http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/09/27/uc-d...-incident/

What pisses me off is to think of all the thousands of humans who have died protesting for basic human rights. Civilians get massacred in the middle east to stand up to the government. Here? Some kids in a california farm school get a facefull of pepper spray and boom, 30 grand each, no doubt fought for by their parents well-funded attorneys.

I realize they're paying tuition to attend school and that they shouldn't be at risk from being assaulted with pepper spray, but at the same time they were blocking a pathway because of some stupid OWS demonstration which achieved exactly nothing. If you wanna protest, fine, just make it effective. Causing an obstruction on campus to protest is fucking laughable, and the fact that they made off with some cool cash makes it even more laughable and insulting to people who actually protest and GET SHIT DONE.

This is classism (and a degree of white privilege) laid bare. If that crowd of kids were mostly from the hood (or more of them were more "ethnic"), they wouldn't have gotten a dime. Even if they did the exact same thing.

In fact, they might have gotten much worse than just pepper spray and no money.

Disagree. Yes, international protesters never receive compensation even they are killed, but we are in the US.

Furthermore, it was completely nonviolent, and the LE acted way out of SOP for nonviolent protests. Whether you agree with the cause is moot because the fact is the police responded violently to a nonviolent peaceful protest.

Due to the media coverage, I'm actually surprised they received ONLY $30k.

The settlement discourages other police departments from using pepper spray liberally, so it is a good thing.

I don't think any "actual" protesters are worried about whether Occupy protests are legit.

Many would argue that they are.

All of these new school protesters seem like straight up pussies. Did they expect cops to politely ask them to leave and not use their weapons? That's not how it works but they've probably never even dealt with the laws before their protest.

Group of weak bearded vegans and their white (or maybe Asian) girlfriends = $30,000/each

Group of hood-ass (especially ethnic) kids = $0/each (in fact, negative, with loss wages from having to go to court, do mad community service, or serve a little time)

White privilege = the luxury of being shocked that the cops would do something like this to you.

Here's what I'm taking from this:

I'm on campus, spitting some intermediate day game at college hunnies.

Other end of campus I hear some ruckus, I run over, see a bunch of protesting herbivores getting sprayed and the occasional thwack from a night stick.

Better believe I'm gonna jump in the middle of it and get a little bruised up.

Thedude needs a new ride, I'm thinking Audi S4.

Quote: (09-27-2012 08:21 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

This is classism (and a degree of white privilege) laid bare. If that crowd of kids were mostly from the hood (or more of them were more "ethnic"), they wouldn't have gotten a dime. Even if they did the exact same thing.

In fact, they might have gotten much worse than just pepper spray and no money.

Word up. I'm going to have to start calling you TRUTHmosis.

Math doesn't add up. 30k *21 +250k to attorneys = 880k, not 1 MM. So the source has some agenda in exaggerating the number here. But still, how will the school pay for it? Raising student tuition even higher.

So the bunch of out-of-town clowns that invaded the UC Davis campus get the dough (or at least their lawyers do). While the actual students who attend the school get shafted again.

And of course, the protesters who broke multiple laws won't be prosecuted. While the police who actually obeyed the law to the letter and performed every action legally and following already agreed upon procedures and a defined escalation process were initially laid off and have had to defend that they never deviated from procedures or training to defend their jobs.

Even the article ends with the fact that nothing illegal was done by the police.

Truthmosis is right.

They had a belief that something was wrong, stood up for that belief in a small way, and were willing to accept a small amount of physical punishment for that belief. How exactly does that make them pussies? Yes, maybe they're blaming other people for their problems, and maybe their protest wasn't on the same scale as others, but it worked. It got widespread media attention for their cause. If that was their intention, then they succeeded.

If we take this case in isolation and not compare to other police abuse cases, is the reward fair?

In other words, if YOU were pepper sprayed as part of a hippie non-violent protest, would you take $30k? Hell, I would.

Quote: (09-27-2012 09:46 PM)HoustonRookie Wrote:  

They had a belief that something was wrong, stood up for that belief in a small way, and were willing to accept a small amount of physical punishment for that belief. How exactly does that make them pussies? Yes, maybe they're blaming other people for their problems, and maybe their protest wasn't on the same scale as others, but it worked. It got widespread media attention for their cause. If that was their intention, then they succeeded.

I don't think that anyone is coming down on the protest itself. People are pissed at the whole "owww, I'm gonna sue now." I mean, there should have been an assumption of risk: you've been lawfully told to leave, you didn't, you've been told you'll be sprayed, you're not leaving, you get sprayed, OHH SHIT!! LAWYER!!!

$30k each and $1M total is peanuts; the thing I hate is the notoriety that these kids will have for the rest of their lives. They'll be applying to law school and putting this shit on the applications (oh yeah, I took down UC-whateverthefuck) talking about it in job interviews (oh yeah, I made national news for standing up for my "inalienable rights") and the douche guys will be using it to run game (oh yeah, I took a full-on pepper spray for what I believed; I don't even care about the money....want to have a drink at my apartment? It's just right there...) Screw these little shits.

