Annul the PENS Report
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November 21st, 2011
Posts filed under 'Politics'
Video of beating of American veteran Kayvan Sabehgi by Oakland police
Video has emerged of the brutal beating of three-term American veteran Kayvan Sabehgi by Oakland police, which ruptured his spleen.
November 20th, 2011
Video shows two cops pepper spraying nonviolent demonstrators
Due to the outrage, the Chancellor, who lauded their restrained actions earlier has now placed the two on leave. However, every cop who was there and stood by is complicit. And the Chancelor who called them in after seeing the violence by UC Berkeley police earlier had to know that such violence was a likely possibility. She is responsible. If she had ordered that violence not be used, the results might have been different. She must go as well as these brutal officers. The fish stinks from the top.
November 20th, 2011
Watch police calmly plan and execute the UC Davis
Another video shows the calm deliberation of the police as they plan the pepper spraying of UC Davis students. It is now clear that a large sector of the campus police force is dedicated not to protecting students but to brutalizing them. Any decent university would disband the entire force and start over with a force dedicated to preserving peace and the right to dissent:
I must say that UC Davis is giving its students an excellent education in the true nature of the modern “liberal” state, dedicated as it is to the preservation of privilege and power at all costs. as the first Mayor Daley expressed so beautifully after the police riot in 1968: “The police aren’t here to create disorder. They’re here to preserve it.“
November 20th, 2011
Occupy Davis statement on UC Davis police violence
The separate Occupy Davis has issued this statement on the violence Friday toward peaceful protesters by the UC Davis administration and their hired enforcers:
At Occupy Davis relations with the democratically elected city council and local police forces have been genial and productive. The authorities have worked continuously to harmonize the occupation’s presence with the park and surrounding businesses and ensure that all aspects of the encampment remain non-violent. Those in charge of using force are aware that they are democratically elected officials that are directly accountable to the people.
Occupy UC Davis, a mere three blocks away, is under the jurisdiction of an undemocratic, appointed regime of force over which its subjects have no meaningful democratic control. The authorities there attacked non-violent protesters with indifference, and, in some cases, a clear display of sadistic pleasure. There could be no better illustration of the differences between a democratic, accountable public safety effort and a fascist, totalitarian, unaccountable police state. The students of UC Davis have no meaningful voice, and that is reflected at the very top of the administration down to the officer on the ground who can spice up his day with a confident sense of utter, unassailable impunity.
As for the message of the protest, I have no direct comment, because the police on the scene made a far more compelling case through their brutal actions than my printed words ever could.
God bless those who sat for our rights that day, submitting their bodies to be brutalized, sacrificing themselves to expose injustice. They truly are the heroes of humanity.
November 20th, 2011
The state at work: Pepper spraying nonviolent protesters at UC Davis
I read the embattled Chancellor’s claims about how threatened the police were and how pepper spraying was a humane alternative to batons. But the video makes clear that there was no threat except that the cop got his jollies off attacking eople who had the temerity to sit down and nonviolently protest. BTW, the police officer spraying the protesters has been identified as UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike. He must be fired immediately.
Therehad already been police violence against students earlier in the day [at 7:40]:
The Chancellor’s response to this unprovoked police violence:
“We deeply regret that many of the protestors today chose not to work with our campus staff and police to remove the encampment as requested. We are even more saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal.”
UC Davis Assistant Professor Linda Katehi wrote the following Open Letter calling for the Chancellor’s resignation. This action is especially brave as he does not have tenure and may well suffer professionally for daring to speak out:
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.
You are not.
I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:
1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today
2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality
3) to demand your immediate resignation
Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.
What happened next?
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.
One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.
You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.
On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.
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.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi walk of shame that night after the attacks. The students decided to greet her with total silence:
Viewing these videos I cannot fail to be impressed with the amazing dignity and self-control of these students. The university should be proud of them. Before the violence they chanted:
“You use weapons! We use our voice!”
