Mistermix already linked to the walk of shame video, and it should be clear to anyone watching that the kids have better organizational and critical thinking skills than the administration. I particularly liked the fact that she attempted to claim that she was threatened by the kids, turning herself into the victim to save her ass and her job. At any rate, we’ve now progressed in the ass-covering to the stages where we start chucking minions overboard:
The University of California at Davis placed two police officers on administrative leave after they pepper-sprayed non-violent protesters at point-blank range, the school announced Sunday.
Video of the Friday incident has led to calls for the resignation of UC-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who made the announcement of the officers on leave in a written statement Sunday afternoon. Katehi said she shares the “outrage” of students and was “deeply saddened” by the use of the chemical irritant by campus police.
“As chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident,” she said. “However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again.”
It’s important to remember the evolution of Katehi’s doublespeak in this fiasco. First, she was trying to blame the students:
I am writing to tell you about events that occurred Friday afternoon at UC Davis relating to a group of protestors who chose to set up an encampment on the quad Thursday as part of a week of peaceful demonstrations on our campus that coincided with many other occupy movements at universities throughout the country.
The group did not respond to requests from administration and campus police to comply with campus rules that exist to protect the health and safety of our campus community. The group was informed in writing this morning that the encampment violated regulations designed to protect the health and safety of students, staff and faculty. The group was further informed that if they did not dismantle the encampment, it would have to be removed.
Following our requests, several of the group chose to dismantle their tents this afternoon and we are grateful for their actions. However a number of protestors refused our warning, offering us no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal. We are saddened to report that during this activity, 10 protestors were arrested and pepper spray was used. We will be reviewing the details of the incident.
This then progressed to the blue-ribbon fact-finding task force supercommittee dialogue encouraging investigation to find out just what happened, when everyone on the planet knows what has happened because we saw the damned video, and the following mealy-mouthed bullshit:
During the early afternoon hours and because of the request to take down the tents, many students decided to dismantle their tents, a decision for which we are very thankful. However, a group of students and non-campus affiliates decided to stay. The university police then came to dismantle the encampment. The events of this intervention have been videotaped and widely distributed. As indicated in various videos, the police used pepper spray against the students who were blocking the way. The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.
To this effect, I am forming a task force made of faculty, students and staff to review the events and provide to me a thorough report within 90 days. As part of this, a process will be designed that allows members of the community to express their views on this matter. This report will help inform our policies and processes within the university administration and the Police Department to help us avoid similar outcomes in the future. While the university is trying to ensure the safety and health of all members of our community, we must ensure our strategies to gain compliance are fair and reasonable and do not lead to mistreatment.
It was chilling! It raises questions! We must form a task force to find out what happened!
This would be funny if it were not so pathetic, but people were not fooled by her nonsense, so she has moved on to the next stage in ass-covering- firing the minions. Notice that now she has pinned this on the rent-a-cops, she can find time to be outraged. Just two days ago, she was blaming the students. Sure, she says she is willing to take full responsibility for the events that transpired, but she doesn’t mean it. Quite simply, she just doesn’t get it. But when I looked at her expression as she did the walk of shame, I think it might be starting to set in. She’s in clearly over her head, and there is no way out this time. No level of administrative doublespeak is going to get her out of this mess.
Which leads me to what bothers me the most, which is the failure of leadership in every institution in this country. Can’t we do better than this? Can’t we do better than pay 400k to someone who doesn’t have an instinctive gut rejection of the idea of macing a bunch of kids sitting on a sidewalk. Can’t we do better than that? Shouldn’t we be able with that kind of money and benefits and perks to find someone who would immediately recoil at the thought of sending riot police with batons and chemical weapons to go thump the kids paying 35,000 a year for the privilege to sit in that public space? Can’t we find people whose immediate response to everything is not the application of force and a reliance on police brutality? Are we really this lost as a nation that our academic institutions are run by sociopaths with no problem solving skills? It’s just fucking amazing, whether it be UC Davis or Penn State or Wall Street or the Catholic Church or, well, wherever.
Al Swearengen
That video is blowing up. Not in a good way for the police.
Smiling Mortician
Hmm. Maybe this is OT, maybe not . . . but on Fox this morning, Juan Williams (I know, right?) schooled that disgrace-to-his-father’s-legacy, Chris Wallace, on the significance of #OWS.
Interesting . . .
Yutsano
Her job and what she was hired for is getting money through donors and out-of-state tuition payers to shell out so she can keep her $400K a year job. That’s it. That means she has to protect the institution by any means necessary. She’s not there for the students, they are just riff-raff who ruin her perfectly manicured lawns. She failed because she could not contain the reaction around the country and the world. On that basis she will be either terminated or shuffled around. Not because she totally forgot what the fuck an academic institution is for.
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Cole’s got his mad on again!
__
Of course you are right, but the 400k isn’t being spent for quality administrative services, it is being paid to insure that even in “liberal” academia, it s the oligarchy that must be served.
sullyVan
We are THAT lost.
You can’t have 10+ years of War, the “Drone” strikes abroad , the de-ployment of “Drones” on the border, with no outcry from the populace as normal.
The popular media is to blame.
As are we.
101st Chairborne, lookin at you.
BGinCHI
The problem is the people who are doing good work, in leadership positions, in classrooms, in cop shops and fire stations, in hospitals, get NO respect in this country.
We have a culture that rewards all of the wrong things and none of the right ones.
This is what happens when you don’t have any real conservatives. The only people protecting culture, protecting basic fundamental goods and services, all the while being accused of anything but, are liberals.
The right wants to make the whole country into a giant dysfunctional family.
ETA: when I mention cops, I mean the ones who aren’t thugs or violent assholes. There are plenty who are professional as hell, and they have dirty jobs.
edmund dantes
Yes we are that lost. She is a product of the American system of the last 30+ years (when it went into hyperdrive), but the reality is it has always been part of our moral fabric.
It’s just progressed far enough that the blowback is finally hitting on the supposed “normals”, and they have finally come to the realization that they aren’t the privileged few they thought they were when yelling at the “others”.
Thymezone
My instinctive reaction is, yes can find better people. But then I look at the voter turnout in 2010 and the resulting fact that the country is being run into the ditch by a congress that is much worse than what you are talking about, and I wonder …. If the better people sit on their hands and argue with each other over who gets to ride the pony first, then yes, we are that lost.
For reference, see Newt Gingrich’s rant on OWS from last night.
lamh35
GOP: ..Blame Obama
Micheal Moore: I Blame Obama..
Consensus…amiright?
salacious crumb
remember 9/11 happened to us. Cant criticize the anointed cops!! criticize them and Bin Laden wins!!
pete
Administrative leave, my ass. Fire them and resign. She should never set foot on campus again. Just resign by email.
That’s probably not going to happen, but it ought to. My call would be to shun her and boycott any event or meeting she attends. However, the UC Davis students will come to their own conclusions and, judging by what I’ve seen over the last few days, I will enthusiastically support their decisions.
TooManyJens
With full pay, I assume.
barath
I’m always reminded of this graph of senior administrator positions vs. faculty in the UC system:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/83/facultymgt2.png
It’s the corporatization and bureaucratization of universities…
Violet
@Yutsano: Exactly. She’s a PR figurehead, there to raise money and make sure the university’s reputation isn’t sullied. She’s messed up in a big way. She’ll be removed, but how and when will depend on what level of lawsuits the university fears.
John Cole @ top:
Of course we can do better. Do we have the guts and determination to make it better? I don’t know.
Calouste
Taking full responsibility for unprovoked violence by the campus police against the students would be resiging, Mrs. Katehi. Anything else is not “full”.
Roy G.
When I heard Katehi was afraid of the students, my thoughts were this: are you afraid that they might tear gas you, or because you are afraid, is that reason to tear gas these students?
