Occupy the Law Enforcement-UC Davis's English Dept. Proposes Disbanding UC Davis Police Dept.
Kym Kemp / Nov. 22, 2011 @ 10:31 a.m. / News
Never since the days of the 1960’s has revolution spread so visibly across the United States. The Occupy Wall Street movement has sparked a dialogue about issues that are rocking the accepted values of our society. Last weekend when UC Davis Police sprayed pepper spray into the faces of seated students has become a moment which has shocked the nation and sparked an internet meme. And now it is rocking the academic world. Today’s UC Davis English Dept.’s homepage is a banner plastering a cry for university changes and societal changes. The page states:
The faculty of the UC Davis English Department supports the Board of the Davis Faculty Association in calling for Chancellor Katehi’s immediate resignation and for “a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protesters by police on the UC Davis campus.” Further, given the demonstrable threat posed by the University of California Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to the safety of students, faculty, staff, and community members on our campus and others in the UC system, we propose that such a policy include the disbanding of the UCPD and the institution of an ordinance against the presence of police forces on the UC Davis campus, unless their presence is specifically requested by a member of the campus community. This will initiate a genuinely collective effort to determine how best to ensure the health and safety of the campus community at UC Davis.
Can society disband or reduce its authoritarian arm without negative consequences? Will reducing police presence really increase student safety?
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Image from here.
Related tags: occupy-wall-street, pepper-spray-cop, uc-davis
Their new job is simply to keep the peace, wherever they find it. That helps keep all peaceful people safe.
Please help this happen. It is simple and logical. In fact, police used to be called “Peace Officers.”
This reminds me of the pepper spray (dousing of eyes) incident in Eureka years ago. The one that led to a civil rights lawsuit and judgment against the HumCo Sheriffs dept.
Now, the first thing that offends me is that they would take and iconic photo of the Kent State Viet Nam war protest and photo shop a cop pepper spraying Mary Vecchio. It just seems like a desecration to me.
Second, the fact that cops are pepper spraying non-violent protesters is also deeply offensive. What would happen if we all joined together and declared our love of America, apple pie, hot dogs and baseball? Should we be pepper sprayed? Americans have the right to peaceful assembly. The fact that they were pepper sprayed should be a civil rights crime by each and every person involved with it. It is the equivalent of dumping somebody out of a wheelchair because somebody disagreed with them.
These young cops need to read some history. They should start with the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights. They should read a little about the history of civil rights for blacks, the sufferage movement, and the Viet Nan war protests. We’ve been there done that!!! To not know history is to repeat it.
Last why not just show the photo of the Idiot cops spraying the protesters at Davis? Does everything have to be photo shopped???? We live in a photo shop, sound bite world, and that also offends me.
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.
Suggested link: Kent state killing
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“That all changed a few minutes later, when Filo heard the gunshots and saw Vecchio kneeling over Miller.
”That was a reaction shot,” Filo said.
Filo said he received hate mail after the picture was published. And he was told by an uncle who had served in the armed forces, ”If you were out there, you should have been shot.”
”The thing I remember the most is the feeling of total helplessness,” Filo said. ”It’s the same helplessness I feel at times now later in life.
”Sometimes, there is no help, just friendship and an attempt to understand what’s going on. That’s the way we all felt that day, a day that will be with us all until the end.”
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Laurel Krause, sister of Allison Krause one of the students killed at Kent State is a friend of mine. We have discussed this use of the iconic Kent State photo. She welcomes that image as a symbol of the horror that happened then and as a symbol of what happened at UC Davis.
Similar to the #OccupyUCDavis students, Allison, Jeff, Sandy, Bill, Phillip and James were unarmed and protesting, yet slaughtered in the military response on their campus. In 2010 we have learned these efforts were crafted, fully orchestrated at the request of President Nixon by the covert teams of J. Edgar Hoover and local law enforcement.
As Allison’s sister, I find the original photo of Jeffrey Miller most offensive yet welcome anyone remembering Kent State and Jackson State (yes, even Ann Coulter) because I know when we fail to remember the past, we are doomed to repeat it. And that right now is my biggest fear.
RESPECT & STOP TARGETING #OccupyStudents, #OccupyWallStreet & #OccupyActions in America! No more Kent & Jackson States! No more protest deaths in America!
Peace!
btw I don’t think this is is Photoshop reality-editing, because we know the independent images. It’s good old agit-prop (agitation propaganda) and no revolution gets up steam without it. Compu-nerds, start your Macintoshes …
11/22 the day Kennedy was ambushed by the federal reserve…
Wake up & smell the coffee. The feds are already using fully-armed CIA, FBI, Homeland Security & truck loads of local law enforcement against unarmed protesters now. Specifically noting what happened at #OccupyOakland with brutal violence, use of provocateurs & flash grenading folks aiding injured Iraqi vet Scott Olsen (a war crime!).
How much more does the picture have to resemble Kent or Jackson State for Americans to realize the US government does not allow or condone peaceful protest & assembly in America. Even more importantly, that they will stop at nothing to silence us!
