Occupy Cal: This is what Courage looks like
Police beat unarmed Cal students.
Replay the video a few times and note that the craven cop who struck the first baton blow went after a young woman probably 60 lbs. lighter than himself, even without all his riot gear. Disgraceful. Unforgivable. Every one of those officers who used their batons in this incident should be fired. Their use of force was vastly out of proportion to the situation.
I realize police officers have a tough and dangerous job for less pay than they deserve. I have great respect for the overwhelming majority of police, who do the hard work of defending our streets, our families, our property with firm equanimity. The baton-crazy officers in this confrontation disgraced their ranks. I hope that the police officers who truly believe in one justice for all will drum-out the thugs in this incident.
To the Police Officers of California and throughout America: Please don’t let thugs in your ranks or pressure from politicos shit all over the peoples’ respect that you’ve worked so hard to earn. Without that respect, your jobs will be a lot harder. Do the right thing.
You Students Make Me Proud
The brutality of the police in this video makes me sick, but the courage of the students, standing their ground blow after blow and maintaining a disciplined non-violent reaction make me want to cry with pride. Their strength gives me hope. I’d begun to despair that we Americans no longer had the fight in us. Boy was I wrong.
@WorldMilitia….you are ehetir a liar or very blind to what is going on around you.Here in the South they have all the trade jobs. All construction, painting, installation, truck driving, cooks, warehouse, etc. They have all the jobs that people not getting college degrees should have. And those that have college degrees and can’t find a job are out of luck also.Sure it’s the employer but if enough people complain, especially liberals, then something can be done to get those jobs back!
Greg, I don’t know what your anti-immigrant policy has to do with my Occupy Cal Bravery post, but here’s my response anyway:
- I have a close relative who skipped the college route and now competes with migrants for work. He also gets work from migrants who come into the shop for auto service. No doubt an abundance of exploitable undocumented labor drives down wages for everybody at the low end of the labor market. I personally compete with immigrant brought in for tech jobs under the H1-B visa program.A partial fix in both cases would be comprehensive immigration reform, which would somewhat level the playing field by minimizing the exploitation factor in suppressing migrant pay and would level the cost to employers for health and safety costs, and such.
- I believe we need comprehensive immigration reform, with a reasonable policy for allowing long-term undocumented immigrants who have been productive and played by the rules to gain citizenship, streamline the process for new immigrants to earn citizenship (especially university students, who might start job-creating businesses), and come up with a reasonable guest worker program that protects the right of migrant workers.
- Studies I’ve read show that cost/benefit of the undocumented immigrant population for the nation as a whole have a very minimal impact one way or the other. The benefits undocumented laborers provide to the communities where they live roughly match the costs. Obviously border states bear a higher cost, and we should work toward reasonable ways to offset that burden.
- The Occupy movement has been pushing for reforms that work for 99%, including many productive, contributing members of our communities, who have so far not been able to negotiate the maze of our current immigration policy.
- Dude, we’re all fucking immigrants from a few generations back. We need more of us for the country to thrive.