Topical thread Nov. 13, 2011
Quote by from San Francisco Chronicle via Reader Supported News on the Berkley OWS
“The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence,” UC police Capt. Margo Bennett said. “I understand that many students may not think that, but linking arms in a human chain when ordered to step aside is not a nonviolent protest.”
And another push is planned by the City Council in Oakland.
The only thing this poor misguided (I’m trying to be generous) police Captain is accomplishing with this pitiful rationalization is motiviating me to commit similar acts of “violence”
And thousands of others I would hope.
Absolutely Amazing . . . as a Marine in the sixties and seventies, we were trained for the violent demonstrations which happened then much of which was provoked by cvil authorities. Linking of arms does not come close to violence. It may be called impeding an officer in the performance of his duty or resisting arrest; but violence? The police captain is one bridge to far in excuses to call it such.
I try to be sympathetic to the guy, honestly. He has a shitty job and if he doesn’t have the moral conviction to refuse it ( or okay the economic freedom to commit insubordination have it your way ) he could at least refuse to pay lip service to the pitiful rationalizations involved. Pitiful.
It’s incidents like this that make me all to aware of my early exposure to political controversy as an adolescent in the 70s. LIke then, we had masses of people from all walks of life who had reluctantantly come to the realization that there was no traditional political solution possible.
I guess if Occupy has to retrace the path of non violence from the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement we’re also going to end up repeating Kent State and Birmingham.
“that in itself is an act of violence”
From the same dictionary: white in itself is black; up in itself is down; day in itself is night.
Shorter Captain Bennett: “Fuck Gandhi.”
This crooked captain is not the law!
The Cossacks work for the Tsar.
The police riots are starting.
They can only be responded to with non violence as did Martin Luther King and Gandhi.
Uh, give the Captain a break here, I mean, if he’s a he, and his parents named him Margo, don’t you think he deserves some slack? On the other hand, if she’s a she, well, she’s just trying to be one of the boys, misguided as that may be!
C’mon. The gist of Margo’s point is clear. There’s no such thing as non-violent protest. Non-violent protest is a form of “crimethink” so is rightly within the jurisdiction of a campus cop.
This needs to get a lot bigger fast. I think Mayor Mubarak has just made that inevitable.