I think she gets paid the big bucks to serve the 1% that is the UC Board of Trustees, who clearly have had an incredibly detrimental effect on the UC system over the past decade, viz the massive tuition increases, which correspond with increased perks for upper echelon administrators like Katehi, who received a 27% raise over her predecessor as Chancellor. Her value lies (lied) in advancing that shadow agenda while pushing feelgood rhetoric on Davis students, notably and most recently, this, from her ironically titled blog ‘Common Sense’:
The Civility Project
October 26th, 2011 @ 11:51 am by Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
UC Davis has a long tradition of promoting community, particularly our Principles of Community. We are a campus known for its civility and our commitment to respect, equality and freedom of expression runs deep. During the 2009-10 school year, UC Davis – as well as other UC campuses – experienced acts of intolerance and I vowed to take action to build an inclusive community. As we crafted our Vision of Excellence, we ensured that diversity and inclusivity were key components, and we took action to promote a hate- and bias-free campus.
We created a rapid response team to address hate and bias on both our Davis and Sacramento campuses; I led a delegation to the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance and Jim Leach, chair of the National Endowment for Humanities, brought his Civility Tour to UC Davis. As a result, we developed a far-reaching initiative now officially called Building a More Inclusive Community and the Civility Project was born.
The Civility Project was designed to use history and art to engage members of the UC Davis community in an examination of how incivility has been and continues to be manifested on campus and to explore alternative engagements in the future.
http://blogs.ucdavis.edu/common-sense/
//
Apparently, these students were so transgressive that Ms. Katehi had to flush The Civility Project down the toilet, and call for the stormtroopers. Which is why she has to go, and why the UC Board of Regents needs to go under the public microscope.
gbear
Shouldn’t that ‘However…’ be an ‘And’…? The correct answer is both of those statements.
And Another Thing…
Righteous rant Cole.
See, the problem you’ve got is that you think those institutions are there to help people & society function better. The UCD chancellor, Wall Street thugs, Bishop/Cardinal, Paterno et al see their job as protecting their job…their own little piece of money & power. It’s probably mostly always been this way, the current difference is we know so much more of what’s really going on.
Without the photo, the video, the nets, the malfeasance would be swept under the rug.
After watching months of Middle Easterners get beat up & abused by their “authorities” & being smugly judgmental about their cultures & governments, it’s just stunning to see our “authorities” be so craven. Isn’t it?
bleh
Yes yes, but stinky hippies! Also slacker trust-fund babies! And probably both! Plus, they all have lots and lots of SEX all the time, which I don’t, and it makes me furious!
pluege
problem is, we’ve turned the keys to the kingdom over to a bunch of violent, criminally indecent psychopaths who should be receiving professional psychiatric help, not running things. You’re talking really big numbers:
* virtually every single person actively or passively identifying as republican – at least 50% of the population
* a majority of people identifying as Democrat
* leaving maybe 20% of the US population that that you comfortably classify as sane and decent. The rest, lost in their diseased minds with little to no chance of a meaningful improvement.
and the decent 20%…better duck.
Ruckus
Can’t we find people whose immediate response to everything is not the application of force and a reliance on police brutality?
I’ll do it. For half her salary.
Anne Laurie
Wasn’t sure this deserved a separate post, but it’s worth a read:
Dumb-Ass Training & the UC-Davis Pepper-Spray Incident
Jeffro
University presidents are complete figureheads, rainmakers for their endowments at best. Nothing a couple motivated student body presidents or alumni couldn’t handle.
pablo
UC Davis has a chance for a product endorsement here…
harlana
point made: this is just to scare the shit out of ordinary people who may have been considering joining the movement but aren’t too keen on the idea of getting doused in the face with pepper spray just for being peaceful
Darnell From LA
Yeah, pepper spray is bad…
Hey, remember when a unarmed black guy named Oscar Grant was shot in the back by a cop, while on the ground and subdued?
Remember how this liberal blog BLEW UP the way it is now over the pepper spraying of….
Oh, wait;
https://balloon-juice.com/?s=oscar+grant
Right. Gosh, why the heck are black people soooo dubious of OSW? Hmmmmm, a real head scratcher here….
*** We now return you to our regularly scheduled program: “White Liberals With No Self Awareness Whatsoever” already in progress.
harlana
can someone explain to me, btw, how the proposed 81% tuition increase is not a typo?
Villago Delenda Est
The cops who did the spraying should be fired.
Unfortunately, they’d be picked up by that fascist asshole Arpaio in a hearbeat. His kind of thugs.
master c
Your last sentence sums up my adult quandry. All my trusted institutions are not to be trusted, my hopes are dashed by reality.
JGabriel
I completely fail to understand why campus police are outfitted with pepper spray, blast shields, and tasers.
The assumptions that must underlie a decision to outfit campus police in that manner are simply mind-boggling.
.
Unabogie
@Darnell From LA:
Your Google skillz suck.
https://balloon-juice.com/?s=Mehserle
Now back to your regularly scheduled trolling.
ETA: Your search link has even more results. What’s your point?
Odie Hugh Manatee
You were pitch perfect until the second to last sentence:
Fix’t.
Yes we are but at least we are paying top dollar for failure!
xian
@Calouste: Reagan really killed the notion of what taking full responsibility for something means. Post Beirut (or was it Iran/Contra) it means “the conversation stops here.”
xian
@Unabogie: pwned! but but but Darnell is a *good* white liberal. He has black neighbors!
The Dangerman
Oh, it’s even worse than that…
…I read last evening that she was head of Admissions at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and there was some scandal in her department. As I read it, rather than fire her worthless ass for running a department that was under intense scrutiny, because she was already a member of “The Club” and knew the secret handshake, she was promoted to the position at Davis.
Pretty sweet gig if you can get it.
Edit:
For your linky pleasure:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-college-clout-ripples-19-jun19,0,487757.story
BrianM
@Darnell From LA: I think you’re right. White liberals do tend to notice what happens to their own more than what has been happening to others.
But I think there’s an important difference between outrage at an incident or pattern of incidents that seem unfixable and support for a movement of people who, implausibly, unexpectedly, seem to be having some success at maybe fixing one of the many injustices that need fixing.
When people get their hopes up, they react differently.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TooManyJens:
And I called it here, immediately after it happened. Watch now, they will be cleared and return to work but it will be months from now after the furor has died down a bit.
As usual.
lamh35
Completely OT, but this is just despicable. I don’t recall liberals/Dems booing First Lady Laura Bush when she did events for her pet projects.
I admit, I’m NOT a NASCAR fan and I tellya what, after this BS I never will be.
NASCAR Fans Boo Michelle Obama During Event Honoring Troops
Stay classy Rednecks!!!
ETA: Oh, now I’m reading that one of the drivers Kurt Busch may have thrown FLOTUS the bird! This is one of the same drivers who “were too busy” to visit the WH when other NASCAR drivers visited.
Darnell From LA
@Unabogie: Er, uh, I came up with 2 whole posts about Oscar Grant on this blog.
Your “superior” google skills produced found 1 post. Yay?
You sure showed, uh…something.
** We know return to our regularly scheduled program: “Some White Liberals Making All Of Us White Liberals Look Really, Really Lame” already in 60th day of it’s open ended telethon….
bemused
@Smiling Mortician:
Chris Wallace says with a straight face that he’s in touch with most people. Of course, in his world most people are the 1%.
piratedan
but John….. HR says that you don’t meet the qualifications of being a rational living and breathing human being with a complete set of moral/ethical infrastructure that will meet our criteria in this challenging economic and social climate…
You need at a minimum an associates degree in business administration and preferred 10 to 12 years of decision making experience in a supervisory capacity…..
/snark off
mamayaga
@And Another Thing…:
I keep seeing these appreciations of what we can now accomplish with citizen journalism via the net, but very, very little discussion of the fact that we are scheduled to lose our internets by New Year’s. The new IP legislation working its way (quickly) through Congress will put draconian law enforcement powers into the hands of the copyright holders who have already been proven, via DCMA takedown notices, that they can’t be trusted. On the mere assertion by a rights holder that your site has violated one of its copyrights, your ISP will be obliged to take the site down, and payment services (e.g., Visa, Paypal) will be obliged to cut you off. You’ll have 5 days to respond. Good luck finding a good copyright lawyer in 5 days. Better luck affording one.