Regardless of race, non violent protesters should be compensated if brutalized by the police. The 1st amendment is the most important right a person can have and it is the biggest reason the US used to be on the top of the world.

So instead of making this a race issue, you americans should applaud this as a step in the right direction. Otherwise you will end up like Canada where if someone doesn't agree with your opinion you can be hauled in front of a human right panel and be sentenced to massive fines or even jail time.

Quote: (09-27-2012 09:49 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

If we take this case in isolation and not compare to other police abuse cases, is the reward fair?

In other words, if YOU were pepper sprayed as part of a hippie non-violent protest, would you take $30k? Hell, I would.

If there's any point I'd want to convey, that's it.

Obviously the police were in the wrong. It should be enough to simply fire the offending police officer and issue an apology. It's not like any permanent damage was done beyond some brief discomfort (okay, agony) on the part of some hippies. 30k compensation seems extreme, and something that I would take some pepper spray in a HEARTBEAT for.

Quote: (09-27-2012 08:21 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

This is classism (and a degree of white privilege) laid bare. If that crowd of kids were mostly from the hood (or more of them were more "ethnic"), they wouldn't have gotten a dime. Even if they did the exact same thing.

In fact, they might have gotten much worse than just pepper spray and no money.

Not if, as here, there was a camera filming.

Lots of blacks - gangbangers even - get civil rights settlements.

Google "excesisve force verdict" for myriad examples.

The key is to have the camera rolling.

So you guys are all mad that people whose civil rights were violated got a "free" year of college?

http://admissions.ucdavis.edu/cost/

Man.

People exercise their rights, get shit on, and then people are pissed when there's a small settlement.

Quote: (09-27-2012 08:55 PM)Blackhawk Wrote:  

Even the article ends with the fact that nothing illegal was done by the police.

That's not what the article said. The article said, "County prosecutors said last week the campus police who fired the pepper spray will not face any criminal charges, due to lack of evidence that the use of force was illegal."

Prosecutors regularly excuse police misconduct and only go after crooked cops when absolutely forced to.

So it's hardly surprising that a prosecutor decided to protect one of its own.

Quote: (09-27-2012 10:09 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  

People exercise their rights, get shit on, and then people are pissed when there's a small settlement.

On paper, I agree.

But the story that I create in my head are a bunch of bedwetting herbivores who are bored of spending mommy and daddy's money chasing a useless degree go sign up and participate in OWS protests even though they have no clue what any of it really means, but it's something to do and oh yeah, "FUCK THE MAN", let's all huddle up and get pepper sprayed OH MAN WE'RE HARDCORE NOW and then a year later get a nice little bonus.

But that's just the hater talkin'.

Quote: (09-27-2012 08:30 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

Group of weak bearded vegans and their white (or maybe Asian) girlfriends = $30,000/each

Group of hood-ass (especially ethnic) kids = $0/each (in fact, negative, with loss wages from having to go to court, do mad community service, or serve a little time)

White privilege = the luxury of being shocked that the cops would do something like this to you.

60k. Girl is super hood. As Mike said, it's all about the camera, not the skin.

Quote: (09-27-2012 08:30 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

Group of weak bearded vegans and their white (or maybe Asian) girlfriends = $30,000/each

Group of hood-ass (especially ethnic) kids = $0/each (in fact, negative, with loss wages from having to go to court, do mad community service, or serve a little time)

White privilege = the luxury of being shocked that the cops would do something like this to you.

Well while we're speaking the "truth" you might have a hard time finding Hood-ass non violent kids protesting OWS.

Quote: (09-27-2012 09:46 PM)HoustonRookie Wrote:  

They had a belief that something was wrong, stood up for that belief in a small way, and were willing to accept a small amount of physical punishment for that belief. How exactly does that make them pussies?

You mean, other than they protested in the state of California instead of the state of New York, next to the Pacific Ocean instead of the Atlantic Ocean, on the opposite side of the United States, on the opposite coast, literally 2,500 miles away from their target of Wall Street, at the soft target of a third tier state college campus where they knew they'd be treated with kid gloves, on a three day holiday weekend at a commuter college when all the real students had gone home and there was minimal police staff?

And it's obvious they were professional protesters that had just came out of protest camp training. If you watch the full video, they're being heavily coached by some shrill screaming bitch about things like to remove their contacts before being pepper sprayed, and being signaled what to do with a whistle.

That's not a grass roots movement. That's only astroturf. As fake as fake can get.

Why drive all the way down to a University you're not a student of to target a California University campus and obstruct its walk ways? Because they object to higher education? There isn't even a remote connection to Wall Street. It doesn't make sense.

Why don't those SWPLs donate their $30k to families that can't afford health care. If they want to prove that they live by conviction and not opportunism to sue taxpayers for beer money they would donate their settlement to any number of causes that OWS stands for.

brb finding a cause to bitch about and piss off campus police.

White on white violence!

The protesters are white, the cops are white, the lawyers and judges are white, the school is mostly white, the town is mostly white.

Race was not an issue. Cops abusing their power was the problem.

Like Mike said, the key is that it was captured on video.