Thursday, March 4, a group of UC Davis students marching through campus began to approach a freeway on-ramp for the purposes of occupation, and Yolo County Sheriff’s Department officers blocked the route. They shot pepper balls at students’ feet as the marchers continued to approach the on-ramp. Abruptly, the police pulled Laura Mitchell, a student and queer leader at UC Davis, from the front of the crowd, dragging her along the ground, ripping her shirt off, and holding her hostage until protesters agreed to dissipate. Police alleged no injuries were sustained by any in the crowd. The video clearly demonstrates otherwise.
Below is a video account of the afternoon ordeal. **Trigger Warning: Police violence at 6:43**
Additionally, more than 100 Bay Area protesters shut down the 880 and 980 freeways for hours on Thursday afternoon, creating gridlock. All were eventually arrested, including the student journalists among them. Many were beaten (video).
Mainstream portrayals of student activism tend toward stereotyping
movements based on their place of origin. Berkeley, still widely known
as “Berserkeley,” or “The People’s Republic Of Berkeley,” lacks some
agency on the national stage because of assumptions that all students
are politically active. Along with Berkeley’s legacy of activism around
the Free Speech Movement is the legacy of administrative overreactions
to protests. In fact, the administrative building on campus which hosts
the offices of Vice Chancellors, California Hall, has “protest-proof”
doors with two essential anti-protest features: first, they lack door
handles so as to prevent any protester from chaining anything to the
doors. Second, a backup pair of doors automatically swing shut and lock
in case of protest or political activity outside.
The harder a campus works to shed its stereotype of activism, by
repressing protest movements and student voices, the more radically
students push back to gain press and attention from an administration.
This builds a longer legacy of activism. The campus of UC Davis lacks
that legacy of activism– their mascot is the Aggies, short for the
“Agriculturalists.” But just as a generation of UC Berkeley students
first witnessed police brutality on November 20, 2009, a generation of
UC Davis students witnessed police brutality Thursday.
Hate Update:
UC San Diego Student Satire Publication goes too far
The Koala, which will receive more press for this hate than it
deserves, published a joke issue entirely themed around mocking the
Black Student Union and opponents of the Compton Cookout.
The Koala’s newest issue satirizes the demands issued
by the BSU in the recent weeks, by introducing a mock program-the
Coalition of Outreach and Opportunity for Negro Students, or C.O.O.N.S
for short. The “program” proposes such things as “Special All Black
Housing” and “Special Classes Just 4 U!” including “SOC20N: Blame it on
Whitey” and “Swimming 101: It’s not actually that deep!”
Story and full issue available here.
UC Berkeley logs its own anti-Black hate crime Monday
Monday morning, a 31-year-old Black woman said “Good morning” to a man
exiting the Recreational Sports Facility. He spat on her and called her
“n****r.” She reported it to the UC Police Department, and it has been
classified as a hate crime.
–
Between the hateful incidents of February and March, the racial
tensions on campuses across the United States, and the exhausting March
4 Day of Action for Public Education, students, faculty, and workers
are now experiencing a high level of burnout. How can we possibly
tackle hate crimes, budget cuts, admissions policies, and midterm
season at the same time?
Some students have spoken up
in opposition to linking the hate crimes with the college affordability
struggle. What implication could isolated incidents and copycat racism
really have on the climates of the ten unique University of California
campuses? But Laura Mitchell, dragged along the ground nearly shirtless
and held hostage, is an intern at the same UC Davis LGBT Resource
Center that was vandalized
in February. And the black student leaders mocked by the Koala are the
same ones who demand that public education should be not only
affordable, but safe. And the many LGBTQIA and Black organizers who are
facilitating townhalls across the University of California system to
respond to hateful acts represent two of the many communities who,
under the new fee increases and admissions policies, will continue to
be denied access to higher education.
In a recent Berkeley campus email responding to the hateful
incidents, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau deferred to the work of the
Vice-Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion on campus. I was reminded of a
recent conference I attended, whose planning committee contained just one
member who was the “Chair of Diversity.” When only one person’s job
description includes creating a safe environment for students from
communities of color, multicultural or LGBTQIA backgrounds, or
economically disadvantaged situations, then those issues will be absent
from the minds of everyone else.
Congratulations to the UC Davis protesters for piercing the “Davis
Bubble” with the realities of fee increases and police brutality, and a
speedy recovery to the thousands of burnt-out California activists this
week.