This is how it will likely work politically: A commenter on BJ will quote Faux News on something. Faux News will assert that the quote violates its copyright and will make a notification. The 5 day clock starts ticking, and unless John can pull some expensive magic out of his hat, in a little while another one of Unca Rupert’s problems is solved. And forget Fair Use — rights holders ignore it in their takedown notices now, why should they do better when they have a really really big stick?
I keep looking around lefty blogs to see how they’re responding to this, and the answer is NOT. Boing Boing has had good coverage, however, so if you want to see what the future holds, go there and do a search for “SOPA.”
Darnell From LA
@lamh35:
I blame Obama.
He should have had Michelle and Dr. Biden escorted by the Miami-Dade Police department, which he directly controls anyway.
Sincerely, #michaelmoorethoughts
Emma
@Smiling Mortician: Dear God, we are in the End Times…
Darnell From LA
@master c:
Note: Not trying to hammer you personally, Master C, just trying to make a point.
Lex
@Roy G.: Wow. Just … wow.
We are a nation of sociopaths.
RalfW
Our culture is completely saturated in violence. It’s formative heritage is blatant land theft and genocide. Which is barely noticed most of the time.
I was at an anti-racism conference yesterday in St. Paul, MN and – for the first time, despite living here 16 years – I learned of the massacre by hanging of Dakota men in Mankato 150 years ago. And this was one tiny example of systematic theft of land, humanity, resources and labor that is the entire capitalist history of the “new world.”
If we can re-elect (or tolerate the re-installation of) a man like George Bush after he manufactured the massive Iraq war, then yes, John, we really are this lost.
I had hoped Obama might be a turning point, but the totally saturated culture of violence cannot be overcome by one politician (even a very smart and talented one) or one political moment (even one that was as transcendent and hopeful as his election was).
Our culture of violence may take centuries to undo. Or a few years of Beck/Rove/wingtard egging on for us to self-immolate.
Unabogie
@Darnell From LA:
Your link has five results. What’s your point?
Darnell From LA
BREAKING:
Sincerely, #michaelmoorethoughts
Observer
No, John, “we” can’t.
The entire society has been build on a base of winner-takes-all. For all such systems to have longevity it has to be combined with a look-the-other-way mindset in matters of social justice.
You don’t like what happened at UC Davis? Try starting changing the false one-man one-vote system where we ignore that exactly 538 people actually have two votes.
Joe Max
@barath: “I’m always reminded of this graph of senior administrator positions vs. faculty in the UC system:
http://img263.imageshack.us/im…..tymgt2.png
It’s the corporatization and bureaucratization of universities…”
I work for UC. I get partially laid-off over the Xmas recess (and summer.) My department has laid off 30% of it’s career employees and replaced them with “contractors” who don’t get benefits. We got a 3% raise a few years ago but had to go on strike to get it.
Meanwhile, the UC football coach gets $2,349,037 a year – for a losing season!
Darnell From LA
@Unabogie: The fact you even need to ask sort of illustrates the point.
The point being made every day, which is that the events that have too many white liberals absolutely up in arms screaming “POLICE STATE!” have been happening, are happening, and will CONTINUE to happen to minorities in this country, long after OWS has gone home.
How is this hard to understand? And why isn’t OWS willing to hear this criticism from African-Americans and Hispanics, father than dismissing it and thereby seem to confirm, and confirm to, the worst stereotype of white liberals as entitled and out of touch?
Zandar
There is a larger point here, but it’s difficult to reach.
Darnell From LA
HAPPENING NOW:
Sincerely, #michaelmoorethoughts
suzanne
Wow. Knock a zero and some extra for good measure, and that’s how much I make. And even I can tell you that spraying a bunch of unarmed college students who are merely sitting where you don’t want them to is a bad fucking idea.
Unabogie
@Darnell From LA:
Well you seemed to be trying to make the point that Oscar Grant was ignored here. He wasn’t. Then you tried to compare a one time tragedy to an ongoing situation such as the numerous protests going on in every city in the country, which is why there are more posts about the current police misconduct than there were about Grant.
So you’re just wrong. I don’t know why you don’t just concede the point and move on.
RalfW
@Darnell From LA: The Occupy Oakland people invited Waziyatawin from the Yellow Medicine region of this continent to do some very real truth-telling last weekend. The audience was white liberals, I do believe. She read this text at a workshop I attended yesterday (more white liberals, but also black, Asian, Latino and more), and I link it here for folks hear a bit more about the violent roots of our country.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/11/dakota-waziyatawin-speaks-to-occupy.html
Darnell From LA
BREAKING:
Sincerely, #michaelmoorethoughts
RinaX
@Zandar:
Thanks for that. That’s pretty much along the lines of thought I’ve been having in reaction to all of the shock and outrage at the police actions. Yes, police can be violent assholes, something I’ve been very aware of since childhood. My father had to have talks with both of my brothers from a very young age regarding police and how to act around them that I’d gather most white males never had to hear from theirs.
suzanne
@Villago Delenda Est:
We have enough of those fuckwits in Maricopa County, thank you. In fact, I was on the receiving end of some of their pepper spray once. Thanks for the offer, but no thanks.
Speaking of, Citizens for a Better Arizona, the community group primarily responsible for kicking Russell Pearce to the curb, will be making a major announcement tomorrow at noon MST on the steps of the AZ State Capitol. Expected to announce that they will be throwing all their community organizing efforts behind defeating Arpaio in the next election. WOOT.
WaterGirl
@The Dangerman: I never liked her as chancellor at UI, and I am angry/disgusted/etc at what she did at UC Davis.
But I imagine that the admissions issue that caused the scandal was in place long before she ever came here. I believe that what she did (IIRC) is she actually made it a formal approach that could be documented.
Which was really stupid. So that seems consistent, at least!
Yutsano
@suzanne:
Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease…
sullyVan
@bleh: Sex is “Over-rated”. Too many expectations.
Forget it “Darnell”. Poli/Sci 101, is ALL that these drones adhere to.
Cue…..AWSP, C…X, it’s all the same..
scav
@Zandar: Well it would be easier without loopier than fruit loops playing competitive games of who gets beat up more, don’t you dare complain for anything less. The straw that breaks the camels back isn’t always the most oppressed straw but if the goal is bringing the camel down, why not go with it — there is at least the hope that everyone will benefit. It’s entirely unfair that there were as many straws on that camel as there were and it actually took all of them to bring it down and no, we shouldn’t forget the other straws existence. But still, isn’t the first goal is the downed camel? News of the World was pulling all kind of shit for years but when it was finally made clear they’d done it to a murdered little girl (instead of only movie stars and politicians), kaboom. But those movie stars and politicians are getting their day in inquiries now along with the Dowler family.
Actually, I was rather wondering. Does anyone think the reaction to police tactics along these lines is quicker post the civil rights movement? Is the country quicker off the mark to object to these actions after all the water cannon and dogs etc. that we saw in the past? I’d hope so, but I may be experiencing an all too rare attack of vain hope.
Omnes Omnibus
@Darnell From LA: So white liberals should say nothing? Let’s say you are right and white liberals have not done anything about police violence because they were unaware of it due to white privilege – a not unreasonable supposition, now that some have become aware of it, what do you propose they should do?
Omnes Omnibus
@sullyVan:
Probably because you are doing it wrong which isn’t particularly surprising.
Darnell From LA
@Unabogie: Again, my point and the issue I am pressing (which is so immutable for any person of color) is reflected in your own words.
To wit:
You are displaying the central disconnect that OWS and too many white liberals simply cannot see.
Terrible physical abuse of non-white Americans is NOT a “one time tragedy.” In this comparison abuse of people of color by authorities IS the “ongoing situation.” Not the reverse.
And to describe or liken the 2 situations really puts the chasm between life in white vs. non-white America into stark relief.
