The Roots of the UC pepper Spraying
Beccy
2011/11/23 02:28:54
The Roots of the UC-Davis
Pepper-spraying
By
Glenn Greenwald
November 21, 2011 "Salon" - - The now-viral video of police officers in their Robocop costumes sadistically pepper-spraying
peaceful, sitting protesters at UC-Davis (details here) shows a police state in its pure form.
Pepper-spraying
By
Glenn Greenwald
November 21, 2011 "Salon" - - The now-viral video of police officers in their Robocop costumes sadistically pepper-spraying
peaceful, sitting protesters at UC-Davis (details here) shows a police state in its pure form.
It’s easy to be outraged by this incident
as though it’s some sort of shocking aberration, but that is exactly what it is
not. The Atlantic‘s Garance Franke-Ruta adeptly demonstrates with an assemblage of video how common
such excessive police force has been in response to the Occupy protests. Along
those lines, there are several points to note about this incident and what it
reflects:
(1) Despite all the
rights of free speech and assembly flamboyantly guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution, the reality is that punishing the exercise of those rights with
police force and state violence has been the reflexive response in America for
quite some time. As Franke-Ruta put it, “America has a very long history of
protests that meet with excessive or violent response, most vividly recorded in
the second half of the 20th century.” Digby yesterday recounted a similar though even worse incident aimed at
environmental protesters.
The
intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms
meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising
rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist. Every time the
citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed — or hears that an
Occupy protester suffered brain damage and almost died after being shot in the skull with a rubber bullet — many become
increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become
fearful in general of exercising their rights in a way that is bothersome or
threatening to those in power. That’s a natural response, and it’s exactly what
the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to
achieve: to coerce citizens to “decide” on their own to be passive and compliant
— to refrain from exercising their rights — out of fear of what will happen if
they don’t.
intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms
meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising
rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist. Every time the
citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed — or hears that an
Occupy protester suffered brain damage and almost died after being shot in the skull with a rubber bullet — many become
increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become
fearful in general of exercising their rights in a way that is bothersome or
threatening to those in power. That’s a natural response, and it’s exactly what
the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to
achieve: to coerce citizens to “decide” on their own to be passive and compliant
— to refrain from exercising their rights — out of fear of what will happen if
they don’t.
The genius of this approach is how
insidious its effects are: because the rights continue to be offered on paper,
the citizenry continues to believe it is free. They believe that they are free
to do everything they choose to do, because they have been “persuaded” — through
fear and intimidation — to passively accept the status quo. As Rosa Luxemburg so
perfectly put it: “Those who do not move, do not notice their
chains.” Someone who sits at home and never protests or effectively
challenges power factions will not realize that their rights of speech and
assembly have been effectively eroded because they never seek to exercise those
rights; it’s only when we see steadfast, courageous resistance from the likes of
these UC-Davis students is this erosion of rights manifest.
Pervasive police abuses and intimidation
tactics applied to peaceful protesters — pepper-spray, assault rifles, tasers,
tear gas and the rest — not only harm their victims but also the relationship of
the citizenry to the government and the set of core political rights. Implanting
fear of authorities in the heart of the citizenry is a far more effective means
of tyranny than overtly denying rights. That’s exactly what incidents like this
are intended to achieve. Overzealous prosecution of those who engage in peaceful
political protest (which we’ve seen more and more of over the last
several years) as well as rampant secrecy and the sprawling Surveillance
State are the close cousins of excessive police force in both intent and effect:
they are all about deterring meaningful challenges to those in power through the
exercise of basic rights. Rights are so much more effectively destroyed by
bullying a citizenry out of wanting to exercise them than any other means. These
two short video clips — regarding the openly abusive treatment of Bradley
Manning and the extra-judicial attempt to destroy WikiLeaks — are how I’ve been
trying to make this point over the past month in the various speeches I’ve given
around the country:
People better wake up & realize who the REAL enemy is instead of creating boogeymen enemies that wouldn't harm a hair on our head.
chains.”
Says it all...
Great post... Thanks...