Violence is not appropriate
The following letter was signed by a group of UC Davis faculty and staff and sent to Chancellor Linda Katehi:
We are saddened and disappointed by the way that the university decided to handle the removal of the students’ encampment on the Quad on Friday afternoon.
Until now, we used to take pride in the way UC Davis was able to handle the students’ protesting against the tuition hikes in what seemed to us an enlightened and nonconfrontational manner, especially compared to other occurrences at Berkeley and elsewhere.
We do not question the university’s right to remove the students’ encampment (although there are reasons to question the wisdom of such a move). But we do object to the way UCDPD decided to resort to what are unquestionably violent methods in order to deal with a peaceful, nonviolent protest.
Pepper-spraying students who were sitting on the ground and posed no direct or indirect threat to the police officers strikes us as a vastly overblown reaction.
Surely, skilled and highly trained police officers could have come up with a better way to remove the students’ encampment in the face of nonviolent, passive student opposition?
It seems to us that the general principle the university should abide by is that violence is never an appropriate response to peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience. We hope you will agree with this assessment, and call on you as the highest officer of the university to see to it that such principle informs the actions of university officials at all times.
Aldo Antonelli, Lesley Byrnes, David Copp, Gerald Dworkin, Joel Friedman, Elaine Landry, Robert May, Roberta Millstein, Marina Oshana, Adam Sennet, Micheal Wedin
Davis
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=106802
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Posted by Letters to the Editor
on Nov 19 2011.
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This has got to be one of the worst mass police misconduct mishaps in the country since the government/state sanctioned police/military beatings, German Shepard attacks, fire hose spraying, etc., on black students, black church congregations and other non-violent protesters all over the country during the 1960′s. It was disgusting then, and it is disgusting here in the year 2011 AD. Like MLK Jr. tried to tell us all. In so many words, “If you let hatred in the door, eventually hatred will turn on you too”. THIS IS A SAD DAY IN AMERICA, AT A TIME WHEN WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO GUIDE MORE KIDS INTO COLLEGE FOR A BETTER WORKFORCE, AND A BETTER NATION (SOME DAY). The over weight officer in the photo calmly pepper sprayed students as if he was watering plants in his own backyard. I am ashamed to call myself an American today; even if we are a hair better than the rest!
Did this police officer not notice the huge number of iphones, ipads, cameras and camcorders at this? Do they not realize that once these incidents go viral, it will only make people angrier? This man’s reaction is chilling. Pepper spray is not “harmless.” Those of us with asthma cannot handle it; nor should it be sprayed like Raid point blank. Those officers were not threatened with violence, as far as I can see. These videos are frightening.