reason for their immediate firings/resignations.
Mike G
Caz, how sad for you that you were born two decades late to participate in Pinochet’s Chile or apartheid South Africa. You could have been one of those Boer cops chasing schoolchildren with whips.
Kyle
@TooManyJens:
Write to her superiors — the Governor (who is one of the UC Regents), the UC Office of the President or the UC Regents. Her superiors need to be buried in letters demonstrating that she’s severely damaged the reputation of the whole UC system with this police state brutality.
suzanne
Mr. suzanne is a UC Davis alum, and he’s pretty aghast at this whole thing. That chancellor is a fucking dumbass. I’ve been on the business end of pepper spray a couple of times, and that spraying looks so awful.
I just saw a report on msnbc that the chancellor is essentially saying ” Nyah Nyah, hippies.” Ugh.
Chris
@Jesse:
The Tea Party Movement also had the effect of costing them the Senate by running total loons in the Northeast for the sake of ideological purity. Given the economy and the fact that it was a midterm election, sheer inertia would probably have put them over the top more effectively than teabagger activism: from a “winning seats in government” point of view, all it did was hurt them.
(Although they’ve done quite a “good” job just with their control of the House, I admit).
Roy G.
@Caz, are from California? If not, why are you sticking your nose in our business? I’m a tax paying Californian, gainfully employed and pissed about my tax dollars being wasted… on inflated salaries for administrative cronies and campus cops. These kids are doing what college kids do, and it is a crime that they were hosed down with pepper spray like this, because they refused to ‘work with the police’ as Chancellor Katahi whitewashed it.
I’d also bet my bottom dollar that Cas was totally in favor of starting the war in Iraq, despite the fact that it was evident at the time that it was a made up causus belli, and that Iraq had zero to do with 9/11. The Occupy movement exists because there are a bunch of people in this country who enthusiastically throw trillions of dollars at wars that aren’t really about protecting the US, but about giving the 1% more power and more money.
Those same fucktards shriek when a thin dime is given to any social program, or when anybody dares to challenge the ruling class or riles up the useful idiots who are so inflamed with wedge issues they can’t see how they are being worked like a rented mule. And that is why Occupy is happening.
Satanicpanic
If Caz didn’t exist, Dougj would have to invent him
AA+ Bonds
That’s exactly what they’re thinking, John. They’re thinking that they can get away with it, and many of them got into the business of exercising physical authority because they like bullying and abusing people.
Good cops know this and if they can do it without reprisal, they’ll point out the psychopaths around them, lickety-split. The problem is that the current cultural norms reduce accountability to the level that the psychopaths often succeed and flourish.
brian gister
At the tisk of repeating previous commenters, isn’t it time to disintegrate that fascist namesake, The Department of Homeland of Security, and return it to those diverse departments from which it originated? Shit, OWS is about as far as you can get from the Weather Underground, and neither they, nor the Baader-Meinfof, let alone the Red Brigades, were adequate justification for a police state.
jurassicpork
Republican Spider Man Sez: With great power comes great immunity.
Carl Nyberg
My guess is that CLGC reacts by dreaming of billing their clients more money.
They’re mercenaries/whores. More bad PR for their clients is more business for them.
I wouldn’t be totally shocking if CLGC and other PR agencies were bribing the cops to behave badly so the banks had to hire the PR agencies for more work.
If we’ve created an amoral economic system where the people in power are never held accountable, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.
Darkrose
@Brandon:
Ayup. The turnabout from her original statement was quick enough to make me think she got some immediate pushback from higher-up. This is not going to help in her effort to promote UCD to big donors and out-of-state students. Her tone-deaf response has only made things worse.
Xenos
@Roy G.: Don’t worry about Caz. He is just one of the many mindless spoofs who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
xian
@sullyVan: sure, but so have male breasts
Darkrose
@trollhattan:
As far as I’ve seen, since being elected the only thing Jerry cares about is balancing the budget. The state’s not giving much money to the UC system, so I doubt he’ll have anything to say.
Darkrose
@Brandon:
Actually, it’s more like 3rd choice. It’s Berkeley, UCLA, and then Davis narrowly ahead of San Diego. Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz are behind that, and then there’s Merced and Riverside, which are the “We guaranteed you admission to a UC; we didn’t say which one” schools.