You see, people of color in this country don’t have to practice Civil Disobedience to find themselves on the wrong end of a police baton. They don’t have to disobey a police order to move or vacate to be seriously injured by a Cop.
OWS will, eventually, end. But more importantly, OWS protesters can simply CHOOSE at any time to remove themselves from current risks they are confronting. Black and brown people can’t.
The white kids being pepper sprayed can decide to remove themselves from the ‘line of fire.’ Whereas when OWS protesters have spent 2 months facing the wrong end of Police power, black people have been there on the front lines all of their lives, and will still be BLACK or BROWN long after OWS is gone. i.e. on the front lines.
For the life of me, as a white guy, I cannot fathom how this is soooo hard for other thoughtful, intelligent white people to understand.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly. Assuming Darnell is for real and not just a troll, how much easier and more productive would it be to say something along the lines of “Take this episode and multiply it by a zillion to try and understand what African Americans have suffered”, than just sneering at kids being pepper sprayed?
eemom
@Darnell From LA:
because you’re doing a shitty job of trying to explain it, for one thing. See above.
Insulting and belittling people is not going to get them to listen to you.
TooManyJens
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Mmm-hmm. All Linda Katehi has to do to keep her cushy job is to get this to go away long enough for the public’s attention span to shift to something else (i.e., not long at all).
Here’s to not letting it go away.
MikeBoyScout
John, take solace.
As the video shows there are thousands of students at UC Davis who are much better qualified to fill Kathei’s shoes (or her fellow shit-for-brains colleague chancellor at Berkley, Birgeneau).
The question now is can we survive until the better generation gets there.
AA+ Bonds
@Darnell From LA:
Get the fuck out of Balloon Juice forever
AA+ Bonds
Darnell from LA If you were Performing a good troll I would say so but that persona is absolutely terrible, this white guy who tells you what black and brown people really want
master c
I really don’t know what youre trying to say Darnell-and I’m your audience-
white liberal. On whose behalf are you speaking?
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeBoyScout: Actually, you get to a larger point here. People are picking a year to bitch about the fact that human society sucks where, throughout the world, including the United States, people are exercising their voices, often non-violently and quite creatively to strike back against the assholes. Isn’t the fucking fact that thousands of people have been waking up and doing something remotely inspirational?
pete
@eemom: This. Also, the students at UC Davis are doing an excellent job of responding to their own situation and I support them in that. Multi-tasking! Politically, it’s a good idea.
Norwester
Wow! A GREAT post from Mr. Cole, no snark intended. OWS is really schooling folks, even good “liberals”, on the way things are.
O.H. Manatee’s correction at #32 was right on. The rot and corruption are that endemic, all the way to the top. While there was still enough prosperity, they could loot w/ impunity, but it’s getting a little threadbare for most of us now and it’s harder and harder to cringe under the blankets of denial.
Darnell from L.A. has a good point– when white college kids are attacked w/ this kind of viciousness it’s a little easier for privileged white liberals to get it, they’re next up if they continue to complain about the crimes and inequity.
This site has so celebrated O’Bomber’s reign, telling us he’s not as bad despite continuing all W’s most vicious imperial projects (most recently the posting of Marines in Australia, “threatened” by a Chinese invasion about as convincing as Reagan’s claims that the Sandinistas were “a day and a half drive from Texas”), gone even harder after whistle-blowers, and treated the lawless wiretapping, torture and murder of BushCo w/ the same gravity that Paterno treated Sandusky’s child rapes: Let’s look forward and forget about it guys, that stuff’s a bummer to even think about . . .
Well, if the critique above is serious– it is at least consonant w/ the observed facts– perhaps the blinders of denial will come off regarding Dear Leader, who we all know will never make any statement even mildly decrying what happened at UC Davis on Saturday.
AA+ Bonds
My task force finds me, Linda Katehi, obviously guilty of this shit. I’ll drive myself to jail.
Cap'n Magic
Let’s see if the head of the UC system calls for Ms. Katehi’s resignation.
Yutsano
@Norwester: I smell ODS on you…
Darnell From LA
@Omnes Omnibus: Simple.
Decide what the hell this is all about. At the beginning I thought this, OWS, was about stuff like this:
— Ending Too Big To Fail
— Taxing Corps to pay for their own damn bailouts
— Getting Corp $$ out of campaigns, and lobbying
— Making the wealthy pay their share in taxes
— Freakin’ fix ‘Citizens United’
— Reinstate Glass-Steagal
— Jobs and help for the middle class
That is what OWS WAS about. Now? 99.9999% of the noise and message coming from OWS is about “cops.” It’s about “militarized police.” It’s about “pepper Spray.”
What is the most pressing, defining goal of the movement as we speak??? Is it pushing congress to reinstate Glass-Steagal?
No. It’s trying to get the head of UC Davis and some cop named John Pike fired. That’s what the movement is hot on right now.
You want to talk about the Civil Rights Movement? Well, let’s talk about it.
MLK Jr. and the larger Civil Rights Movement went into their struggle realizing that blood would be part of the price they paid. They never STOPPED talking about equal rights, economic fairness, and equal access to public and private facilities. They stayed on messaged, as they were being pummeled. That’s toughness.
Their movement never morphed into a single minded quest to get Bull Conner fired. No, they kept their “Eyes On The Prize”, didn’t they?
Look at the list of what OWS WAS ALL ABOUT. Not tell me, between the all the words and energy being expended over getting University heads and Cops fired, and Mayors to resign, fences torn down, public parks occupied, and talking about how many people were arrested, how often do you hear the actual goals of this movement anymore??
And lets say that tomorrow you get a dozen cops, the head of UC Davis, and the Mayor of Oakland fired….does this stop “Too Big To Fail?” Will taxes on the rich be raised as a result? No.
TL;DR – Pick a cause. Economic justice or…ending police brutality in America, once and for all. And if you pick the latter, not the former it must be for ALL Americans, not just for white people at OWS.
TooManyJens
@Darnell From LA: If, by protesting the way our economy and society are rigged to favor the 1%, Occupy exposes one way that rigging stays in place (police brutality), then it seems to me that they are still very much on message.
virginia
I lurk a lot here — or I used to. This weekend got me back into the John Cole crack. I too love it when you get steamed. And when you show nice photos of your lovely furniture.
Re all this, it’s just amazing to me how these young people at UCD have handled the debacle. It gives me hope. Hope is of course a dangerous substance and highly peppery in its own way.
This a moment for Carl Jung — there’s so much roiling around out there just under the surface. I’m stunned to see women dragged by their hair by police officers on both coasts. It’s incredible to see this Pike guy mugging for the cameras with his aerosol containers like this is “Barney” or something.
I’m stunned, but not really, that the NYTs decided to make Kristoff its guy on this story this Sunday — nothing against NK — BUT what a giant fucking cop-out. Front page story, NYTs. WTF? Kids being assaulted on American campuses by uniforms?
And, wow, two major state universities basically doing PR implosions within a matter of weeks? Awesome stuff.
I support Obama for the most part but am very disappointed that he has not gotten out in front on the police abuse angle–and I’m generally accepting of the fact that the man may need to think things through. But this one is a no-brainer, and the longer he waits, the shabbier he looks.
Can we do better? Sure but Board control of many of these institutions is a big part of the problem. The Chancellor is obviously not a bright woman — I would guess she spends a fair amount of her time with the Development Staff — and overseeing the ubiquitous organizing of cocktail parties, pointless and expensive Board retreats, semi-annual meetings of the worthies, tours of the campus for the same, etc etc. All the horrendously expensive and time-consuming activities that these fat cats require in exchange for their vast experience doing God knows what–and a bit of pocket change. A lot of these folks I would imagine are in no way qualified to oversee the institutions they drain the life blood of and are in it for the bragging rights.
Sorry to write a novel. I’m encouraged by all the young anger, controlled and well-directed, and am praying it’s just the beginning.
MikeBoyScout
@75 Omnes Omnibus:
It is to me. And I suspect to others as well.
