b00kworm77:

triki-traca:

b00kworm77:

bgyoshi:

Unfortunately, I never feel sorry for people that get sprayed or gassed by police. Ever. Police will always scream and shout that you will comply with their typically simple demands (In this situation, it was no doubt “STOP BLOCKING THE PATH.”) or be gassed/sprayed. Just because you are being ‘peaceful’ doesn’t mean you are allowed to interfere with a pathway/building/other necessity. We as Americans have the right to PROTEST (an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid), but do NOT have the right to OBSTRUCT (something that obstructs,  blocks, or closes up with an obstacle or obstacles; obstacle or hindrance). Protesters tend to forget the extremely clear line between the two.

If you are OBSTRUCTING, then it is the police’s job to unobstruct the area. If you don’t comply, they will forcefully do so. Get the FUCK off the path and protest on the grass. They never said ‘STOP PROTESTING’ they merely want you to protest the fuck out of the way.

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NO! HELL NO! SO WRONG! First of all, the protesters at Davis on Friday were NOT obstructing ANYTHING. The police were there to remove the encampments, the tents. The protesters were not blocking the police from getting to the tents; the police could step right over the protesters, in fact, they did several times in the video. Secondly, the protesters were not blocking a walkway or entrance to any sort of building. They were sitting on the grass linking arms, not obstructing anything! Thirdly, any sort of rules or regulations or policy does not validate the policemen’s actions! What the police did was wrong, immoral, unjust. Just because it is legal, does not make it okay.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

-Martin Luther King

Reading the article and hearing your response and watching the videos… I still side with the police on this. You’re not allowed to camp on school campus. The protesters were told multiple times for a significant time span that they needed to pack up and leave the quad (after being ejected from another part of the school some days ago) and that if they didn’t leave peacefully they would be forcefully moved. The protesters continued to break the law. When the police went to forcefully remove the students, more students blocked their way (it’s not a matter of physically being able to reach the tents. The students linking arms were clearly intended to protest the cops taking down the tents. They were obstructing the walkway to tell the cops to leave their tents alone). They were told to move and they refused. So the police removed them forcefully. The police were totally within their rights to do what they did. The students knew what they were getting into. The police carried through with exactly what the police were supposed to carry through with. I empathize with the pain their eyes must have felt but they were in the way of the police upholding the law and were warned that they would be forced away if they did not leave peacefully.

The police or ANYBODY for that matter should not have to step over a chain of adults in order to walk past them. That is obstruction. The injustice in this is not that a line of kids was forcefully removed from a place they were not allowed to be, the injustice is the tales of kids who, once moved out of the way, are beaten, or sat on and still pepper sprayed. THAT is brutal and unjust. But the police have a job to do. The kids DONT OWN the campus. They are not allowed to camp in the quad and block walkways (and you can CLEARLY see in the video they are sitting across a pathway) and they were told to move. If the police can’t use force to move the students, then what are they supposed to do? If the police grab and lift them, they will be charged with assault. If they shove them, assault. if they batter them with batons, assault. If they pepper spray them, assault. There is literally no possible way to move law-breaking (camping in the quad/obstructing pathways, and not the protest) without some kind of force that can’t be labelled assault. Pepper spray causes no physical injury when used properly (that is.. when sprayed in your face at such a range) and is merely painful until your body gets rid of it.

Shame on these kids for not moving when told. Let the police tear down your tents and get the hell out of the way, but by god scream at the cops the entire time. Scream and holler and protest your heart out, just get out of the police’s way.