For in-state students, it’s actually kind of hard to tell, because I’d say 80% of undergrad applicants apply to all the UC’s except for Merced and Riverside.
Darkrose
@Brandon:
1. Davis is close to the Bay Area, so if you want to stay in NoCal and can’t get into Berkeley, it’s pretty much the best option in the UC system. And while Davis is expensive, it’s not as expensive as living in Berkeley. Yet.
2. Davis has a med school, which means we get a lot of undergrads doing pre-med.
3. Davis has one of the few vet schools in the country outside of the midwest. I’d say that the majority of out-of-state undergrad applicants are pre-vet.
4. Davis has about the only winemaking program in the country.
Darkrose
@TooManyJens:
At the time she got the chancellor’s job, a number of faculty members publically questioned the appointment because of the clout thing at U of I; I won’t be surprised if this comes up again.
I don’t think she’ll resign, or officially be fired. I fully expect her to take a position at the UC Office of the President. But the more national attention this gets, the more she becomes a liability.
Darnell From LA
Sorry, but this movement is off the rails. Here’s why:
— Vietnam Peace movement: The message pushed everyday was “get out of Vietnam.”
— The Civil Rights Movement: “Equal rights and equal protection under the law” was the constant refrain.
— Occupy Wall Street: “Stop Police Brutality!” or “Pepper Spray Sucks!” or “A lot of us got arrested today!”
Once upon a time the movement was concerned with TRUE financial reform, raising taxes on the wealthy by A LOT, government action on JOBS, and so much more.
NOW? “Uh, check out the livestream of Occupy Oakland tearing down fence!!!”
And since when is a successful movement contingent on seeing how long you can camp in a public park? I don’t seem to remember MLK spending 6 months in a pup tent in downtown Birmingham, but I could be wrong.
And what makes it worse that it is apparently still alright to criticize Obama and “hold his feet to the fire”, but it is VERBOTEN to criticize OWS in any way whatsoever without being branded a 1%’er. Unreal.
Get some leaders, get focused, and get rid of the GOP.
Joel
@Darkrose: Davis is ahead of San Diego? I didn’t realize that Moo U carried such appeal. [/UCSD alum]
AA+ Bonds
Here’s an article about police strategies regarding demonstrations over the last 50 years. Alexis Madrigal had a link to it in his piece but he’s a child so you should read this instead
AA+ Bonds
@Darnell From LA:
^ Look at this failed troll
AA+ Bonds
@Darnell From LA:
Man you are SO MAD there’s a popular movement on the left
AA+ Bonds
@Darnell From LA:
Finally, GTFO
Darnell From LA
@AA+ Bonds: My point.
Obama, or any other movement, group, or politician on the left can be critiqued, criticized, analyzed, castigated, excoriated or otherwise “have its feet held to the fire”, but DON’T YOU DARE speak ill of the state of the art messaging and organizing of the OWS movement. DON’T YOU DARE!
But if you want to question the “balls” of the first African-American President of the United States, please knock yourself out!
What a crock o’ Shit. Oatmeal-North-Of-The-Eyebrows, and a healthy dose of Michael Moore is the order of the day here….
Darnell From LA
@AA+ Bonds: And I am just waiting to hear the preemptive apologia of the OWS movements polling BELOW the Tea Party in the latest Pew Poll.
Really, please thrill me with your acumen.
I mean, really, how do you go from having Airline Pilots marching with you IN UNIFORM, to having lower approval ratings than the nihilists of the Tea Party, all in less than 3 months? Ah, with political skills and messaging that Obama should emulate, yes?
Try reading. Ya know, left to right? Top to bottom? Letters form words, words become sentences?
Of course I will be busy reading all the info on OWS on the blogs. e.g. How many were arrested yesterday, pepper spray, tents pitched, etc. (Nothing about finance reform, income disparity…etc)
Suffern ACE
@Darnell From LA: Thank goodness those Vietnam and Civil Rights protestors didn’t read their polls three months after they started marching. But did they have to be so disruptive? And it was so hard too.
