Poster by Alexandra Clotfelter (via The Beginning Is Near – occuprint)
I love this, and I love the whole site. Check it out, even if you are not in favor of the movement but have a soft spot for design - some of it (such as this one) is quite excellent!
AMAZING video of a journalist not taking crap from NYPD (by 12160info)
If, within the next year, we see legislation brought up for debate in Congress that would ban the filming of police officers in public places, we will know that our government is completely in the pocket of those who would deprive us of our rights.
True. Also, well done by that guy. He was non-violent but firm, explained himself, and I’d say he won. Awesome.
We should make a new journalism award just for being a badass like this guy. Awesome.
It’s funny, we covered this right in my intro to photo class during my freshman year of college. In America, it is 110% LEGAL to film/photograph anything on a public street or sidewalk. Filmers/photographers do not have to ask permission to do so, even if they are filming people/children/ect., although it is generally considered common courtesy to ask in advance when filming/photographing people. Of course since this is a protest that’s not applicable anyways. And the NYPD must not conceal their badges (preventing film/photo of it would be considered concealing IMO), and when asked for their badge number they must give it. I believe that rule applies to all PDs across the country, but I know for a fact that rule applies to the NYPD.
THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE.
Look at this pork dumpling. I mean, just look at him — pear-shaped and slouchy, pug-nosed and stupid looking, sporting a handlebar mustache as if to hide the fact that he might have down’s syndrome.
He’s practically a cartoon of a campus cop, and this picture of him would be little more than silly if it weren’t taken moments before he walked up to a row of peaceful protesters at UC Davis and blasted them in the face with pepper spray so casually you’d think he was watering his fucking lawn.
If ever there were a poster boy for the banality of evil, it would be this guy.
For the record, his name is John Pike and he’s a Lieutenant with the UC Davis Police. Not that his name matters, because he’s unremarkable in every way.
That’s the point, really. He’s just an average schlub working for an average campus police force at an average school in an average town. He is painfully average. This guy spends his days writing reports for stolen bicycles and confiscating open cans of Four Loko. Sure, he’s got a gun and a badge, but who are we kidding? He’s one notch above mall security.
Pathetic men like John Pike are precisely why the banality of evil is such a potent concept, and it’s all those empty heads underneath those ridiculous storm trooper helmets that lead to this kind of normalization of authoritarian violence.
This is the part where I’m supposed to say “fuck the police,” but when tubs of shit like this are making the news, I honestly don’t have any more fucks to give.
At this point, I’ll be surprised if he’s even reprimanded.
I FUCKING LOVE COKETALK.
Disgusting.
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
18 November 2011
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.
You are not.
I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:
1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today
2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality
3) to demand your immediate resignation
Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons,hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students.Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.
One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.
You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.
On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis
Great summary of the excessive violence on behalf of the police at the OWS protests around the country.
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis (by terrydatiger)
No really, WHO ARE THEY PROTECTING?!
In this photo from The New York Observer, Former Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis, sits in zip cuffs after being arrested today in conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Drew Grant of The Observer writes: “There is simply nothing more bizarre than looking at images of a man in police uniform arrested and handcuffed by people wearing lower-ranking NYPD garb.”
Lewis’ arrest was caputured on video:
Lewis knew his arrest was a possibility. In a rousing speech last night, Lewis criticized the NYPD and its use of force, along with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. An excerpt:
“You should, by law, only use force to protect someone’s life or to protect them from being bodily injured. If you’re not protecting somebody’s life or protecting them from bodily injury, there’s no need to use force. And the number one thing that they always have in their favor that they seldom use is negotiation – continue to talk, and talk and talk to people. You have nothing to lose by that. This bullrush–what happened last night is totally uncalled for when they did not use negotiation long enough.
“They complained about the park being dirty. Here they are worrying about dirty parks when people are starving to death, where people are freezing, where people are sleeping in subways and they’re concerned about a dirty park. That’s obnoxious, it’s arrogant, it’s ignorant, it’s disgusting.
[The NYPD], they’re trying to get me arrested and I may disappear OK? But as soon as I’m let out of jail, I’ll be right back here and they’ll have to arrest me again. All the cops are, they’re just workers for the one percent and they don’t even realize they’re being exploited.”
I have hope. Can somebody get this guy to run for president please? He has a head on his shoulders, and to me, that is the only thing that matters.
The 99% Project Gigantic Bat Signals onto the Verizon Building to Occupy the Earth - Nov 17th NYC (by robertsc1)
This happened today, and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed. I know that sounds grandiose, but it’s the truth. We are winning - nearly every car coming across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan (and therefore seeing this and the protesters such as myself on the walkway) were honking in support. Truly amazing… It’s as if Batman has come to town. Literally.
As a side note, this is just partially what they projected - they projected other phrases, such as this is only the beginning, and do not be afraid, ect. I have a pretty good feeling that Anonymous is behind this, but I’m not sure.
Police Throw OWS Protester Over Barricade (by McSchweddy)
Oh this looks friendly.
r.black (via November 17th Day of Action | OccupyWallSt.org)
As a designer, I believe that one day this poster will end up in an art history text book. Just saying. I actually emailed the guy who designed this to tell him that personally… It’s a fantastic design and has roots in the political posters of the past.
I shall be occupying tomorrow, and I pray to god I won’t get arrested - my boss will kill fire me. Goodbye health insurance!
Please take the time to watch this lady speak, I havent been this inspired in a long long time… #ows #DorliRainey
Eighty-four-year-old activist Dorli Rainey tells Keith about her experience getting pepper-sprayed by the police during an Occupy Seattle demonstration and the need to take action and spread the word of the Occupy movement. She cites the advice of the late Catholic nun and activist Jackie Hudson to “take one more step out of your comfort zone” as an inspiration, saying, “It would be so easy to say, ‘Well I’m going to retire, I’m going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,’ but somebody’s got to keep ’em awake and let ’em know what is really going on in this world.”
She’s my new hero. German WW2 survivor, and she touches on the parallels she sees between what is going on today with threats of censorship and what happened in Germany leading up to the war.
Members of the 1% are clearly at an advantage when it comes to opportunity, and that advantage carries through when it comes to finding a job.
While it’s common for people to find employment through family and friends, there’s a direct correlation between a father’s income and the likelihood his son will work for the same employer, according to a report last year in the Journal of Labor Economics (via Miles Corak, who co-wrote the paper).
The researchers found that that among its subjects, around 40% of young Canadian men had been employed by an employer for whom their father worked.
But for earners in the top percentile, that figure jumps to around nearly 70%.
Writes Corak:
All parents want to help their children in whatever way they can. But top earners can do it more than others, and with more consequence: virtually guaranteeing, if not a lifetime of high earnings, at least a great start in life.
But most rich people work super hard for their money! They deserve it!This makes it doubly hilarious to see rich kids telling the people at OWS to go get a job.
What!? Wealth is based mostly on nepotism? That is not what Milton Friedman told me about the free market.
