UC Davis Brutality; Greenway Letter; etc.

(1) Police Brutality at UC Davis Watch the video for yourself. Watch to the end--there's a happy ending!

Find another video of the same scene here.

Good coverage at the Davis Enterprise.

A useful primer on the legalities of pepper spray and excessive force. Here's the money quote (this is from Vineyard v. Wilson and Stanfield, but the primer reviews several cases, including the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case Headwaters v. County of  Humboldt):

To balance the necessity of the  use of force used against the arrestee’s  constitutional  rights, a court must evaluate several factors,  including ‘the severity of the crime at issue, whether  the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety  of the officers or others, and whether he is actively  resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by  flight.In determining  if the force was reasonable, courts must examine (1)  the need for the application of force, (2) the  relationship between the need and the amount of  force used, and (3) the extent of the injury  inflicted.”  Graham dictates unambiguously that the  force used by a police officer in carrying out an  arrest must be reasonably proportionate to the need  for that force, which is measured by the severity of  the crime, the danger to the officer, and the risk of  flight

And here's a letter from a assistant professor of English at UC Davis, calling for the chancellor's resignation (brave for a junior faculty member):

18 November 2011

Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Linda P.B. Katehi,

I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor  in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical  Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record  of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the  Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in  supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus  and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty  member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to  the University of California at Davis.

You are not.

I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:

to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred  against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus  today

to hold you accountable for this police brutality

to demand your immediate resignation

Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters  from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally  speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC  campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by  the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in  response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest  tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked  arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside  Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty,  and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC  Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted  with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their  tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and  linked arms to protect them.

What happened next?

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these  students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they  could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing  their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes  with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed  down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others  are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being  pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

This is what happened. You are responsible for it.

You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC  Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful  protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get  hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who  care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful  assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC  Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked  together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows.  Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States,  National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a  baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and  they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter,  I stand together with those faculty and with the students they  supported.

One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to  clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the  same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in  the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC  campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and  faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress  free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more  people are learning it very quickly.

You are responsible for the police violence directed against students  on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to  hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these  grounds.

On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus  community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at  UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern  about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly  disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when  the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for  all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times,  as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming  environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC  Davis.”

I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to  decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all  our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1)  Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students  brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to  disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while  those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is  this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and  inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express  commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”

I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be  space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political  dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our  campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to  decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil  disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity  with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest  and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is  police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully  disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You  may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor  of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.

Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce  from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the  safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our  students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to  anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of  Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your  actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC  Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well  trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while  implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly.  You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to  power. That is what I am doing.

I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You  are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you  are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I  call upon you to resign immediately.

Sincerely,

Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis

(2) Funny Video of Nov. 19th Actions in NYC: You have probably heard about the ridiculous police response to the inspiring day of actions in NYC.  Things were pretty exciting (though on a much smaller scale) in Boston.  My sister has been visiting from West Virginia, and we emerged from the South Station T exit into Dewey Square (where the #OccupyBoston encampment is) just as the solidarity march for #OWS NYC was arriving back at the square, with maybe a thousand marchers, who sang "Happy Birthday" for the two-month anniversary of the movement.  After taking a tour of the encampment, we managed to hear a great talk by left economist Rick Wolff--I'll post the video of that talk once our comrades from the Zinn Memorial Lecture Series make it available.  Meanwhile, enjoy this funny video celebrating #OWS's 11/17 day of action and the NYPD:

the raid on zuccotti park from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Here's the original link.

(3) Greenway Board Betrays #OccupyBoston. The board of the Greenway Conservancy sent this letter to the mayor of Boston:

(Odors? Really? And the farmers market seemed to get along great with the protesters, from what I could see.) But luckily some great folks from the Legal Working Group of #OccupyBoston had the foresight to ask a court to issue an injunction preventing the city from evicting us, which they did.  Here's the Boston Globe piece about it;  download a pdf of the injunction itself here.

(4) Matt Taibbi Comes Around.  Here's a great article by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone that I keep forgetting to post.  The main point I liked was his explanation of the idea, which we've discussed here, that Occupy "prefigures" a better society:

But now, I get it. People want to go someplace for at least five minutes where no one is trying to bleed you or sell you something. It may not be a real model for anything, but it's at least a place where people are free to dream of some other way for human beings to get along, beyond auctioned "democracy," tyrannical commerce and the bottom line.

But read the whole thing--it's great.

(5) Glenn Greenwald on Apparent Attempt to Co-opt #OWS for Obama.  I would like to hear more about this:  Glenn Greenwald on SEIU president Mary Kay Henry apparently attempting to co-opt #OWS for Obama's re-election (SEIU has already endorsed him).  (Interestingly, she was arrested in NYC on Nov. 17th, I heard.)  It definitely sounds creepy and Greenwald is right that it seems likely to backfire.

That's it for now.

--Chris Sturr