Greenhut on the U.C. Davis Incident
My colleague (hey, he's a libertarian writer, too) Steve Greenhut over at CalWatchdog pipes in on the pepper spray incident at U.C. Davis. No surprise that he calls it "brutality" as he's always seemed to me to have strong feelings towards any suggestion of police misconduct.
I have a slightly different take on it. As I wrote in a comment to his piece, I wouldn't go so far as to call it brutality. If the police attacked them with batons and beat the pulp out of some of the students, I'd call that brutality. As it was it was pretty much a temporary application of pain which the students had to have been expecting and could have left at any time to avoid.
I do think it's illustrative of how cavalier police have become in the use of both pepper spray and tasers. I realize tasers weren't used in this instance but it's the same thing: Police have a tool that isn't considered to cause lasting harm so they use it more and more, often in cases that defy explanation. When they're used when the target didn't ask for a confrontation, as Radley Balko reports, I think that certainly is brutality.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:48 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Apparently, the cop didn't hear about the pepper spray case up here from '97. Mr. cop made a big mistake.
Yeah, the one where the jury awarded the protesters $1.00.
They weren't in it for money. They fought the law and won.
Just because a judge or jury rules one way or another, doesn't make it right. But it does make it law, at least until the ruling gets overturned.
And now we have shoppers pepper-spraying other shoppers on Black Friday. Sick as that is, it's not going to get compared - but it should.
Those #Occupiers went in knowing what was up - and they've been jonesing for some kind of Kent State moment for months now. They won't be happy til they get some kid shot, then the "organizers" will plaster it all over YouTube. That's the real sick puppies.
Look, if you say you BELIEVE in the "cause" - ENOUGH to risk getting arrested, going to jail, getting pepper-sprayed or tear gassed you should be man enough to take it when it happens.
No whining, No pleading. No finagling to get out of it. take it. Show that you really mean it.
Just don't expect us to be all outraged again. Been there. Done that. The guys who send you out to get yourself burned are sleeping in $700 a night hotel rooms. Wake up. Poor dumb things, Just be grateful that in this country they use pepper-spray and not bullets.
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