Related:
12 Comments
I am not familiar with the laws in that area. Is it considered legal to gather on the state/local/federal roads for the purposes of protest?
I feel for everyone involved in this, both police and protesters.
As a product of the UC system & a former student activist I’ve have mixed feelings watching this. Until recently I thought the students were being selfish. California is on the verge of bankruptcy and it seemed they were expecting everyone else in the state–teachers, kids, welfare moms, the elderly–to take cuts in state services & hikes in fees, in order to finance the lifestyle of students. Lately, though, I’ve been encouraged that the students are finally thinking about more than their limited interests by fighting against the recent rash of hate crimes & hate speech across the UC system.
As far as calling this police brutality, I think that’s a big stretch. The whole point of civil disobedience is to use non-violent action to provoke a strong police response. In fact from a PR perspective you’re hoping that the police over respond. However I’m at a loss as to how the police could’ve responded any differently while still maintaining an open interstate. Clearly the students were using their bikes as mobile barricades to push against the police, which is a provocative escalation of typical practice. Most other police forces would’ve aimed the pepper balls at the students’ bodies, not their feet, so that shows enormous restraint.
Why do you feel sorry for the police? They clearly don’t care about the students. they used police brutality against students who are enacting their first amendment right. I’m sorry but our constitution doesn’t say you can protest only in certain areas and only in a certain manner. It says we have the right to assemble and anything that restricts that in any way shape or form should be illegal
Seems like it shouldn’t be legal to block a freeway for a protest, but I’m not sure. I remember another time students did that at a different UC campus, and there was an angry letter to the editor from a preschool teacher who was trapped on the freeway with a van of terrified small children while college students surrounded them and yelled and wouldn’t let anyone off the freeway.
What would happen if a protest like this prevented someone from making it to the hospital in time, or something along those lines? I don’t disagree with their cause, but trapping cars on the road seems like a dangerous and mean way to do it. (It looks like they didn’t actually trap any cars on the freeway this time, but the post also says some other group caused gridlock in the city for hours. I’m taking issue mostly with the whole idea of blocking a road for a protest, at least if there’s no easy way around, rather than this particular protest which looks like it didn’t really get that far.)
I don’t understand what the students hoped to accomplish by shutting down I-80. If I was backed up to Vacaville I wouldn’t have a warm feeling for their cause after sitting in traffic for a couple of hours. This type of protesting seems somewhat counterproductive to me.
Nice!! Thanks for posting this. I am an aggie myself and took part in this protest. The video above is a really fair representation of the events, however, the response to this video and a lot of other students’ responses were incredibly negative. As mentioned above, it seems that a lot of students associate activism with radicalism – radicalism as something negative, something disruptive, annoying, irritating. I really don’t know what else to say, other than I am dried up – I’ve had so many conflicts with people regarding this subject and I’m sick of the negativity, the apathy, and the general lack of conscience of one’s privilege.
What. No love?
I’m a regular protester and have been part of marches that shut down traffic in Chicago on more than one occasion for causes about which I am passionate. I admire UC students commitment to public education.
That said, the way this whole story (and the embedded video) is framed makes me upset. From what I saw, the police (for the most part) showed remarkable restraint and did everything they could to non violently keep the students off the interstate where they could’ve been killed, where they could’ve blocked emergency vehicles, etc etc. Sure, I’m against the firing of pepper pellets, but they fired them in one spot on the street and students walked into them, KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING. It’s a tactic. It’s a tactic I have used. But don’t try to spin it another way. If you use your body as a tool of protest, own that. (also, offering flowers to the police officers is a tactic as well – it demonstrates your peaceableness as well as the officer’s refusal to accept it)
As for “ripping the shirt off” the female protester who was arrested and “holding her hostage”, I don’t want to minimize the terror that she must have felt, but that language is intentionally inflammatory and seems to inaccurately describe what actually happened. Her shirt appeared to ride up during a struggle with police. She was arrested and removed from the other students.
I’m an activist. I believe in civil disobdedience… but I also believe in owning your actions. and I believe in respecting the officers who are doing their jobs, part of which is to keep you safe and alive.
Police brutality happens and it’s horrific. I’ve seen it happen. i’ve heard about it from my father who witnessed it at the ’68 Democratic Convention. And this seems a real stretch to lump all these police actions into “brutality”.
