Dec 6, 2011
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WHAT HAPPENED.
UC Davis student pepper sprayed addressed General Assembly
UC Davis Chancellor Apologizes
My thoughts on occupy UCD
so I know I've been posting a lot of stuff about the occupy ucd thing, and I guess this'll be the last thing about it unless something really crazy happens, which I hope doesn't happen. In any case, I feel like the protest started with legitimate concerns regarding the tuition hikes over the last few quarters, even I felt it quite a bit in my senior year, and with my brother going to UCLA I just feel that the tuition hikes are .. quite a bit ridiculous. Noble intentions for sure, and something to be commended—perhaps better spent on the steps of Sacramento, but UCD quad is a good starting point. Just for the record, I haven't participated in any of the protests, just, kept a curious ear to the matter.
My thoughts about the pepper spray incident and Chancellor Katehi: I feel like it was a situation where an officer made a poor decision in the heat of the moment, and the consequences of that poor decision are what we see now. We all make mistakes, and this was definitely one of them. Now this isn't to say that he shouldn't be punished, after all we have to live with the consequences of our mistakes... As for Katehi, I feel like the call for her to step down is a little extreme. Granted, Katehi could have shown a little more remorse about the situation at the beginning, but that doesn't mean that she should be kicked out. Her entire time as chancellor should be examined before a decision like that should be made.
Right now, I feel like the school has kind of lost it's mind and it's original purpose for protesting. It's like a mob, calling for heads. Sure, it might be non-violent, but that doesn't mean it's not a mob. You can't tell me that hundreds of people in a crowd calling for Katehi to step down or for removal of all police from campus [I just watched a video where this idiot was making a speech for just that] is not a mob. It has a purpose, and that's to alienate an administrator trying her best to understand the situation[granted she might not be doing a good job of it, but she's trying—and getting there]. The protest is now a mob, under the pretentious shield of non-violence and the media and youtube.
I'd like to take a moment to explain why removal of police presence on the campus ranks among the stupidest ideas I've had the pleasure of listening to. Nevermind the fact that even with police presence on campus, people have been attacked in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, in the middle of campus. Anyway, Davis' population is .. 65,622 according to wikiipedia, that of which 32,290 are enlisted as students. That's about half of the population of the city. That means that in the course of the day, maybe 1/3 of the population of Davis is passing through campus and going in and out of campus. No police presence on campus? That's quite a large population that you want to keep unchecked and unregulated.
Anyway. That was just one of the points that I wanted to make, I know it's quite a bit of an extreme case, but I've seriously heard these stupid ideas spouted by people and I get angry. We're supposed to be educated students, but instead we just act like sheep. Sheep herded around by the loudest voice. That's what we are.
Now here's the part about what we should be doing. We should be taking all this national attention that we've gathered, and funnel it into change for our original purpose: the tuition hikes. Sure, changing police protocols for dealing with non-violent protests is going to be great for future protests, and removing Chancellor Katehi is going to.. actually I don't even fucking know what that's going to do. In any case, the original problem is still going to be there. Unsolved, untouched, because we keep being distracted by these minor issues. Let's go for the throat here on this issue. We've got the attention, we have the students, and we have the goal. Let's not lose sight of it.
Sorry for the .. idk I'm not that clear of a writer, but I just wanted to get that out there. Not going to post anything more on the subject[except for lt pike memes.. cause .. funny is funny..] So if you want to discuss this further please private message me.
Rally at the Quad