Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Letter From UC Davis

Open Letter to the Public

I keep hearing, "Why can't Occupy UC Davis be like those great protests of our past? Like the peace protests? Everyone was behind those students at Kent State."

A Gallup Poll conducted one week after the Kent State shootings found that 58 percent of the public blamed the students themselves, while only 11 percent blamed the National Guardsmen. Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 30. They got what was coming to them.

We look into the past at successful social justice movements and idealize them. Of course the civil rights movement was right. Of course women should have the right to vote. Of course abolitionists would prevail. We take these things for granted; who could ever have disagreed with these sentiments? We forget that these movements had an uphill battle for a reason, that, in their time, their heroes were condemned as radicals, thugs, troublemakers, dirty bums, agitators, and more, just as protesters of today are condemned.

We also have a very selective memory. Many people mention Kent State, but have you ever heard anyone ever invoke the massacre at Jackson State University, just ten days later, where police indiscriminately barraged a student dormitory, killing two students of color? When creating our glorious narrative of that era of civil disobedience in the name of social justice, how easily we gloss over certain events and emphasize others. We must remember, after the pepper spray wears off and the necessary inconveniences of a protest continue, not to apply the standards of this idealized past to the activists of social conscience of today and tomorrow.

Bernie Goldsmith, Occupier

3 comments:

  1. Tell it to David Hollinger

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  2. The UCD PD will even out all the rough spots. ; ) Those institutionalized system-suckers are genetically programmed to hate and beat on people who know the law. They are tone deaf brutes who know the best way to get more money for their budgets is to play up the 'insane poor people want to take away your home and rape your family' card.

    How stupid are they? They are so stupid that they assault students while thousands of people are YouTubing their actions; then they write letters about how the administration directed them to assault students, as though they were promised immunity.

    They are so stupid they consider themselves real law enforcement professionals! Ha, now that's stupid. Only bonafide cops can get away with taped assaults.

    The UCPD works for rich, smooth, fundraising elites known as the UC Administration. The UCA's product is reputation, not education. And the UCPD just swung a scythe through the UC's reputation garden of pretty posies. The fact that UCBPD and UCDPD behaved with equal disregard for students' rights lets everyone watching in on a not-so-secret: UC campus police are seething with envy and contempt for the people they say they are protecting. They are so divorced from reality that they think their job is to threaten the people who create the budget that gives the police their bread and guns. Dressing them up in a smart blue uniform is a mistake. They should be treated like any other mentally ill citizen, and kept away from pointy things that might hurt them, like adult responsibilities.

    Certainly they should not be making six-figure salaries! The taxpayer can no longer afford to give opportunities like this to the mentally incompetent. We are creating an underclass that will forever rely on public funding to exist. Their low IQs and lack of nuance will be a constant drag to our evolution as a species.

    No kidding. Stop paying police officers living wages. They don't deserve it. Hell, they're already taking bribes from their owners, they don't need a salary. Let them pimp themselves out for their supper. The rest of us wll take the guns and riot gear, and we'll take care of ourselves.

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  3. UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police report to the chancellor and the campus police take direction from the chancellor. University of California (UC) campus chancellors vet their campus police protocols. Birgeneau allowed pepper spray and use of batons to be included in his campus police protocols.

    Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police use brutal baton jabs on students protesting increases in tuition. UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor Katehi are in dereliction of their duties.

    Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor need to quit or be fired for permitting the brutal outrages on students protesting tuition increases.

    Opinions? Email the UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu

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