The ASUC Senate passed a unanimous motion Wednesday night admonishing the actions taken by police during the Nov. 9 Day of Action protests.
According to the statement, the ASUC is “appalled by the excessive use of police force against peacefully assembled students tonight, November 9th, 2011, on Upper Sproul steps.”
During a recess of the senate meeting, Cooperative Movement Senator Elliot Goldstein — who originally proposed issuing the statement — said he and other senators ran over to the Sproul steps shortly after the police had cleared the protesters’ encampment. Goldstein said he reported to the senate what he had seen, which resulted in the statement.
“I heard numerous eye-witness reports of people who were beaten with batons,” he said in an email. “When I announced to the Senate what I saw and heard there was unanimous disgust in the way that UCPD and mutual aid reacted. Police violence on our campus against peaceful free speech demonstrations is entirely unacceptable, and it’s important that the ASUC stand up for student’s right to free speech with non-violence methods.”
According to Goldstein, the statement will be followed up with a more detailed resolution in the next week.
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History seems to repeat itself. At least that’s what “they” say whoever “they” are. These so called crowd controlled groups (whether it be hired security or local law enforcement) seem to pop up conveniently. Germany had the Gestapo (SS) , Italy had the OVRA, what shall we soon call ours?
The police need to back down on the university campuses and let the students gather to calmly, albeit loudly, organize to discuss the state of our modern America. That’s why we invest in education – to generate NEW ideas and empower the next generation. We do NOT invest in education to beat students into submission so as to keep them from gathering, thereby limiting their free speech and instilling a feeling of powerlessness which leads to disenfranchised citizens.
After they’ve just tried to stand up for the nation they comprise and will soon inherit, it boils my blood to see people turn around and blame the millennial generation for their disloyalty to their employers or lack of patriotism. These are not hobos, these are students at THE top public university in the nation. Shouldn’t we at least let them demonstrate what they’ve learned?
The police WERE allowing the students to gather and organize on the university campus. The problem is that even after the protesters had been informed, well before the protest started, that the campus not only would not allow, but could not allow an encampment to be established on campus property, the protestors tried to do so anyway. That resulted in the police having to get involved and take down the encampment. When protesters tried to prevent the police from taking down the ILLEGAL encampment, the police resorted to the minimum amount of force required to enforce the no encampment policy. The protestors are welcome to protest on campus 24/7 if they so choose. They are simply not allowed to establish tents or sleeping bags to create an encampment.
Considering the fact that I have yet to hear of the police beating anyone unconscious or worse, in my opinion, the protesters have nothing to complain about. The reason why the protesters are not allowed to establish an encampment has to do with hygiene, safety, and vandalism issues. The fact that protestors attempted to do so in spite of previous warnings from both campus leaders and police officers is what provoked the police response. Furthermore, if the protesters had simply allowed the police to dismantle the tents without interference, the police would have had no need to resort to physical force. Although the protesters apparently were peaceful while resisting the police actions, the protesters were the ones who resorted to physical force first by physically blocking the police from being able to dismantle the tents. As such, the police were fully legitimate to administer minor beatings and arrests in an attempt to prod the protesters out of the way. If one decides to conduct civil disobedience, physical and legal harm are to be expected as a risk of ones actions.
It is good to see you live up to your name confoosed. First, it is not an act of violence to stay in one place. It is an act of violence to strike people with batons. Secondly, there are video’s of police breaking the fingers of protesters, and since striking somebody in the head with a baton, can result in brain damage or worse, generally knocking somebody unconscious seems unlikley, save of course for Scot Olsen who is in critical condition. Lastly the constitutional right to freedom of assembly supersedes objections from campus leaders, and “police statements”, (when were police given the right to make policy?)
You are an accessory to crime if you lock arms to prevent police from gaining access to the location where a crime is in progress.
Where do you get off accusing people of crimes? It takes due process to convict anyone of a crime, and a lot more evidence/deliberation than we have to work with here. So get off your high horse and visit the real world – where students literally spoke and held hands while fully armored police officers beat them to a pulp with batons.
Tell us, does that sound OK?
If so, why? Is it just because you disagree with the students?
[Where do you get off accusing people of crimes?]
Penal Code Section 148 Resisting Delaying or Obstructing Officer
Resisting, Delaying, or Obstructing Officer
148. (a) (1) Every person who willfully resists, delays, or obstructs any public officer, peace officer, or an emergency medical technician, as defined in Division 2.5 (commencing with Section 1797) of the Health and Safety Code, in the discharge or attempt to discharge any duty of his or her office or employment, when no other punishment is prescribed, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/appndxa/penalco/penco148.htm
There you go, dipstick. You just learned something for once in your life, and it didn’t require attending college.
See Santi Schaner’s comment for why you are wrong about which party is the violent party.