I’d only add that on a global scale it is not thousands, but millions.
We are winning.
It is only the beginning of the beginning.
linkee all will want to see: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2676549357532&set=p.2676549357532&type=1&theater
300baud
I understand some jobs check your credit report and criminal record before they hire you, especially if you’ll be handling large sums of money. Can’t we check people’s sociopathy score before they manage a significant number of people?
Omnes Omnibus
@Darnell From LA: Okay, for a couple of days after something happens to them they talk about it – this is a shock to you? I bet if I kicked you in the balls, you would say something, no matter how focused you were on other things prior, and subsequent, to the ball-kicking. In other words, get off their backs, asshole.
Dubba A Plus Bondz
So, was I just banned for attacking Darnell from LA because that seems pretty goddamn interesting if so
BBA
@300baud: Sociopathy is a prerequisite to success. It’s not so much that power corrupts as that the corrupt are most adept at attaining power.
bin Lurkin'
@eemom:
Are you new here?
I’ve just been lurking for a very long time while seldom posting and I know insulting and belittling people is a fucking art form on BJ.
MikeBoyScout
UCDecolonized/Occupied Retake the Quad
on November 21 2011 12:00 PM
Regroup on the quad. Bring tents and be prepared.
http://occupydavis.org/
Darnell From LA
BREAKING:
Sincerely, #michaelmoorethoughts
Omnes Omnibus
@bin Lurkin’: Sure, but if you kept reading you would have noticed that she pointed out that this is not the best method of persuading people. She didn’t tell him not to do it or suggest that it is not the done thing here. Further, if you really have been here for a very long time, you would probably know that eemom is quite good at the insulting and belittling when she chooses to be which is reasonably often.
ETA: No offense to eemom intended.
barath
@Joe Max:
Seems to me though that the *senior* positions have ballooned out of control – these are the folks that, for example, fought to keep their annual $200k retirement benefits by dumping the cost on students.
Darnell From LA
@MikeBoyScout: Great.
NOT: “Hey, lets organize to pressure congress to reinstate Glass-Steagal!”
OR: “Hey, lets put together a detailed plan of action to address ‘Citizens United’, either through economic pressure or constitutional means.”
Oh no. We’re “taking over the quad.” Pinch me, I’m dreaming. Weeeeeee!
Great Moments in Progressivism:
“A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy”
— Teddy Roosevelt – 1908
“Operation Retake the Quad..Bring tents….”
— Occupy Wall St. 2011
That does it. Have fun at the circus, or weeny roast or whatever the hell ‘re-taking the quad’ will accomplish.
I for one intend to OCCUPY A FUCKING VOTING BOOTH COME NOVEMBER 2012.
Fuck me with a swordfish. Jesus H. Christ On Sale. I give up….
“The quad.” Sweet Athena on a spit….
xian
@Darnell From LA: cool. btw, what have you done to get Paul Ryan to admit that income inequality is a problem?
Rekster
Well, I guess if one University is going to form a Task Force after a Grand Jury has already found that one of their Assistant Coaches was Fucking little boys in the ass on their property then I guess another should form one when they view video of the police spraying pepper spray on their students.
Might as well shut the door after the cows have left. Seems like that is the standard procedure.
xian
@virginia: yeah, that’s cool, but Darnell says they don’t have legislation written yet for congress so they should stfu.
bin Lurkin'
@Omnes Omnibus: I go back to before John’s Damascus moment, I recall Darrell and his brother Darrell and that crazy fuck with bird in his name, can’t think of it right now. I post in bursts from time to time and can never remember what name I used the last time.
At some point you just get where you want to tear someone’s arm off and beat them with it until they get a clue. Holding back the snark is the hardest thing about posting for me and I don’t always manage it so I kind of understand where Darnell is coming from.
Darnell From LA
@xian: You mean the speech he said he was going to give, but never gave? That one? The speech he cancelled?
And what exactly were the tangible results of Paul Ryan’s aborted speech? Is the GOP ‘that much closer’ to raising taxes on the wealthy? ‘This close’ to voting en mass to end “too big to fail?”
Right. But at least you got your pony and some good fee-fees for the day.
Jesus. Are my fellow liberals ALWAYS drunk?
Omnes Omnibus
@Darnell From LA: Apples and oranges. A quote from a President and a quote from an organizing message between a group of students. I bet TR sent some banal sounding telegrams. I also bet that some union organizer in 1908 put out a message like, “Picketing on Tuesday. Wear a scarf.”
@Darnell From LA: No, we aren’t always drunk, but when we get lectured by a know-it-all asshole like you we often wish we were.
Petorado
As other commenters noted, “taking responsibly” for an incident like this no longer means what it’s supposed to mean. Rather than admitting they should suffer the punishment for a failure, it is now a phrased uttered when donning the mantle of victim in chief. Admitting responsibility should never be followed by “however.” A statement of resignation is the appropriate next utterance.
The brewing outrage over Occupy police brutality, isn’t because of the victim’s race, it’s because the public is seeing in a broad context how police are being used to brutally reinforce this nation’s economic and class inequalities. It’s another indication of how thoroughly rotted-out this nation’s social infrastructure has become.
xian
psst: don’t show Darnell this link to Bob Ostertag’s post on HuffPost as it might put the Davis protest in a meaningful context.
Jennifer
Are we really this lost as a nation that our academic institutions are run by sociopaths with no problem solving skills?
Errrr….have you noticed what’s going on in one of our only two major political parties?
Darnell From LA
@xian: Actually OWS has disavowed even taking part in the political process. Because supporting 1 political party and its goals (goals that can be made to coincide with those of OWS) would be allowing the movement to be “cop-opted” by a political party.
So yeah. If your message is nothing more than “Fucking cops…and, uh pepper spray! Fuck you, UC Davis Lady!” You don’t have to stfu, but then again Michael Moore doesn’t have to stfu either, and look how THAT is turning out.
Suffern ACE
@xian: No. People shouldn’t organize around specific things that are meaningful to them. And when they do, they should put their concerns in the proper perspective of those who know how easy it would be to get Congress to pass Glass-Stegal II if only people asked for it in an orderly and organized fashion.
Tehanu
@Omnes Omnibus:
Word. Nowhere has Darnell from L.A. said anything about what he thinks people should DO, except feel guilty because other people suffer worse. Which is the very definition of a concern troll trying to encourage apathy and giving up.
Peter
Darnell from LA, I am not going to engage you in conversation except to point out that you’ve failed to provide sources to back up the assumption underlying your original point: That Minority communities are suspicious of OWS. I’m not saying that it’s not true, but all I’ve got to go on right now is your white and increasingly deranged ass. Maybe you should provide links and let them speak for themselves.
Also that when the false dichotomy you were creating was pointed out to you, you immediately moved not only the goalposts but the entire playing field.
Basically you reek of concern trollery even worse than Yevgraf.
virginia
@xian: Darnell is perhaps not a Jungian. But he is vastly ambitious so, you know, the wish list is like all really practical, pragmatic, and, for the most part utterly impossible right now–or ever, because the first step is always admitting that we have a major problem. Or a clusterfuck of problems. But I don’t like to squabble – and I certainly don’t want to tangle.
I’m ready for Occupy Congress actually and I’d be okay with the lawns in that general area being made as dirty as humanly possible. Time for Woodstock on the Mall. I’d hop on the subway and attend.
numbskull
Katehi putting the cops on leave is like the Wicked Witch of the East punishing her flying monkeys for tearing up the Scarecrow.
C’mon Linda, that is EXACTLY why you sent the monkeys out to find Dorothy.
And like Dorothy, the sweet innocent students have found the PERFECT bucket of water to throw on Wicked Linda – truth and quiet but firm witness.
“I’m melting! Melting!…”
Darnell From LA
@xian: Shhhh…
Don’t tell whoever the fuck that the article in question just goes to show how diffused OWS has become.
As if police brutality was some legend seen through the smoky glass of time! Or had existed in a vacuum like some rare element that the intrepid (cough, white) members of OWS have finally discovered.
