This video from MilesMathews on YouTube is totally horrifying and shows UC Berkeley Police openly, and without physical provocation, jamming their batons into the stomachs and pelvic areas of both male and female students protesting against law enforcement action against Occupy Cal.
Unfortunately scenes like this one are becoming all too common, and because of that, people are getting used to seeing them. The result? Not much action for real change because the efforts of protesting become compartmentalized into what people expect to see.
For instance, many are just braced for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s expected use of police force to remove Occupy Oakland in the wake of a shooting incident that had nothing to do with the encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza. What people expect to see is just like what we have seen above.
But, in all of this, there has been no real change to date. Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said in in a video that has since been made private for some strange reason, this was Oakland’s chance to show the right way to work with Occupy Oakland.
But, from Councilmember Quan’s reaction to yesterday’s events, it’s clear that no one’s listening to Rebecca.
But what’s strange now is why Councilmember Kaplan’s staff elected to embargo her own video, after pointing to it (and to me) as an example of what we should be doing with Occupy Oakland?
Strange.
BTW, The Daily Californian has excellent coverage of the entire Occupy Cal issue: http://www.dailycal.org/2011/11/09/coverage-of-nov-9-day-of-action/
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll