Psyche, Science, and Society

Colbert: The Word — Catch 2012

January 9th, 2012

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

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

Videographer shot with bean bag in Oakland

Note that there is no precipitant and that the videographer was confirming that he was far enough away for the cops. This appears to be random police brutality. It occurred the night of November 3.

November 7th, 2011

Veterans pledge to defend Occupy movements

I have no idea how widespread this is?

Marine, Navy, Army and Airforce Veterans and Police Vow to Protect Innocent Protesters
In response to the police brutality against peaceful American protesters – here, here, here, here, hereand here – military and police groups are forming to protect American citizens.

In fact, many in the military support the protests (and see this).

As of today, OccupyMarines, Occupy Police, Occupy Navy, Occupy Airforce, and Occupy Army have formed to protect the people against police brutality.

After Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen – a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq – was critically wounded in the Occupy Oakland protest, Occupy Marines tweeted:

WHEN YOU SHOOT ONE MARINE, YOU SHOOT AT ALL OF US. OORAH. Do It Peacefully Occupy We Stand In Solidarity

1 comment October 31st, 2011

Democratic National Committee wants to crush inconvenient Occupy protest

In a further sign that large factions of the “Democratic” Party are enemies of democracy, the Charlotte Observer reports that the Democratic National Committee is asking the site of the 2012 Democratic Convention to ban camping in order to avoid Occupy-inspired protests:

o prepare for the Democratic National Convention, the city of Charlotte is considering an ordinance that would prohibit camping on all city property, which could stifle the ongoing Occupy Charlotte protest.

In addition, the ordinance would prohibit the possession of “noxious” substances, along with items such as pipes, chains or padlocks if their intended use would be to block a street, sidewalk or building entrance.

The proposal comes as some cities are trying to evict “Occupy” protesters, including Oakland, Calif., where a protester was injured this week when police dispersed a crowd. In addition, Charlotte and Tampa, the host city for the Republican National Convention, are studying how to manage expected crowds and protests for next year’s conventions.

The DNC and many Democratic mayors and Governors around the country are working hard to convince the progressive base, especially activist young people, to stay home come election day 2012. They may just succeed.

October 28th, 2011

Olbermann Special Comment Calls On Mayor Of Oakland To Fire Police Chief Or Resign!

October 27th, 2011

Police in Cleveland bring supplies to Occupy Cleveland

While the NY police are trying to pen in and sometimes brutalize Occupy Wall Street, in Cleveland, uniformed police officers, themselves members of the 99%, have brought supplies to Occupy Cleveland.

Today marked the one week anniversary for #OccupyCleveland. The past seven days have seen plenty of growth, intrigue and excitement. #OccupyCleveland has captured the hearts and minds of Clevelanders from all walks of life. Donations have come in from throughout the Greater Cleveland Area. Even the Cleveland Police Department has gotten into the act. Uniformed police officers dropped off coats and other supplies Tuesday night.

October 16th, 2011

Man arrested at Time Square for doing what cop told him to

October 16th, 2011