But NOW lets jam the “Militarization of College Cops” into the complex and utterly mystifying Jenga that used to be clear, singularly minded movement called….uh, what was…Oh yeah Occupy Wall St!
I can’t remember this long gone “Occupy Wall Street” stood for. Something about tents and free circumnavigation of the nation’s quads, or something.
Wow. It’s amazing. I wonder if cops have ever acted this way before….(NOTE: Uh yes, yes they have. — Black People)
Think, folks. Seriously. You know that big pile of tissue perched atop your brain stem was not simply an aesthetic choice made by evolution, right? It is functional.
Dear god.
300baud
@BBA:
I don’t think it’s a prerequisite except for certain kinds of success. In particular, the kinds that tend toward parasitic. So I’m ok with banning those people. Companies like Toyota suggest that we would be no worse off.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Rekster:
When I was in high school my American Government teacher told our class about these “commissions” that are formed to “investigate possible wrongdoing” on the part of public officials or businesses. Are planes crashing? Form a commission to investigate it. Corruption by public officials? Bring on the commission. Police killing innocents? Another commission. Whatever it is that causes public outrage, form a commission to look into it. Once the public furor dies down the commission issues their report absolving everyone of any wrongdoing or they penalize some minor character and dump the responsibility for the problem on them.
Then it’s back to business as usual. At the time I thought our teacher was being a bit over the top but I learned otherwise real quickly.
Missing Link (Mr. Lincoln) was a good teacher who didn’t sugar-coat everything for our young minds.
Suffern ACE
@Darnell From LA: Why should they engage in the political process. The political process as it stands right now is corrupt and involves paying people like Newt Gingrich for history consulting fees. What could they gain by playing in that game. They are students. They could not possibly match anyone right now when it comes to hiring the proper upper middle class talent necessary to move legislation.
They need to show that they are serious, and one way to do that is to get beaten up and come back. They could just say “o.k. I’ll go vote Democrat” but have the Democrats said that they’ll do something about tuition increases and student loan debt? Perhaps they should wait to be convinced that the older people who are in charge of the dems might be taking their concerns seriously before whoring out their vote.
Michael Moore is no more their leader than I am, so why you worry about what he says is just strange.
Omnes Omnibus
@Odie Hugh Manatee: The positive side of this is that when you want to avoid doing something awful that people want you to do, you can appoint a commission to study it as well. It is a double-edged sword.
pete
@Darnell From LA: Dammit, I’d like to agree with you on what I think is your main point, but you are so obnoxious that it’s becoming impossible. Are you really trying to prevent a rational discussion? Because that is what you are actually doing — preventing it.
OWS is important. The oppression of minorities in this society is important. The excellent nonviolent behavior of the UC Davis students is important. None of these things contradicts any of the others.
Will you please stop yelling and start doing something constructive.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@bin Lurkin’: “… and that crazy fuck with bird in his name…”
BIRDZILLA?
@Omnes Omnibus:
A really flexible double-edged sword!
LiberalTarian
Well, it is too bad she couldn’t take a lesson or two from Emil Mrak, Chancellor at Davis during the 60s. When all hell was busting loose all over the country it didn’t at Davis.
A fact that uninformed Davisites are not necessarily proud. “Too milquetoast a community to get exercised about anything.” Not true, not true.
When demonstrations and marches were organized on the UC Davis campus in those days, Emil Mrak joined the protests. He joined the marches. He invited the student leaders to his offices and they talked over strategies and principles. So, all hell didn’t break loose at Davis.
But, that was then, this is now. Emil Mrak was student and research oriented, an academic who came up through the ranks at UCD. Now students are not so much the focus of these people. These people jacked up the rankings of the sports teams, turned the campus into a country club and more importantly, lined their pockets with the university’s wealth.
I do hope they shit can that idiot, and about 30% of the upper administration. That would help tremendously. Make it a school again, and not a Mondavi enterprise.
Darnell From LA
@Peter: It’s called the internet. It allows people of disparate experience, race, and socioeconomic backrounds to interact with each other.
In the early 2000’s one popular internet tool, “the Blog” (short for WEBLOG) allowed individuals to share their thoughts, ideas and concerns in real time.
In July of 2006 the micro-blogging system “Twitter” was launched. The 140 character limit enabled users to follow, in real time, hundreds of other users every day.
The above was literally off the top of my head.
Other than ‘Reading. The. Goddamned. Internet. That. You. Are. Currently. Logged. Into. You could always seek out a black person or even travel to a predominately black community(like most white liberals you may have to pack a lunch and/or tent for the trip).
In other words, you being truly be unaware of the suspicion with which people of color hold OWS is either a supreme example of ignorance or political or racial solipsism. I don’t know which.
Peter
@pete: Yeah basically. He’s right that police brutality is nothing new, and has been perpetrated on minority communities with disturbing regularity and only very occasionally does a peep of furor get made about it. But he’s so very, very loudly and obnoxiously wrong about every single thing else that you find yourself not wanting to agree with the one thing he’s right about, just due to proximity.
bin Lurkin'
@Odie Hugh Manatee: BIRDZILLA, that’s the one..
Damn, them was some innocent times, eh?
I honestly don’t see why everyone is getting all in a lather over Darnell, he’s a lot closer to correct than incorrect..
Peter
@Darnell From LA: I’ll admit I dont follow the OWS thing as closely as others do, if it’s that widespread it shouldn’t be hard for you to find examples. Show your work.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@bin Lurkin’:
Innocent compared to now anyway…lol! Yeah, those were some good times back then. The lather here about what Darnell is saying?
Sometimes the truth hurts and denial makes it hurt even more.
pete
@Peter: That’s about it.
BTW, I only got the “r” at the end of the name when I had done something wrong. When mother went to the second syllable, trouble was always brewing.
Darnell From LA
@pete: Look, I’m sorry. I am just ‘up to here’ with whatever the hell OWS has become.
My favorite blogs have become Meccas for people yelling about cops, cops, pepper spray, anger at mayors, etc, all the while I want to see the jobs bill passed.
I would seriously give my left ass cheek to read a story, hell even a goddamn diary about the actual ISSUES which I care about. Issues which happen to be exactly what OWS was founded to push.
I mean, seriously bro, have you even tried to read blogs like DailyKos lately? It’s like a cross between Amnesty International and “Steal This Book” by Abbie Hoffman. Where are the economic issues? Where is the push to change things? Camping and drum circles do not change things. (if drum circles DID change things Venice Beach alone would change the Earth’s fucking rotation)
If I sound obnoxious just understand it comes from seeing OWS, imho, slide off the rails, slam into a outhouse, and then careen into a busload of nuns, orphans, and little kittens in mid-mew.
So, sorry for my tone. But yeah, I am not pleased with some stuff.
different-church-lady
[scratches head] So, suspending the creeps who actually did the act in question is chucking minions overboard?
The rest of it makes sense, tho.
BrianM
@Darnell From LA:
I marched with Occupy Des Moines to the Republican debate site, and later to a Democratic fund raiser headlined by Rahm Emanuel. The letter that was delivered in both places didn’t mention police or pepper spray – it was all about money in politics. Out of – what? – maybe 2-3 dozen “soap box” speeches, I only remember one short one about police brutality. The whole thing was way more focused than I expected.
Are you getting your impressions on the ground or by reading blogs?
Darnell From LA
@Peter: Sweet Mother Mary on a Harley. Really?
Do you know…shit have you EVER SEEN a black person? I mean, in person?
One shouldn’t have to send you a black person in the mail when you should, I mean really: SHOULD have enough (i.e. ANY) meaningful relationships with African-Americans who would gladly tell you that the conniption fit with which white people are reacting to something that African-Americans call “life” is very revealing of an entitlement and lack of self awareness among white America,.
Oh fuck it, tell me what city you’re in and I’ll send you a link to fucking black barber shop. Go get a hair cut. Ask for the “Executive Contour.”
