UC Davis police attack peaceful demonstraters

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by somerfrost

I agree with everything you said....working as long as I did in the prison system and being directly involved with crowd control as a Military MP, I quite often found myself in scary situations where I feared for my own safety, all that is true BUT it doesn't apply in situations like the one that sparked this thread...calling the victims disgusting dirty hippies or implying they had it coming doesn't work when the visual evidence is front and center. Criminal behavior is criminal behavior whether committed by demonstrators or those in authority.

Zig is right though in that the police are just carrying out their orders from higher up. It's the people ordering the cops who should be arrested. Starting with the federal government.

[somerfrost]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

Zig is right though in that the police are just carrying out their orders from higher up. It's the people ordering the cops who should be arrested. Starting with the federal government.

Again I agree...but as I said before, there is a limit to how far "following orders" works for me.

[Danzig]

i think the problems involved aren't just from one part of the whole equation.

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.
you have the police, in some cases several different forces working together such as in oakland or on the campus a few days ago which causes a whole new set off issues (not everyone has the same training, guidelines, etc), with administrators saying the kids have to go, and go now.
then you have the chiefs of police, mayors, city councils, etc.
the police are given a job to do, the protestors have their own agenda, and of course city govt has theirs, property owners have theirs. a mix right for an explosion, or several.
and with this society as litigious as it is, i'd have to think the owners of the properties being squatted on are having a collective heart attack...how would you like all that liability hanging over your head?

[Riot]

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.

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.

[Alabama Stakes]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

Zig is right though in that the police are just carrying out their orders from higher up. It's the people ordering the cops who should be arrested. Starting with the federal government.

yeah right.....are you freakin kiddin me.....like the Nazis were just following orders too. You have to be a real piece of shet to do that to a bunch of kids just sitting there. What kind of man does that to a woman ? Cops should be fired as well as the Chancellor