Ah yes a picture of fucking pigs. I mean cops. Ready to give you speed holes if you try to use your self expression.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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I just don't believe anyone really has a comprehensive response to this news. Ok, 2300 people arrested. Out of how many protestors? What percentage were just immediately let go? What percentage were doing something obviously illegal and SHOULD have been arrested?
I believe in the right to protest and the right to protest with illegal action, as long as you aren't hurting others. But if you get arrested for property damage you did cause...am I supposed to be mad you got arrested? No, it's all part of the statement you're making. If all 2300 were making a principled stand and making good trouble but still getting arrested...that's not necessarily bad.
Meanwhile, maybe some percentage of these people did nothing and they're just getting harassed by police. That WOULD be upsetting.
And some of these people were just being dicks and assaulting people and needed to be stopped. Sure, arrest those people.
A number of arrested does not provide any background information. Could mean anything.
I want to see the people coming into these threads defending the cops closing down these camps defend the cops arresting 2300 people.
I'll half-bite, I suppose - disruptive encampments and occupations of buildings of institutions that are attempting to continue functioning are situations in which one should expect a police response to disperse after a period of time. These institutions have an obligation to the other students and faculty, not just to the demands of the protesters, and the right to dictate what is and is not appropriate usage, or after what period of time it becomes inappropriate usage, of the university's buildings. And if the demands of the protesters are unrealistic or out of the hands of the institution, then there is no other real recourse but a police response.
Of course, on the other hand, anyone who has seen what the police response is knows that it's American police being more militarized than the US military and using the opportunity to vent some of their roid rage and testosterone poisoning.
But police closing down such protest encampments is not inherently illegitimate.
And if the demands of the protesters are unrealistic or out of the hands of the institution, then there is no other real recourse but a police response.
Generally speaking, the demands have been neither of these things, though. The media framing them in ridiculous terms like "Israeli-Hamas war protests" certainly doesn't help anyone who is unaware to realize what the demands have been. They aren't demanding the universities end the war somehow, but asking them to stop actively funding, assisting and profiting from the Israeli government and its policies, which is a pretty fair ask to make of most schools. Stop investing in Israeli companies and stop working with Israeli groups that contribute to the military, police and prisons. It's not that hard.
Aside from the completely disproportionate police response, schools like Columbia don't really help themselves with how they want to glorify their history of student activism to draw in new students, but turn their backs on those principles once the students are protesting in favor of causes that the school administration decide are the wrong causes.
I would go as far as to say this is a failure of the schools that the protests lasted as long as they did, not because of any particular fault of the protesters, but because the schools had largely made up their minds from the very start that they wouldn't engage in good faith with the protesters due to financial and political interests. Even for the ones who have stated they'll have talks are viewed as just stalling for time with it in the article.
asking them to stop investing in Israeli companies and stop working with Israeli groups that contribute to the military, police and prisons. It's not that hard.
That's not hard, and in fact the success of Brown students might be partly because they only asked for divestment from eleven companies.
However, other students - including Columbia students - have asked for divestment from any company that does business with Israel. Which is a lot more difficult, because that would mean divesting from Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and countless other large international corporations.
Largely my comment was in the abstract. I knew most of the ones that had been getting attention were about divestment in their university, but I presumed that at least some were students trying to raise awareness over a subject the uni had no power over. And that's perfectly legitimate! It's just something that you do have to expect the possibility of an arrest for.
Unfortunately, as I noted, US police are not known for reasonable, proportionate responses.
Aside from the completely disproportionate police response, schools like Columbia don’t really help themselves with how they want to glorify their history of student activism to draw in new students, but turn their backs on those principles once the students are protesting in favor of causes that the school administration decide are the wrong causes.
Uni admins and being bloodsucking hypocritical parasites - name a more iconic duo.
I agree. After all, music and dancing are also forms of expression but nobody would be surprised if an unauthorized multi-day on-campus rave were shut down by the cops. Or for that matter if the cops showed up to end a loud frat party.
That said, I also think the police response has (predictably) been too heavy-handed.
Israel Hamas war? That's odd, because they've killed way more Palestinians than members of Hamas... It's almost like it's an Israelis vs Palestine war.
Hamas hides behind civilians. Cowardly gorilla tactics after giving a volatile nation a legitimate reason to counter-invade.
This whole thing was so fucking stupid. Everyone knew Israel wasn’t going to be reserved with their counter attack. Why the fucking surprise? Why did Hamas attack in the first place? To what end were they hoping for?
Nobody is asking these questions. Everyone here is just spitting the same genocide script. The conversations quickly turn anti-Biden anti-liberal which should tell you all you need to know.
I truly hope the majority of you are seeing through this.
This isn't a war, it's a murder.
Genocide*
Seems French and Australian cops follow their own freedom-of-peaceful-assembly rules far better than America ever has, because neither nation arrested anyone.
2,300
Wow.