Monday, November 21, 2011
I'm ashamed of my city and university
I live in Davis, California and did graduate studies at UC Davis. UC Davis has been in the news lately for the infamous pepper spraying of students for peacefully protesting and refusing to leave. You may have heard about this or seen the video. I haven't been able to watch the video. This is so unlike Davis and UC Davis. But the administration must feel threatened by protesters and overreacted. UC Davis has a history of permitting protests, so what happened this time? The chancellor of UCD is Greek, and according to a fellow Greek professor, Greece has a long history of accepting student protests, so she should understand that students protest and that's normal. A violent reaction to a non-violent protest is outrageous. In the 1960s during the student protests throughout the country, the chancellor at that time met with the students, talked with them, arranged meetings to hear their grievances and never over-reacted. I signed a petition asking the chancellor to resign and I encourage others to sign one as well.
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This is clearly a case of poorly trained police who have weapons far and beyond their capabilities to deal with a situation. While I agree there was a breakdown in leadership, I think most of the blame lies with the police department who clearly overreacted to something quite peaceful. The police chief should be fired, the cops involved should be fired, and perhaps, too, the chancellor should resign. But place the blame for the violent cops where it belongs because I can't believe the chancellor actually told the police to go out and hurt someone - nor can I believe that the police chief actually authorized the acts of his cops. Who knows. I just don't get "fire 'em all" when someone acts like an ass...
ReplyDeletePeace <3
Jay