Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig
you have protesters ( and yeah, the hippy description is FAR from accurate) who admittedly are pushing the limits; even to the point of trespassing, etc. they absolutely will push as far as they can. perhaps even too far
they are told to move on, they don't. they're told to break camp, they don't.
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So in this case, the cops went in, destroyed and removed their tents. The Chancellor said demonstrations on the quad are perfectly fine, it was the tents that had to go.
Then the cops told the chief they were "scared" and trapped by the kids still sitting there peacefully demonstrating.
So the one cop just stepped over those scary, threatening kids (exposing his crotch to them), turned around, showed off his pepper spray, then walked up and down spraying those kids.
And they didn't even arrest anyone. The cops then left. There is no way to paint these two cops as anything other than disgusting.
Berkeley was where "campus free speech" started in the 1960s. It used to be not allowed on any college campus to even talk about politics, if you believe that. Students are citizens, and they have rights, and yes, they have the right, as written in the California public university code, to peacefully demonstrate on college public property - their quad.
Do the cops have a right to tell them to move? Not really. Not any more than cops have a right to tell you that you cannot be on a public street. There are tens of Occupy locations, where they've been for 2 months, no problems at all between the cops and the protesters. It depends upon how far screwed up management is in those towns - or not.
The kids that broke down the fence and invaded private property? Of course they should all be arrested for damage to property, trespass, etc.