“They will stop at nothing to silence us”….. a twinge of hysteria
For those who don’t like photoshopped meme, certainly don’t look here. Mr. Pike has made it into popular culture and history whether we like it or not.
Well, the kids are brainwashed drones themselves. i guess that proves that everybody is equal.
However, you must be a Harper’s subscriber to read the article on the site. I put a copy of it up as a Facebook Note, but you must be my Facebook friend to read it. And i did find a copy of it online, but its blocking is weird and it will be annoying to read… however here it is http://grendelreport.posterous.com/the-soft-kill-solution and i notice it’s not the entire article.
Sigh, i do think it’s worth reading and substitute its recommendation for my own uninformed opinion. I would post it on here but it’s mighty long.
Are you now equating the tens of thousands dead in Vietnam to post war America?
Hope not
If Ms. Krause is happy with that juxtaposition, then more power to her. I respect her sister, and history, more than that….
Sorry if I sound bitchy, I’m really much nicer in person. It’s just, how does a person make a point in this sound-bite world.
It absolutely is irresponsible to promote this “art” for the sake of journalism. I don’t know which is worse: those who create this crap, or the fact there are those who can’t distinguish it from the reality of actual events.
Ernie’s comment below is very well put. I’m just so unbelievably sickened by this I’m having difficulty expressing my thoughts in polite terms.
http://www.4chan.org/
this autumn we here the drumming
20 ppl sprayed in sacremento
by thier “ilk”
and it wasnt with milk, ta ta ta …
its not perfect but its getting there
i hope Earnie doesnt mind me rearranging hisstory a little
but Davis doesnt rhyme with Ohio,
see what i mean?
Of course, in all art and history, context is everything. But how can you, my favorite blogger who celebrates bulshistory (as do I) not appreciate the value of people reinterpreting history through their own lenses?
I didn’t even initially take the stand that it has value (though I do believe it does). I merely pointed to its existence, i.e. “Last weekend when UC Davis Police sprayed pepper spray into the faces of seated students has become a moment which has shocked the nation and sparked an internet meme.”
A perusal of the internet will show that the LA Times, SF Gate and other media are referencing this meme. It has taken the internet by storm. Should media including myself ignore popular movements?
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4406KJQMc&feature=player_embedded
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4406KJQMc&feature=player_embedded
Every member of the UC Davis Police Department demonstrated they are ready and willing to commit or passively witness attrocious acts of violence commited by eachother against the very students they’re supposed to be protecting.
The following video is essential to your learning, Scob Do: http://tinyurl.com/yreykn
Scob Do, the following video is essential to your learning: http://tinyurl.com/yreykn
They were not at Woodstock but I got sprayed at UC Davis, Cool Man.
here is a video that I put up before showing the students agreed to be sprayed.they even had a conversation with police beforehand.
here it is if your open enough. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4406KJQMc&feature=player_embedded
“I am so happy you shared” Man up and just ask her for a date
And the UC Davis Physics department is also asking for Chancellor Katehi’s resignation, too.
A little bit more of the recent UC Davis news is at The Sentinel for interested folks. From what I can surmise, the civil problems, investigations, and perhaps litigation may be following this Pepper and Assault fiasco as numerous agencies get involved.
(A hat tip goes to Kym for her video footage find here)
I wondered the same thing, let alone a complete swat team ready to bust skulls at the drop of a hat. Several friends of mine went to davis throughout the 90’s, there was nothing of the sort, let alone a reason for it. How much you wanna bet “the events of nine-eleven” were used by police departments all over the country to spread their own power and influence? There are cops permanently stationed at the middle school and highschool I attended as well. Absolutely ridiculous. How much money does HSU waste paying a bunch of officers to spend all day tracking down the smell of weed smoke that happened an hour before? I’ve spent time on campuses from san diego to here, the only thing UPD’s accomplish is intimidation and financial hassles.
One kid held out his head and took a big blast, wiped his eyes and kept on keeping on. That spray was watered down, it was all a political action to show the powers that be, Hay were doing something. Watch the video again and you will see. Hotter than Habanero , I do not think so.
Government has no right to own property or attack it’s citizens, once it’s discredited where do things go? Let’s think back to what went in Soviet Union- (err sorry The Day After movie doesn’t seem that long ago) how did things ger “back on track” in Russia when overnight the currency failed and government lost it’s control. How did life change for someone who was living under the wing of a government that was no longer there? How did they adapt? Did they?
Those are some things to think about before we can begin to correct the wrongs of the world. The only thing to remember: BEWARE FALSE PROPHETS.
Happy Turkey Day!
The use of pepper spray against non-violent protesters was found to be “excessive force” in the local pepper spray case in the 90’s. And in that case, there was at least some kind of legal justification for why the protesters were ordered removed in the first place — they were trespassing on private property. But in this case at U.C. Davis, these student protesters were just sitting there on the grass on their own campus. So what justification was there for removing them, rather than allowing them to continue to sit there?
So it seems to me that in the U.C. Davis case, the authorities screwed up twice: First, by making the decision to remove protesters when there didn’t seem to be any urgent need to do so, and second, by employing excessive force with their use of pepper spray.