The university administration realized how dangerous students voices can be and decided to silence them.
The UC Davis Faculty Senate has supported Professor Brown’s call Chancellor’s immediate resignation“. You can sign a petition supporting this call here.
The DFA Board calls for the immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi. The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership.
Given the recent use of excessive force by police against “occupy” protestors at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, the Chancellor must have anticipated that, by authorizing police action, she was effectively authorizing their use of excessive force against peaceful UCD student protestors. The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it.
We also call for a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protestors by police on the UC Davis campus. The University of California should be taking a leadership role in encouraging the exercise of free speech, not in suppressing it. [Emphasis added.]
November 20th, 2011
The Boston Occupier launched
A group of folks from Occupy Boston have started a new paper, The Boston Occupier, with coverage of the local, national, and international movement and related issues. From their opening editorial:
The Boston Occupier is an independent news source furthering the political and economic discourse initiated by the Occupy movement. Staffed entirely by volunteers, it will operate in three forms: a website, a broadsheet and a daily update distributed solely at Dewey Square.
In addition to covering the Boston’s occupation and larger movement itself, the Occupier will report on unemployment, campaign finance, corporate personhood, social justice, transparency, accountability, and the other issues raised by the protesters.
We seek to facilitate respectful debate. Following the cue of other publications, the op-eds selected for publication will generally be those which offer a perspective different from those of the editorial section. All ideas are welcome, so long as the discussion surrounding them is carried out in a coherent and thoughtful manner.
If the encampment at Dewey Square comes to an end, this publication will be a way for the dialogue it has inspired to persist. Independent of the group’s physical presence in the heart of the financial district, The Boston Occupier hopes to provide a space for respectful, insightful dialogue on the political and economic troubles of our day. We have a closer vantage point than others, but that doesn’t mean that our aspirations to high journalistic standards of informed objectivity are less valid.”
November 19th, 2011
Boston November 17 march and rally: Unity in diversity
Have just returned from the demonstration in Boston, one of hundreds planned nationwide. On the theme of Jobs not Cuts, the organizers called for public spending to fix America’s decaying infrastructure. The rally was supported by Occupy Boston, Move On, Defend the American Dream, and numerous unions and community organizations.
The rally began with a cold drizzle which did little to dampen the crowds or their enthusiasm. What was most striking was the diversity of the crowd. The usual students, young white unemployed and long-time activists were joined by many unionists and numerous individuals and groups from Boston’s diverse neighborhoods. There was even a sizeable contingent from the Chinatown Neighborhood Association, a first that I’ve ever seen. If this diversity is starting to build in other cities, I understand the intensity and desperation with which the state, coordinated by the Homeland Security and (In)Justice Departments have acted to displace, intimidate, and destroy the movement. They may sense the beginning of something uniting enough people to seriously threaten the powers that be.
The march and rally were energetic. It was fascinating to see the creative tension between the union leaders who wanted to impose structure, such as approved slogans and the Occupy Boston affiliated folks who are not used to letting leaders tell them what they can think or do. In this case, the union leaders largely gave in. At the rally, the union speakers could not be heard. Thus they good naturedly turned to the people’s mike to get the words across. Unfortunately, speaker after speaker said few the exact same things, sticking tightly to their script, so that much of the crowd, me included, decided to leave in boredom. Still, it was quite an experience to see so many people from such diverse backgrounds marching together to say “NO!” to the status quo.
November 17th, 2011
OWS eviction: Police state visions
James Downie at the Washington Post writes of last night’s attack on Occupy Wall Street. Note especially his last paragraph:
Bloomberg’s disgraceful eviction of Occupy Wall Street
By James Downie
Early Wednesday morning, New York police raided and evicted the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zucotti Park in southern Manhattan. The behavior of the NYPD and the mayor’s office, in ordering this brazen action while blocking the press and the public from reporting on the eviction, is a disgraceful display of unnecessary force on a protest that for the most part has behaved lawfully and respectfully throughout its two-month existence.