Shoot me with a spear-gun. A rusty spear-gun.
virginia
I guess I’m not getting the need for all the either/or thing going on here. It feels like trying to walk taking turns holding onto your feet. First things first–triage. I can well understand the distrust but let’s see how it goes. What else do we have to do?
I certainly don’t need to pack a lunch to enjoy this moment at my house with the brothers and sisters. We’re knocking back the cold ones in ever increasing numbers, cranking up the Marvin Gaye, trying not to smoke in front of the kids, swearing our butts off together about much of this, and are generally amazed in unison that SOMETHING, ANYTHING seems to be happening.
I’m not some kind of weird outlier, either. Well, at least I’m not an outlier. I am 56 though. I’ve been harassed by the police three times in my life, once abroad. It was scary as shit–I understand. I’m glad it wasn’t more than three because having to control my temper was tough. I cursed at a cop and his lady cop colleague a few years back for acting like a total asshole, and liar, and was told that if I looked him in the face or “spoke to him like that again”, I would be promptly arrested in front of my 10-year old. Because, I kid you not, “you can’t talk to the police like that.”
Anyway, back to lurking and thanks for putting up with an excited old broad.
Matt Mangels
Goddamnit some people grew up in places that simply do not have a lot of non-white people (thinking of my relatives in 97% white Sandwich, MA) and it’s NOT THEIR FUCKING FAULT IF THEY DON’T PERSONALLY KNOW ANY BLACK PEOPLE, especially if they lack the means to move elsewhere.
I’m going to sound like a commenter at RedState or something but since this has turned into a troll-fest, I’m getting pretty fucking sick of how everything is the fault of white people. Talk about falling for the old divide-ourselves-and-be-conquered trick.
pete
@Darnell From LA: The way to influence OWS is to join it. From my too-limited (I admit) contacts with my local version, I think your message would be entirely welcome. How it would then affect the group’s tactical decisions, I can’t say.
But I do note that the UC Davis protestors — who have a number of valid issues that, I agree, are somewhat removed from the original core of OWS — seem to be rather good at working out how to select and implement an effective tactic.
I am reading this blog now, as I do rather more often than I should, because I am procrastinating and avoiding some hard writing on a political topic that appears to be totally unrelated, but IMHO is not, since it also concerns inequality and the unfair distribution of resources, albeit in a different arena. That’s part of my job. And now I am logging off the blogosphere to go do my work. It might be a good idea for you to do that too.
Darnell From LA
@BrianM: That is good to hear. It would be awesome if this were the norm, but it’s not.
BTW; I thought Rahm’s speech (didn’t see it, but read the transcript) was probably the most pitch-perfect thing I’ve heard so far this election season. He hammered the GOP in a way that translated very well.
xian
@Darnell From LA: No, I mean the report he jut published. Perhaps you’d rather the national debate be about deficits?
Let’s just say, you’re not helping.
Peter
@Darnell From LA: Yes, just about every black person I know would indeed say that, usually accompanied by a rolling of the eyes and the declaratory statement ‘white people’. That doesn’t mean that the black community in general is suspicious of the movement in general.
You seem to be labouring under the assumption that I’m unaware of the reality of police brutality in minority communities, and that what these protestors have endured is routine in many parts of the United States. This assumption is misguided. I do not in any way disagree with you in this regard.
However the generalized antipathy you claim exists is not one that I have encountered before. I’m not saying that it doesn’t, especially since I honestly don’t follow the dialogue on OWS very closely. Just that I am automatically suspicious of white boys who plainly don’t know their ass from their elbow claiming planning that a movement that was never about legislation and could never be about legislation isn’t pushing legislation) trying to speak for a minority community.
xian
@Tehanu: exactly, if you add up everything Darnell is saying, it’s indistinguishable from what a far rightist would, clothed in left-wing concern trollery. That means he is either a useful idiot, a plant, a fellow traveller, or a fool with limited reasoning skills.
But he’s gettin’ his rage on! He’s raising consciousness! What a good progressive he is!
xian
@Darnell From LA: it’s so awesome that you’ve volunteered to be the white spokesperson for black people everywhere. Are you, by any chance, Donald Trump?
xian
@Darnell From LA: dude, if you have meds, you may have forgotten to take them.
here’s a gentle hint: you are not persuasive.
Joe Max
@Darnell From LA: “Yeah, pepper spray is bad…
Hey, remember when a unarmed black guy named Oscar Grant was shot in the back by a cop, while on the ground and subdued?
Remember how this liberal blog BLEW UP the way it is now over the pepper spraying of….
[snip]
Right. Gosh, why the heck are black people soooo dubious of OSW? Hmmmmm, a real head scratcher here….
*** We now return you to our regularly scheduled program: “White Liberals With No Self Awareness Whatsoever” already in progress.
Um, dude? I live in Oakland. “White Liberals”™ in Oakland had the same reaction to both. And there are plenty of Black People™ at Occupy Oakland and even Occupy Cal. And plenty of White People™ at the Oscar Grant protests. I know this because I went to them and saw for myself. Have you actually gone to any OWS actions? Yeah, that’s what I thought…
shano
Occupy Movement now has an amendment named after it:
In one of the greatest signs yet that the 99 Percenters are having an impact, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced an amendment that would ban corporate money in politics and end corporate personhood once and for all.
Deutch’s amendment, called the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment, would overturn the Citizens United decision, re-establishing the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance laws, and to effectively outlaw the ability of for-profit corporations to contribute to campaign spending.
come on, this is funny, right?
shano
I was at Zuccotti Park in October and there were people from all over the world, or all races, creeds and colors. No doubt about it. The open mic night for talent show featured a bluegrass banjo from Appalachia, A Black rapper from NYC, a white girl reading poetry, multi media film from Spain.
I met homeless people, smart young people, old hippies and people who worked professional jobs, like me. (I was in NYC on business and went down after work) There were a lot of people who just dropped by before or after work.
It is a peaceful protest and it is a global movement.
shano
One of the founders of Occupy Wall Street:
VLAD TEICHBERG: Well, my specific job was I was a derivatives trader. I was basically working for large banks, betting basically their money on these derivatives products. And my job was sort understanding how these products worked, really [inaudible] to the level of models, that used to price them, but also figuring out what models didn’t work and so on.
For me, the philosophical transformation was the—basically the whole globalization philosophy that was being pushed in the early mid-’90s, that would ultimately be—ultimate equalizer of the world turned out to be faulty because of the effective multinationals. Towards the late ’90s, I mean, I think a lot of people came to the same conclusion: globalization was actually doing more harm than good, and there was more inequality in the world. And by late—by late ’90s, it was very, very clear that that was the case. And that’s pretty much when I started shifting out of being a supporter of this Ayn Rand approach to looking at the world.
Watch the rest of the interview here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/18/the_revolution_will_be_live_streamed
ice weasel
Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole.
Roy G.
Just to be clear here, the UC kids are not just joining in OWS, but have had their own protests, which predated OWS, regarding the tremendous surge in tuition costs, which have come as the Board of Regents has hijacked the UC system for its own ends. The UC system is for all Californians, so the budget hikes hurt all young Californians hoping to attend the state system.
The bottom line is that the UC protests are part of #Occupy, but have their own local agenda, which is tied into the OWS movement, but are about more than just reforming Wall Street.
It is a weird argument to make complaining about how people are now too focused on the police brutality – that is at the core of the problem, and the erosion of the First Amendment is how the banksters and their cronies are trying to get away with it. Assault is assault, whether it is financial or physical, but ruined bank accounts are not as visceral as nonviolent college protesters being brutalized. It sucks those kids had to take it in the face, but it is a revelation of the true face of the 1%, and something to shock the consciousness of the average good midwesterner.
Sly
Not until those institutions start actually having positions of leadership and stop having positions of entitlement. The privileges of rank are supposed to be the reward for the risks of accountability. Now the privileges of rank are an end unto themselves and are rationalized as natural outcomes and necessary to the character and continuation of the institution itself. But that isn’t leadership. That’s just plain old social status.
