If the following video doesn’t upset you, I ask that you seriously re-examine your views of what a fair and free society looks like.
It no longer matters if you support the Occupy movement or not. The truth is, police have been cracking down, excessively, on Occupy protests nationwide. This took place at the University of California, Davis. This sort of behavior, to them, is standard operating procedure. To any American or freedom-loving individual, this video is a monstrosity of the values that our country was founded upon.
It would appear we no longer have the right to peacefully protest. Furthermore, we no longer have the right to peacefully assemble. When college students have to fear being pepper-sprayed on a college campus, all Americas should be concerned.
Please share these videos.
The reality is we are not free to protest or assemble peacefully. The police are not here to protest and serve the people. This must change.
The article is completely off base here and while the video is disturbing its content should serve as a warning to those that would deny others their rights.
What rights? You have the right to peacefully assemble. You do not have the right to “Occupy” public spaces. In this case the public space these people chose to occupy was a side walk. They chose to deny others their rights of free passage in order to make a political point.
You can make your point without denying others their rights. This has been determined on many cases to be the rule of law. Just as you cannot shout down a speaker at a public forum and cry freedom of speech all the while denying others the same right. You cannot “Occupy” public space and deny others freedom of passage.
Liberty means liberty for all not just those that scream the loudest.
In this case as with all cases of people not understanding their “Rights”, they chose to break the law. The police have just as much right to pepper spray students committing illegal acts and resisting arrest as they do someone who is drunk and disorderly.
Just because you are a student does not mean that you are absolved from obeying law enforcement officers doing thier job. If they are doing so outside of the constitution or laws you can sue the city and win your court case.
No one likes to be told what to do but a civil society must have rules and people who enforce them. If you enforce them arbitrarily based on who you like and do not like you do not have the rule of law but instead the rule of man.
The fact is that “law enforcement” pepper sprayed and man handled all those people. They should have sprayed just the people in the way of walking traffic. Anyway, They just want to be heard. Because they think differently they aren’t entitled to talk to someone and explain? You said it ” … not just those that scream the loudest.” Now, people have to scream to be taken seriously. Just so happens to be dumb kids. I’m sure that more than one guy walked away that day feeling ashamed. At-least…, I hope so.