Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

For Shame! For Shame!

The barbaric treatment of students engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience on the campus of the University of California at Davis has produced a pair of dramatic images.

The ones that appear above might become fixed in the minds of the public as iconic of the protest movement, like this one did forty years ago:

Or this one:

In a land that’s known as freedom, how can such a thing be fair?

Though your brother’s bound and gagged

And they’ve chained him to a chair

Won’t you please come to Chicago

Just to sing

In a land that’s known as freedom

How can such a thing be fair

Won’t you please come to Chicago

For the help that we can bring

We can change the world

Re-arrange the world

It’s dying … to get better

Politicians sit yourself down

There’s nothing for you here

Won’t you please come to Chicago

For a ride

Don’t ask Jack to help you

‘Cause he’ll turn the other ear

Won’t you please come to Chicago

Or else join the other side

We can change the world

Re-arrange the world

It’s dying … if you believe in justice

It’s dying … and if you believe in freedom

It’s dying … let a man live his own life

It’s dying … rules and regulations, who needs them

Open up the door

Somehow people must be free

I hope the day comes soon

Won’t you please come to Chicago

Show your face

From the bottum of the ocean

To the mountains on the moon

Won’t you please come to Chicago

No one else can take your place

=================

With full justification, the students spooned out a dollop of shame to the Chancellor in response to this gross overreaction.

http://youtu.be/CZ0t9ez_EGI

and many faculty members have called for her resignation.

She should resign.

http://youtu.be/Y2mB3r0uyyA


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 138 Comments

138 comments

  1. Adept2u

    I can probably research and name 1000 people who deserve because of their actions and who they are and their responsibility in bringing harm to the so called 99% who deserve to have experienced a public shaming like that.  Very effective tactic.  DOWN WITH THE UC STRUCTURE AND ITS FASCIST LEADERSHIP, oh wait really the problem is kids can’t get classes, but oh well.  

    Why should she resign?  Not that she potentially shouldn’t but what is the argument?

  3. HappyinVT

    A campus police officer casually walks dowm a row of students who are doing no more than sitting on the ground with their arms linked and I’m supposed to feel sorry for the chancellor?  Uh no.  The incident took place on the quad and if those students had been there for pre-game activities or reading their chemistry books they would have been fine.  How many would have packed up and gone home or to a friend ‘s house for the holiday?  Or gone back to their residence once classes were over for the holiday?  She over-reacted by calling for the encampment to be disbanded.  And then they called in campus and city police in full riot gear.  Why not just wave that red flag in front of the bull.

    If the students had been occuying the administration building or disrupting some meeting that would be one thing.  This is unacceptable.

    By the way, google her … apparently she had some issues at her last job.      

  6. John Allen

    Which leads me to what bothers me the most, which is the failure of leadership in every institution in this country. Can’t we do better than this? Can’t we do better than pay 400k to someone who doesn’t have an instinctive gut rejection of the idea of macing a bunch of kids sitting on a sidewalk. Can’t we do better than that? Shouldn’t we be able with that kind of money and benefits and perks to find someone who would immediately recoil at the thought of sending riot police with batons and chemical weapons to go thump the kids paying 35,000 a year for the privilege to sit in that public space? Can’t we find people whose immediate response to everything is not the application of force and a reliance on police brutality? Are we really this lost as a nation that our academic institutions are run by sociopaths with no problem solving skills? It’s just fucking amazing, whether it be UC Davis or Penn State or Wall Street or the Catholic Church or, well, wherever.

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/2…

  7. alyssa chaos

    really in response to the actions at Cal last week.

    This past tuesday here at UC Davis we held a rally in support of a UC wide strike against the police brutality exhibited at Cal on Nov 9th where professors and protestors alike were beaten and manhandled.  At this rally, people got really fired up, as you might expect. We carried a march throughout the campus and eventually ended up in Mrak Hall (the admin building). It was at this time, students and professors decided to start an occupation of this admin building. The use of police brutality and the impending 81% fee hike were the main grievances. So the occupation began….

    The next day (wed.), after failing to meet with protestors or assuage them, Chancellor Katehi ordered riot police to meet occupiers at Mrak Hall. Protestors, who have been non-violent from the very start of this, left without any issues. However, students agreed that this would not be the end of the occupation. The students held a General Assembly were a majority agreed that occupation of the Quad (seen in the videos) was to be started….

    Thus, the occupation of the Quad started. Students set up tents at 3:00 on Thursday… I was there and after seeing the response to Cal’s occupy thought the occupation would not last the night. Very soon after 3:00, when the first tents went up, a heavy police presence was visible in the quad. The students remained in the quad without any issues. No violence, no disruption to classes and no disruption towards other students were observed by me personally nor have any others come forward with complaints.