Hey, old man. Perhaps if our institutions hadn’t gone to shit, it wouldn’t take so long to figure out which one to fix first.
beth in or
@Jesse: made me think of waterboarding
Uriel
@Darnell From LA:
I can’t lie- I’ve definately noticed some of this going ’round.
It’s a little odd for a movent based around hyper-egalitarian general assemblies and the principal that the voices of the voiceless deserve to be heard. One of the most dangerous things a nascent populist movement can face is losing itself in the comforting, implacable pull of the quicksand of its own echo chamber.
Which is to say, there’s noting more sad than buying into your own PR.
bob h
it’s the so-called adults. Who hired these morons?
She only makes $400k a year. Obviously they need to bump that up to attract better talent.
Brandon
@Darkrose: @Darkrose: I take your point that UCD has a lot of good things going for it academically and my intention was not to denigrate the academic standing of the school. I would take issue with your in-state rankings, but you are correct that regional factors are important. I agree that the vetrinary sciences are huge, I would disagree with the importance of a medical school, particularly as probably every pre-med student at Davis would rather go to UCSF, and both UCLA and UCSD have significantly better medical schools as well. Looking at the state as a whole though (not regionally) I would argue that at a minimum, both UCSD and UCSB are better. USNEWS has them at UCSD, UCD and UCSB for 8, 9 and 10 respectively for public universities, so obviously they are close in terms of academics, so the key difference then is specific programs, quality of life factors and geographical preference.
For an out-of-state student, my point is entirely based on the fact that for students considering UCD, there are a lot of other schools across the west that are similary situated and events like this make parents in particular think twice about whether to encourage their kids to go there. I would say right now that if my kid liked the outdoors and was looking at out-of-state schools, I would be encouraging them to look at Boulder a lot more closely.
And my conclusion is based not on the incident itself, but the response of the university administration. The chancellor has not expressed concern for the safety and well being of the students. And as a parent who would entrust this university with my child, that is just a non-starter for me because that should be their primary objective.
Barry
@RossInDetroit: “The cops are 20 years out of date with their tactics. in 1990 there would have been conflicting accounts of what happened. Nothing could be determined for sure because of ‘uncertainty’. These days clear video from 4 angles every time a cop moves guarantees there’s no doubt when they play rough.”
Notice that in the short term, it doesn’t matter in any way that they can see. We’ve had numerous well-documented incidents of officers behaving quite illegally, with no prosecutions (both in the Occupy protests, and in every day life).
The prosecutors wield tremendous power.
Samara Morgan
wallah….Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is on Fareed GPS.
One of my favorites, like Julian Assange.
Caz
How about if I get a bunch of “wingnuts” to come to your house and sit on your property for weeks on end, just sitting with their arms crossed. And you have to walk around them all the time to go in and out of your house. I’m sure you wouldn’t have a problem with that. Maybe some drug use and relieving themselves once in a while too, just right on your yard, or walkway or whatever.
I’m sure you’d have no problem with that on your property.
Or if a bunch of people were blocking your way to work every day, and it doubled the time it took you to get to work and home every day. You’d be cool with that, right?
It’s hard to believe you’re really this ignorant and still able to hold a steady job. Your views sound more like they come from some pot smoking 15 year old who knows everything and hates authority figures. “Fuck yeah, man, let’s go down to Cole’s house and have a protest. It’ll be like Woodstock, we’ll make a difference. Dude, don’t forget the weed.”
Idiot.
Caz
And I can’t remember the last time you actually had a suggestion for a solution to something. Just bitching about all things conservative, and apparently restoring order to public places is beyond your comprehension. I wonder if you’ve ever had to actually work for a living, like real work, not going to school to get a degree so you can stay in school, just on the other side of the desk. Have you ever actually had a real job where you depended on the money to live? Not like a busboy job when you were 19. Like as an adult, in order to pay bills. Ever?
Please don’t vote.
Tc
Best I could find about how a university leader should handle something like this, is this – http://www.scoop.it/t/higher-education-bubble/p/654259527/how-prepared-are-america-s-colleges-and-universities-for-major-crises-assessing-the-state-of-crisis-management
Wonder how she stacks up?