Police pepper spray peaceful students @ Davis

I'm pretty sure that's what they were doing.

And as much as some people want to make a huge deal out of the legalities of "blocking a sidewalk", we all know it's a farking retarded excuse. Every single one of us probably break 50 laws a day...granted not murder or rape or theft, etc. but driving 1MPH over the speed limit is illegal, not crossing in a crosswalk, etc. In fact here is a list of absolutely retarded laws in various states (http://www.dumblaws.com/). These laws are mostly ignored because everyone knows they're pretty much meaningless/useless. From what I saw, they weren't blcoking access to any buildings or anything else on campus...just that someone would have to walk a few steps in the grass to get around them. Could they have handled it better? Probably. But the college could of also just left it alone and let it play itself out and no one would of got hurt.

Wait...I thought it was a pricate college campus? If so, that's not public. And we can play the "if" game all day if you want. I'd be willing to bet that if a senior citizen, person in a wheelchair, etc walked up to them, they'd gladly move aside and let them through. If someone is levelheaded enough to have a peaceful protest to voice their opinions, what automatically makes you guys think that they would choose to be dickheads to everyone? How exactly would that help their cause and help them gain supporters? Some of these hypothetical scenarios that people come up just don't seem like they have an iota of thought put into them.

The thing is, this action wasn't against protesting, this action was against blocking the sidewalk
If you watched the video, the protestors who went on the grass were left alone
Only these few students insisted on defying the rules and "chained" themselves up.

The police asked them to clear the tents and move out of the sidewalk by 3PM that day, they refused.

And as much as some people want to make a huge deal out of the legalities of "blocking a sidewalk", we all know it's a farking retarded excuse. Every single one of us probably break 50 laws a day...granted not murder or rape or theft, etc. but driving 1MPH over the speed limit is illegal, not crossing in a crosswalk, etc. In fact here is a list of absolutely retarded laws in various states (http://www.dumblaws.com/). These laws are mostly ignored because everyone knows they're pretty much meaningless/useless. From what I saw, they weren't blcoking access to any buildings or anything else on campus...just that someone would have to walk a few steps in the grass to get around them. Could they have handled it better? Probably. But the college could of also just left it alone and let it play itself out and no one would of got hurt.

Yeah..as mentioned, there's no disagreement on my part that the students could of been a little smarter about it. There could of also been a lot less ego on the parts of the college and police as well though.

I'm pretty sure that's what they were doing.

And as much as some people want to make a huge deal out of the legalities of "blocking a sidewalk", we all know it's a farking retarded excuse. Every single one of us probably break 50 laws a day...granted not murder or rape or theft, etc. but driving 1MPH over the speed limit is illegal, not crossing in a crosswalk, etc. In fact here is a list of absolutely retarded laws in various states (http://www.dumblaws.com/). These laws are mostly ignored because everyone knows they're pretty much meaningless/useless. From what I saw, they weren't blcoking access to any buildings or anything else on campus...just that someone would have to walk a few steps in the grass to get around them. Could they have handled it better? Probably. But the college could of also just left it alone and let it play itself out and no one would of got hurt.

I, like a lot of people, was a bit disgusted at that video. Then I started to think about the matter: what other options were available to the police?



Walk away. Sorry, that's not an option. They don't have a right to enforce the law, but a duty. It isn't their job to decide which laws do and don't get enforced. We have numerous mechanisms for that in our system; the courts and our elected officials come to mind. In fact, "selective enforcement" has been used as a legitimate defense in court when the police pick and choose which laws to enforce and when. So just pretending everything fine is off the table.



Shoot them. Tempting, but not an option. I once read a policy for lethal force from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that really struck in my memory. I can't find it on line, but let me reconstruct it from memory. Roughly paraphrased, the use of lethal force is only proper when it is so important to stop someone from acting that it does not matter if they live or die. In this case, the protesters are not posing an imminent danger to anyone, not even themselves. So the guns are out of the question.



Use billy clubs or other weapons: Same principle holds. Those are great for use against violent people who don't quite deserve to be shot. Here, though, they aren't justified.



Use Tasers: Two problems here. In the wake of a few deaths from tasering, they've been redesignated to "less lethal weapons." Again, they're used for violent suspects who don't quite merit shooting. So keep them holstered. Plus, tasered people are usually incapacitated — they usually need to be carried away from the scene.



Physical force: This is what a lot of people would like to see done. Sadly for them, it has some serious disadvantages. I heard one guy note over the weekend, "people don't have handles." Picking up someone who's sitting down on the ground and doesn't want to be moved is not easy. Toss in the risk of injury to the cop, plus it puts the cop — and all his gear, like his gun, stick, pepper spray, taser, and whatnot — in ready reach of the protester should he or she suddenly decide to start resisting. And finally, note that the protesters have their arms linked — they're set up to resist being picked up. So that ain't gonna work.

The were maced by CAMPUS POLICE meaning they were ON-CAMPUS college grounds...

And generally speaking, if a LEO asked you to stop doing these dumb laws, you would probably comply because it'd be dumb not to. I mean, you wouldn't tell a cop who pulled you over or warned you about going 1 mph over the limit to suck a dick because that's a dumb law.

No. The only egos in play here were the students. The cops followed the correct escalation techniques to remove them. They wanted to be martyrs. They wanted to be sprayed. They wanted this and unfortunately, it worked in their favor to people like you.

so wait just because you think the law's dumb, you think you can ignore it?
Or not face consequences for it?
Lets just make sure we're seeing each other's points correctly:
you believe the students here did break the law right?

No matter how stupid you think the law is, you agree they broke it?

side note, this blogger (yes a blog) makes a pretty good point here:
http://wizbangblog.com/2011/11/21...st-option/


So out of those options, do you disagree with the blogger that pepper spray was in fact the least "violent" course of action?
I believe that it was a warranted act, as the other options seem more violent.

Or should they have just let them be?

No. The only egos in play here were the students. The cops followed the correct escalation techniques to remove them. They wanted to be martyrs. They wanted to be sprayed. They wanted this and unfortunately, it worked in their favor to people like you.

AngryPirate, please read the whole thread. bryantq made excellent points and there's a nice pic. We're not in some circle jerk. We just happen to be sane.

As mentioned already, it could of been handled better on the students part, but it wasn't. In watching the second video halfway down the page, I didn't see a building within 200ft of the protesters, so not really sure what they were "blocking". *IF* that is actually a public campus (and not the private University Campus which I thought it said), then yes, they were technically breaking the law. But again as mentioned earlier, everyone probably breaks the law 50x a day. So if you're going to be so gung-ho about the cops upholding this piss-ant law, then why haven't any of you had a guilty concscience and turned yourself in for speeding on your drive into work this morning, or jaywalking when you grabbed some lunch? If you want the gung ho mentality, does it not apply to you as well?

Just like MLK and his band of marchers.... Damn egotistical blacks who want their voices heard...

And the cops followed the correct escalation techniques, brings the dogs and water hose... So what they just got a little wet...

But cool that you find it ok to be pepper sprayed at point blank range... Even cops who undergo this during training do not go point blank range with the mace.

Maybe you didn't watch the video, it seem that cop sprayed the pepper spray like some he was spraying a can of air fresher... You think its ok to spray a substance like that continually in someone's face..