I’m afraid I don’t see it the same way as you and that is ok – we don’t have to agree. I did not see police brutality in that clip. I did see what could have remained a completely peaceful protest escalate when the protesters began pushing and shoving the police. I feel sorry for the police because even while trying to complete their jobs by holding the line peacefully, they were pushed and mistreated by the protesters. This does not excuse any poor behavior on the part of the police either as some of them may have overstepped their bounds as well.
I have been involved in peaceful protests and some that turned quite dangerous due to actions by either police or protesters. In this situation, it does not appear that the police escalated the encounter.
The reason I asked what is legal in that area is because in my area it is illegal to block a roadway with your protest and the protesters could have all been arrested for that. Laws do determine what is considered a safe area to protest. Private property is off-limits in most cases, as are public roads in my area – it is a safety issue for both the protesters and other citizens.
I’m sorry but our constitution doesn’t say you can protest only in certain areas and only in a certain manner. It says we have the right to assemble and anything that restricts that in any way shape or form should be illegal
Actually, it kinda does – at least, insofar as it makes the Supreme Court the highest legal adjudicator, and the Supreme Court has ruled that there are some limits on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Further, what of the rights of the people on the road they’re blocking to get where they’re going? Is their right to use the public roadways in the manner set forth by the law trumped by the students’ “right” to block them?
Your notion of freedom of assembly quite simply isn’t borne out by our legal tradition, nor in my opinion should it be. To give any assembly the unrestricted right to disrupt the normal functioning of society is to open the door to all kinds of abuses.
I completely support the protesters here; however, I don’t understand why they would arrange a protest that negatively affects the very people they are trying to fight for. I use public transportation because I cannot afford to own a car at this time in my life, and growing up in cities have grown accustomed doing without one. If I were living in this area and attending this university, I would most likely be utilizing the buses. I would be royally, and rightfully pissed if I had to miss my classes (although I am sure any decent professor would be understanding in such a situation) because of a bunch of protesters. I certainly wouldn’t be sympathetic towards them at such a moment (it would be quite hard).
What if an ambulance had needed to pass? What if there were some other emergency? What does blocking traffic solve? It effects the students and the people on the road more than it effects the school. I understand that bringing awareness to major issues is important, but there are more practical and reasonable ways to do it. What I saw here was a mob of people “peacefully” walking into a line of police with no intention of stopping (hoping for and enticing a reaction). This is a method that has been used for quite some time now, but lets not pretend that it is something else.
I feel that the police did go overboard when they dragged the girl (they could have helped her up), and I’m relieved that she’s ok; but the crowd can’t say they didn’t see such a reaction coming.
I agree with the cause, and I support it. But when arranging protests, wouldn’t it be more conducive to take into consideration what you are fighting for and what you are fighting against?
Well, as to why the students are upsetting commuters — it’s to make them pay attention. UC students aren’t looking for people to “finance their lifestyles” – they are reminding Californians that we all have a right to access higher education, and that we all need to fight for that to be available to people all of incomes. And, it’s a reminder that huge lectures and scantron tests, which departments like English are having to turn to, are not a true education, but rather the cheapest way to get bodies through the system. Believe me, professors would rather have intimate classes where they can actually address student questions and challenge them to think instead of just sending information out and hoping some is received.
Also, the students aren’t looking for cuts to be made elsewhere: the problem is that California’s legislature cuts taxes over and over and over, taking state resources away from everyone. “From 1993 through 2008, the Legislature reduced general fund revenues by more than $100 billion. Lawmakers enacted tax breaks for oil companies, the horse-racing industry, the Gallo family, fax machines and new pornographic bookstores” (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/19/opinion/oe-ross19?pg=2). As a reminder, all the staff and faculty at the UCs are having their pay cut, and many have been fired. And it’s not only the UCs that are getting cut: the CSUs are turning away students they already accepted because their classes were cut by 25% or more, and the community colleges are being overwhelmed. This is a crisis in California’s higher educational system, and we want to make sure everyone does not go about their daily business when they could be crying out against this weakening of California’s best bet for the future.
In sum, I am proud of California’s students for supporting the unions, for asserting the right of citizens to an affordable education, and for being determined even in the face of public disapproval to get the message out there that the state government needs to reassess its priorities. The cuts the Regents are making this year are ones they *will* keep in place in the long term, even after the economy recovers, since the move has long been to cheapen education in California (http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budgetmyths.pdf). The administrators of the UC system have been very open about wanting to see the state system of education become more “entrepreneurial” and less dependent on the very state that runs it (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27fob-q4-t.html).