    So Friday comes, by then protestors had already been issued a dispersal notice. No rules in UC Davis handbook explicitly say “No tents on the quad” however it seems all UC schools are taking tents to be a serious act since OWS started. I believe there may be a rule in the student handbook against overnight stays in the Quad. Not sure. Anyways…..

    Students were asked to remove their tents in the dispersal. They initially refused. (it is a protest, afterall…) Then the fine officers of UC Police and Davis PD are called in. Tensions escalate. Police officers move in and start forcibly removing tents, there is chaos as students try to stop police from taking them (my bf personally ripped a tent out of the hands from an officer). Tents are effectively removed as people start running away with their personal belongings. A few students (~4-5) sit on their flattened tents to keep officers from confiscating their tent and belongings (they were living in them up to this point…). This is what then sparks what you see in the video!

    Officers try to arrest these students who are protecting their shit. But in a pretty awesome act of solidarity, students form a human chain around officers in an effort to stop the arrests of these few individuals. chained students then sit down. This is silly, they must know these officers are capable of picking up their friends up in handcuffs , walking over seated students, and arresting them as they have done in many places.  Instead of doing just that, police officers stay in the circle. Instead of disengaging from the situation, they chose to confront the peaceful tactics of the students.

    In the video, is it clearly shown police officers are capable of leaving the circle. There was no indication students were violent. They had no been any time before this on the quad or in Mrak Hall. Instead of carrying the 4 people under arrest out of the circle. Lt. Pike leaves the circle, easily walking over seated students and proceeds to literally soak protestors in pepperspray. (I seriously saw people wet/soaked with pepper spray immediately after this event). Those who were strong enough to keep their arms linked were punished further, police officers forced them out of the links with their batons and sprayed them with more pepper spray.

  8. alyssa chaos

    Why?

    She clearly demonstrated she is not an effective negotiator, communicator, or listener to students and faculty’s grievances.

    We were protesting police brutality! (The irony for fucks sake!) She clearly did not listen to us when we occupied Mrak Hall. She did not listen to us at a peaceful rally on Tuesday.

    She’s proven that she cannot address legitimate concerns of faculty and students. She has proven that she cannot ensure the safety of students and faculty. She has proven to have bad judgement.

    She was aware of the incident at Cal. She saw what happens when police are called in to ‘resolve’ a situation. She knew that is was very likely police would use force on students she swore to ensure the safety of.

    The police chief must also resign. They were called in to remove tents. The students sprayed had no tents. By the time the spraying takes place, no tents were in use or erected on the Quad. A gathering of peaceful students with out tents are allowed to be on the Quad. Why did police continue to escalate the situation. They had no reason to fear for their safety. The body language in the video alone shows that Lt. Pike was not fearful. Only when the police officers started spraying did violence become a possibility.

  9. alyssa chaos

    rally today. Word is Katehi will address protestors. Word is more than 60 tents have already been donated (via amazon) to continue the occupation…. Likely that UCD protestors will continue to occupy…they are gathering medical prof. and legal observers to help in case of another police incident….they have set up a hotline to warn occupiers of impending police action…

    Occupy sacramento and occupy davis (the original off campus movement) will be present for the rally today.

    Not sure when tents will go up. Will update.

    […]

  10. Adept2u

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

    University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi on Monday apologized to students for last week’s pepper-spraying incident, where a campus police officer at point-blank range sprayed down a group of sitting protesters.

    “I feel horrible for what happened on Friday, Katehi told a rally of students. “If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had Friday, I’m just telling you, I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”

  11. alyssa chaos

    Tents went up shortly after 2:00 pm. Katehi addressed the crowd, I admit I felt bad for her as she cried on stage. Could not tell if genuine or if it was fear of losing a job in a shit economy and the destruction of her career…. She waited at least an hour to talk for 3 minutes…students around her didn’t hold back their disdain as they had on Sat….

    There must have been at least a couple of thousand people on the quad earlier today….

    Faculty continued call for Katehi’s resignation. (I have a good video of this, not able to upload tonight)…Blistering criticism not held back….

    We held general assembly after the rally. We proposed a general strike on Monday 28th against regents who plan on hold forums for public input about the 81% tuition increase. Regents still dont understand we are against all tuition increases. It’s like asking a customer if they would like to pay more for a product that has cost less in the past. This shows again, regents do not listen. They already know how students feel. Its all for show……The proposal passed with 99.9% approval with over 1,700 students voting yes for a strike….

    2nd proposal called for the removal of armed police forces from UCD. A more contentious issue….Did not pass….I’m in favor of unarmed security forces instead of armed police on campus.

    Occupation of Quad continues….~20 tents and increasing…geodesic dome is being built by students….

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