The last time the police planned to clear the park, they had announced the eviction ahead of time and gave people and press time to flood in. This time, the NYPD, clearly intent on avoiding as much scrutiny as possible, made no such “mistake.” According to reporter accounts on news Web sites and on Twitter, at around 1:00 a.m., police moved swiftly to isolate Zucotti from the outside world. The NYPD closed subway stops and streets around the park, and set up barricades to prevent people from joining the protest. Once inside the park, the police tore up the tents, and apparently ruined the belongings of the protesters who had turned the park into a makeshift city over the last two months. (Among other ruined items were 5000 books from the park’s library, the protesters’ Twitter feed points out.) Those who resisted were met with batons and pepper spray, reports Mother Jones’s Josh Harkinson; among others, New York City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez was arrested and bleeding from the head, according to another council member. Protesters were to be allowed back into the park, but the NYPD insisted they’d have to make do without tents, tarps or any other equipment essential to the occupation.
Bloomberg’s brazenness has only increased during the morning. At 6:30 a.m., Judge Lucy Billings issued an injunction “requiring the protesters to be readmitted to Zuccotti Park with their tents,” but Bloomberg has ignored the court order and kept the park closed. Protesters have marched to Zucotti Park, but are being barred from entrance despite displaying that court order to the police on site. At this time, the mayor’s office has not explained why it is ignoring the court order.
Most disturbingly, the NYPD sought to block any and all press from covering this eviction. On the ground, reporters were stopped at the barricades and refused entrance. Numerous journalists reported thatcops refused to let them in, even pushing reporters away; reporters even Tweeted about getting arrested. In the air, NYPD helicopters refused to allow CBS News helicopters to film the eviction from above. As for the camera already in the park-OWS’s livestream-the police simply blocked it with a pile of torn-up tents.
The offered reasoning for the eviction? The same canard as the last time Bloomberg wanted to sweep away protesters: “public health and safety.” Never mind that Occupy Wall Street has continually cleaned the park itself, or that health experts who have visited the park have pronounced it sanitary, or that even Bloomberg could cite only one incident that threatened public safety in his statement about the eviction. No, such “facts” were turned away, just as the police sought to turn the media’s cameras elsewhere. All this while, as Matt Taibbi put it last week, “in the skyscrapers above the protests, anything goes.” Nobody arrested the bankers for pushing fraudulent loans andsubprime mortgage investments, or the ratings agencies and government regulators that neglected their duties and helped Wall Street crash the global economy. But putting tents in a public park? Time to bring out the batons and pepper spray.
As hard as the NYPD and New York City’s government might try to obscure the truth though, one truth remains: At 1 a.m. this morning, in the heart of New York City, protesters exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were swept away by the state, while that state also did all it could to preventmedia coverage. No matter what one may think of the occupiers or their cause, nothing they’ve done justifies blockading the press or ignoring court orders. Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and other New York leaders who ordered the eviction should take a long, hard look at their handling of the occupation. This morning’s action may not be what a police state looks like, but it’s certainly how one begins.
November 15th, 2011
Music: Makana — We Are The Many
We Are The Many
Lyrics and Music by Makana
Makana Music LLC © 2011Download song for free here:
http://makanamusic.com/?slide=we-are-the-manyWe Are The Many
Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wageFrom underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won’t withdrawWe’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the fewOur nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sightThey own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not freeWe’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the fewYou enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people noneSo take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protestWe occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the fewYou can’t divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can’t buyOur government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevailWe’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the fewWe’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the fewWe are the many
You are the fewCredits:
Directed & Edited by Kamuela Vance
Filmed by Tom Hackett & Kamuela Vance
Creative Consultant: Evan Tector
Thanks to ‘Olelo Community Television
All images Fair Use.
Our heartfelt gratitude to the Artists and Photographers.
November 14th, 2011