2.9
November 12, 2011

Police attack UC Berkeley students with batons. {Video}

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” ~ JFK
~
Bad Quote of the Day:

UC police Capt. Margo Bennett on Occupy UC Berkeley:

“The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence…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.”

~

One of countless commonsense replies:

“It’s violent to link arms & not touch the police, but it’s not considered violent to beat people with weapons who have their arms linked!”

Sad, unbelievable response from UC Berkeley’s Chancellor.

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Want to do something about the baton-attack at UC Berkeley? Here’s how:

Via Reddit:

Guys, you can file an official complaint by going here. If you’re too lazy to click the link, I’ve provided the Chief of Police’s contact info below, which should be a lot more effective than emailing the idiotic captain bennett (hopefully). Of course, if you’d like to email the captain anyway I have provided her contact info as well.

TL;DR Email the people above to file your complaint.


EDIT

This is what I emailed to the Police Chief. Use this as a template, or however else you wish.

To all who this may concern,

As you probably know by now, several videos of Occupy Berkeley have gone viral, many of which show brutal and excessive force against students. For your reference, here is one of those videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=channel_video_title

I am also aware that Captain Margo Bennett has released a statement, saying that “linking arms…in itself is an act of violence.” I would strongly urge the Captain to revise such a statement. If linking arms is considered a violent protest and is punished as such, there will be no incentive to stop people from using actual violence in future protests.

Even if by some means this was considered “violent,” such excessive force by the police was not necessary. The students were linking arms, which inherently interferes with one’s capability to assault anybody in the first place, much less defend themselves from the police attacks.

Civil disobedience has been used throughout history to exercise change when other means of voicing opinions have failed to do so. Yet the Captain’s statement makes me fearful that we are slipping into a state where “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” I fear this hypocrisy where the police can be excused for using excessive force, but civilians get put away for the smallest protests. I fear this scenario happening in the United States: http://iowntheworld.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Tiananmen-Square-.jpg

Please consider approaching Captain Margo Bennett about this matter. The captain’s statement makes me doubt as to whether she is fit to truly serve and protect her community.

Regards, [name]

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