We’ve all seen (I hope) the video of the UC Davis Police pepper-spraying the OWS protesters who were sitting, arms-locked and — most importantly — peacefully, when the police decided that mistreating students was the most important thing they could do that day. (This video is 8+ minutes long and is an amazing document of the public reaction to this incident as well of the police retreating in full embarassment.)
There has been alot of commentary about this and calls for accountability — especially from the police LT. doing the pepper-spraying and from UC Davis Chancellor Katehi. The Chancellor gave a press conference (with students outside waiting to speak to her) and then would not leave the room, apparently trying to give the impression that she was being held there by the kids. The students – led by one of them who had been hurt by the pepper spray — created a wide path for her to walk from the building and sat down. When Katehi finally emerged from the building, this is what she was greeted with:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8[/youtube]
An honest-to-goodness public shaming. Amazing. Powerful. Peaceful. This is the kind of thing that ought to genuinely plague people with a conscience.
Some of the commentary on this worth reading:
CBS News provides a long story that gives law enforcement alot of space to show how quickly and thoroughly they can defend any use of force. Some of this was really stomach-turning, especially when their expert points out the innocuous gestures that he thinks that police used to determine that more force was needed against the sitting students. As someone said recently, if you build a police state, they will use it against you.
James Fallows over at The Atlantic provides some great observations on the power of these images of police if riot gear (riot gear?) spraying these young people evokes some of the moral outrage of images of young black people being manhandled by police for being in places white people restricted them from. Make sure you go over and read that in its entirety. He links to some of his colleagues at The Atlantic who have been thinking about what this incident might mean in the country rethinking the permission it gives to police for violent and brutal responses to its citizens. Especially those who aren’t being violent and brutal in the first place.
The pepper-spraying policemen have been placed on leave.
So how is this being covered in the broadcast media? So far there hasn’t been much on the radio. Tell us what you think about this.