Occupy Wall Street better defend its identity

[Brainster]

I found it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian-nguyen/6361221297/in/set-72157628045444415

You see, he's being forced to open his mouth!

I suspect the junior prof is lying about the effects of the pepper spray as well; here's a picture of a Portland chick getting bukkaked with the stuff; the article accompanying the photo notes no serious after effects.

Her hands still burned after they released her about 2 a.m.

On Friday, she felt fine for an arraignment hearing before Multnomah County Circuit Judge Youlee You.

I do love this quote you noted from the junior prof:

In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs.

"In a word:" followed by 16 words. And this guy's teaching English?

 

[rustypouch]

I guess that's as close as we'll get to an admission of not having any evidence.

Well, hearsay and conjecture are types of evidence.

But you seem to enjoy seeing people get hurt. This is something I just can't understand.

 

[Taarkin]

They were more compliant once they were pepper sprayed. Very effective. If they hadn't been pepper sprayed, they would have offered more resistance, and injuries would have occured.

Even MORE resistance than siting down doing nothing? God help us all.

 

[Pardalis]

Well, hearsay and conjecture are types of evidence.

Not in court.

 

[bikerdruid]

Pepper spray is not brutal force.

selctive reading, i see.
i said indiscriminate use of non lethal weapons.
pepper spray is a non lethal weapon.
and spraying an 84 yr old woman, is maliciously indiscriminate.

 

[rustypouch]

Not in court.

Not a fan of Lionel Hutz, I see.

 

[Taarkin]

They were more compliant once they were pepper sprayed. Very effective. If they hadn't been pepper sprayed, they would have offered more resistance, and injuries would have occured.

We had to injure those people in order to protect everyone from hypothetical injuries.

It was night time, and the police are not required to evaluate each individual protester's age they are facing.

I think it's a good idea to determine whether or not the person you intend to injure is actually someone who should be injured.

 

[Taarkin]

But you seem to enjoy seeing people get hurt. This is something I just can't understand.

I don't think you understand, rustypouch. They failed to comply. As patriotic Americans, it is our God-given duty to always comply.

 

[applecorped]

waaaaa

 

[shuize]

I watched the video again and I don't see anyone's mouth being forced open.

Maybe the reason they got pepper in the throat was because they were yelling?

After watching that video, I thought the police at U.C. Davis came across looking very calm and professional. The students, on the other hand, particularly the ones screaming and crying, made me embarrassed to claim any connection with the University of California system.

 

[rustypouch]

After watching that video, I thought the police at U.C. Davis came across looking very calm and professional. The students, on the other hand, particularly the ones screaming and crying, made me embarrassed to claim any connection with the University of California system.

When someone sees their peers being needlessly hurt, what kind of reaction would you expect?

Similarly, how someone can cause other people pain in such a manner, with apparently no concern or remorse, bothers me greatly.

 

[Taarkin]

UC Davis chief of police
"There was no way out of that circle," Spicuzza told the Associated Press. "They were cutting the officers off from their support. It's a very volatile situation."

That someone in charge could male such an obviously false statement makes me embarrassed to claim any connection with the University of California system.

 

[Virus]

When someone sees their peers being needlessly hurt, what kind of reaction would you expect?

Similarly, how someone can cause other people pain in such a manner, with apparently no concern or remorse, bothers me greatly.

It's just pepper spray. Not mustard gas.

 

[Brainster]

Here's another video of the confrontation, that starts a lot earlier than the other ones:



Note that the cops are surrounded by students, that beyond the sitting ring there are more students standing, even in the foreground, which is eventually the direction in which the cops leave. You can also see that the standing crowd in the foreground only moves back once reinforcements for the cops arrive.

 

[rustypouch]

It's just pepper spray. Not mustard gas.

Yeah, those poor officers. Confronted by people sitting! They're lucky they got out alive!

You do know the point of pepper spray is to cause temporary pain and blindness, right? In this case, the justification for its use seems tenuous. Also, no one but you has brought up mustard gas.

 

[theprestige]

Not a fan of Lionel Hutz, I see.

Really? When you're called on providing weak arguments, your best defense is a Simpsons joke referencing a character known for providing weak arguments?

 

[Brainster]

When someone sees their peers being needlessly hurt, what kind of reaction would you expect?

Similarly, how someone can cause other people pain in such a manner, with apparently no concern or remorse, bothers me greatly.

Pepper spray is what police and other riot control forces went to in an effort to avoid another Kent State.

 

[shuize]

When someone sees their peers being needlessly hurt, what kind of reaction would you expect?

Similarly, how someone can cause other people pain in such a manner, with apparently no concern or remorse, bothers me greatly.

First, pepper spray, while painful, is not a cracked skull. The pain is temporary. "Hurt" in this case is a very relative term.

Second, when ones peers seek out confrontation with the police and ignore repeated orders to move, I'd say they ought to know what was coming.

Third, the police warned them what was coming and they all had pleanty of time to prepare for it. Hell, even the woman hysterically yelling "Why? Why?" later in the video had time to issue repeated warnings to her friends to "close your eyes" and "protect yourselves."

Thus, while I don't agree with their cause, if they're going to engage in civil disobedience, they'd better be ready to take the consequences. Most apparently were. But I thought their friends screaming and crying on the sidelines came across as being overly dramatic. Especially the disengenuous cries of "Why? "Why?" As if this all just happened out of the blue rather than the scripted confrontation it obviously was.

 

[shuize]

Double post.

 

[Stout]

Ah those poor chumps, Doesn't anyone teach them in protest school that if you fight the police the police will always win ? The police aren't paid to loose fights and this was a fight. Had the protesters put on gas masks, the police would have pulled out the tazers.

From a protester perspective, this is called, "taking one for the team" they had to know the police meant business with the pepper spray threats and the goal here is to generate footage and public sympathy then spin this into a "win".

That's what occupy Vancouver did with the woman who bit the cop. Their spin was up on their website, it's gone now but they were trying to market the incident as. woman gets outraged, slaps cop, cop grabs woman's wrist, woman goes zombie on him because she was in pain. They even ended the article with "we bite when we're provoked"

Either that or these kids were really really naive and stupid and were trying to call the bluff.