I want to point out that you are operating on the premise that ‘illegal’ is equivalent to ‘wrong’, and that breaking an officer’s orders ethically justifies physical force in all cases. This mentality is not sustainable together with American ideals of freedom and individualism. If you continue to let your ethics be defined by the law, while law enforcement regularly encroaches on your few legal rights, there won’t be any freedoms left.
If you just sit there and blindly agree with the police, simply because the law appears to be on their side, I would argue that you are not an American patriot but a coward. The law needs to allow the students to encamp, to protest loudly and regularly, and it needs to protect them from the police – who could really better spend their time investigating Guest’s murdered family man(See Tony M’s thread).
See, that’s what happens when you guys start thinking illegal aliens have a right to come to Cal. Since it’s not wrong to be illegal, it’s also not wrong to disobey any law that isn’t convenient for you. The law does allow students to protest loudly and regularly, but camping and sleeping, like public defecation, are not recognized forms of political protest and thus are not protected by the constitution.
Calipenguin, please elaborate on the relationship between illegal aliens attending Cal and challenging the law through nonviolent protest. It sounds like you are blowing smoke to make the rest of your argument sound insightful.
I understand that camping and sleeping are illegal but, just like linking arms in defense against police brutality, they are not violent in any way.
I will reiterate: ‘Illegal’ is not equivalent to ethically ‘wrong’. These students are not automatically guilty for violence that MAY have been perpetrated in the future or by someone else or in some other protest a city, a state, or a country over.
[I will reiterate: 'Illegal' is not equivalent to ethically 'wrong'.}
Let’s see if you feel the same way the next time someone “illegally” steals your wallet or vandalizes your car. You simply wish to pick and choose what laws you obey, and which ones you do not. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way…
Should the police back down if the protesters decided to occupy Sproul Hall and camp there for a few months? You won’t get your financial aid checks and nobody will get their grades. Come to think of it, maybe that is what the protesters want.
Given that the Occupy Whatever types have proven themselves to be a bunch of violent, slovenly hooligans, I’m glad to hear the the cops at Cal were proactive enough to keep these dirtbags from setting up their little hobo camp on campus.
If you look at the videos, there is no evidence of ANY violence whatsoever by the protestors. All violence was by the police.
Interesting, Lynne, that you didn’t contest Tony M’s claim that they’re (you’re?) slovenly, hooligans, dirtbags and hoboes. LOL.
Not violent?? Tell that to the family of the guy today clinging to life after being shot by an Occupy Whatever, violent, slovenly, hooligan, dirtbag’s gun.
I don’t understand Guest. Someone shot someone else, somewhere else, and you take that to generally refute the video footage of police violently beating university students exercising their right to free speech?
Are you dumb?
If you didn’t catch that, I think you are spouting nonsense. These young people are clearly an educated bunch, and are brave enough to stand up for what is right. The people of America need them right now, and I certainly don’t care if they go a few days without a shower(see: slovenly, hooligans, dirtbags and hoboes).
Here! here! There’s no indication that the man who was tragically shot (and who has died) was at all related to Occupy Oakland. I hope that his loved ones get some answers. On the other hand there’s every indication that the police have, over multiple events, physically assaulted protesters, sending some to the hospital with critical injuries and arresting dozens others and taking them to far-off east bay jails so that they are isolated from jail-support. I’m afraid the police are the criminals here.
You are lying. The dead man was a member of the Occupy Oakland camp.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/10/BA051LTHDK.DTL
There was a homicide at the same corner, 14th & Broadway, in April. Last night’s shooting was Oakland’s 101st homicide of the year. It’s just that most of the others don’t make the news. The Chief of Police doesn’t give a press conference when somebody’s shot in east Oakland.
I really like your comments, they’re really well-thought, constructive and intellectual! Good on you mate! You’re a real spokesman for the authorities. In this situation they should have used force, in fact i think they didn’t use enough! Wouldn’t you agree Tony? Afterall those students “a bunch of violent, slovenly hooligans”, and a bunch of “dirtbags” with a “their little hobo camp”. Hey maybe you and I should join the Cops? So that we’ll be able to be part of the “proactive” “cops at Cal”. You and I, we’ll be doing something great! And people like you and I can sing our praises..
I really like your comments, they’re really well-thought, constructive and intellectual! Good on you mate! You’re a real spokesman for the authorities. In this situation they should have used force, in fact i think they didn’t use enough! Wouldn’t you agree Tony? Afterall those students are “a bunch of violent, slovenly hooligans”, and a bunch of “dirtbags” with “their little hobo camp”. Hey maybe you and I should join the Cops? So that we’ll be able to be part of the “proactive” “cops at Cal”. You and I, we’ll be doing something great! And people like you and I can sing our praises..