Take investment banks as an example. The common response, I think, to the demands for capital controls and corporate restructuring following the financial collapse fell under the catch-all of “brain drain.” If you make investment banking less rewarding, people will stop being investment bankers. Which is actually true and, well, kind of the whole point of demanding those reforms in the first place. Let the people who think they deserve millions in compensation for unethical behavior fuck up some less systemically vital sector of the economy for a while.
But unaccountable power breeds entitlement. “We are too important!” they say, seemingly ignorant of the fact that there is an untold horde of mid-level executives beneath them who are willing and eager to take their place, even if those new managers have to follow tighter rules and won’t make as much money as their predecessors. No one is irreplaceable. In fact, the people who believe themselves to be the most irreplaceable likely are the most replaceable. Maybe its an unconscious defense mechanism or some variation of Dunning-Kruger.
@Darnell From LA:
The issues do not exist in isolation. People are yelling about cops and pepper spray and shitty administrators instead of issues of economic justice because shitty administrators are ordering cops to use pepper spray on people who are protesting for economic justice. Plus they are using the full weight of their public relations apparatus to (a) goad the police into being more violent, (b) cultivate consent within the public consciousness on the idea that such violence is not only acceptable but necessary, and (c) repackage the protesters as the source of all unacceptable violence.
Camping and drum circles are not the substance of civil disobedience, just some examples within a vastly wide array of forms. The substance is in both the reaction it provokes among the defenders of the power structure the protest is challenging, and the mindset of the audience who is witnessing that reaction.
Sgaile-beairt
Yeah, tell that silly white girl she needs to stop protesting & go vote instead.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sgaile-beairt: She could, of course, do both. It’s the course I would recommend.
Bullsmith
Darnell,
Your general point seems to be that you’re pissed off, people of color have been fucked worse than any OWS folks have, so everyone should shut the fuck up and…
Actually you don’t seem to have a point. Lot of words, no comprehensible point to them. Because the cops attacked some innocent protesters, their complaints about economic injustice are now hypocritical.
Really, your collection of posts tonight collectively seem to have no purpose other than to tar anyone and everyone who doesn’t like pepper spray. Bizarre, at best.
JC
Cole,
I’m actually surprised at your at your naivete on this – or is it put on?
The pay here – the 400K – as is said above, has nothing to do with being a representative of ‘higher learning’.
The real job is to keep the donations flowing in. THAT is the essence of the job. THAT is what she is being paid for.
She is being paid for high-class schmoozing. It’s a sales gig.
Remember that – it’s a SALES JOB.
High end sales, that incorporates charm, making your donors feel warm and fuzzy, appealing to both ego and vague principles, etc. That is why she is so versed in that ‘passive’ language of false compassion, that you show – deservedly – so much contempt for.
But those skills are what work for a ‘respected institution’s sales donation role.
Sales jobs are paid well, because they keep the money coming in. Period. It’s a CUSHY sales job, no doubt. A lot of those donations will flow in anyway.
But the 400K is for the millions it’s her job to keep flowing into the university.
shano
Sly, nice post. One of the things that has bothered me is the media framing of limiting the sorts of people involved. You hear all the time about how it is just old hippies, young unemployed people who should go get a job, etc. It is so far from the truth I dont know where they get these ideas.
Not only at Zuccotti, but in my hometown of 40,000 people the cross section of people involved in the local Occupy is astounding.
Old retired geezers, young hipsters, hackey sackers and rastafarians, college students, local rednecks, a cowboy, a director of marketing, etc.
The Spy Who Loved Me
While Cole is bitching about this woman making 400K per year, the President of his own university currently makes 550K per year, with a pay increase to 650K per year scheduled to go into effect in June of 2012. Does John Cole (whose salary is also posted on the internet) feel that Jim Clement, West Virginia University President, is paid too much? What value does Jim Clement bring to WVU to be worth over a half million per year?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Spy Who Loved Me: That is what you took from Cole’s rant? Interesting.
Original Lee
What a breathtakingly rude woman! Is it the fashion nowadays never to say you’re sorry? “I accept full responsibility…” sounds wonderful until you realize it’s not an apology.
RareSanity
@Original Lee:
In the book of “The Life of a Public Conservative”, there are two rules, that must be adhered to without fail.
Rule 1: Never show weakness or indecisiveness. It is better to make a quick bad decision, then to allow the time needed to consider a good decision, to be interpreted as weakness.
Rule 2: Never apologize. Apologies are an admittance of wrong doing, and should be avoided at all costs, there are people that will praise you for being unapologetic and showing strength. This may buy you time, or at least “muddy the waters”. Apologies are immediate, once you admit wrong doing, consequences will begin immediately. Not apologizing, allows you to possibly, “run out the clock”, where the situation may leave the public eye, and no consequences will be forthcoming. This is preferred.
This is all S.O.P.
Nutella
@JC:
If it were really a sales job she’d be paid on commission.
Another Bob
It’ll be interesting to see if Katehi ever offers up a sincere apology or if she goes with that passive-aggressive faux-pology chestnut: “Mistakes were made.” In any case, her walk of silence was truly stunning. It seemed to suck the smug arrogance right out of her. Hard to see her retaining any authority at all after that.
William Hurley
There’s another politician who should be subjected to a walk of shame – as a minimum.
That politician is the one who has a record of indiscriminately using lethal force against innocent, peaceful civilians – civilians who aren’t even American citizens. To date, the death toll resulting from his wanton use of lethal force is 396 confirmed dead – though the toll is no doubt higher.
So damaging to the rule of law, basic human rights and the nation’s standing internationally that experts who had served at high levels with our national security apparatus are now publicly questioning the continued application of a policy of long-distance, remote-controlled mass murder.
When will the killings end?
Will you vote for this oligarch who exercises his “right” to indiscriminately use violence against the innocent?
The Spy Who Loved Me
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wondered about Cole’s school, since he directed the failure at ALL institutions (I’m guessing maybe including his own) and made a point about her salary, perks and benefits. At his own school, the President has received a pay increase of 100K in the last two years and will get an increase of another 100K next June. Is his President failing? Is his President worth all the salary, perk and benefits?
I guess it just struck me as a rather broad and damning indictment to say all institutions are failing, rather than pointing the finger at just this one individual.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@William Hurley: “Will you vote for this oligarch who exercises his “right” to indiscriminately use violence against the innocent?”
Of course not, I’m voting for Obama.
:)
Who are you voting for, Nader?
fleetingglimpse
A question for Chancellor Linda Katehi. Where were you in 1973?
Check the Chancellor’s bio at wiki.
Athens Polytechnic School Uprising 1973
Even if she was not present, it is her alma mater.
fleetingglimpse
Chancellor Linda Kathei in a Tell All Interview April 9, 2011
Q: You were studying at the NTUA during a period of high polarization in Greek politics where the students at NTUA were very active politically. Were you involved in politics at the time?
A: Yes. In 1973, all students at the NTUA were involved in politics. It was a turbulent time in Greek politics…
Special interests defined. Are the students at UC Davis “negative elements of society”?
Q: In the US, university-corporate cooperation, which has produced economic powerhouses such as Google & Broadcom is frowned upon in Greece. Also, what is called “university asylum” is a hot issue. What is your position on those matters?
A: The attitude of the university leadership vis-à-vis corporate interests has been influenced by political agendas in Greece. I see it is very important to develop university-corporate partnerships and I hope that reason will prevail over special interests. There was a time that “university asylum” was important for the protection of civil rights. Greece has been a democracy for more than 35 years and I think that it is an anachronistic concept at this stage. “Asylum” provides safe harbor to negative elements of society. What pains me the most is that it is being exploited by university leadership with the intent to avoid implementing changes that are necessary for the improvement of student life and quality of education.
Paul in KY
@Dubba A Plus Bondz: Surely not. I think you could attack it to your heart’s content.
virginia
She’s not bright and that’s clear. But 1973 is more than just the ancient past … it’s pre historic in the sense that unless you’re now a senior citizen, you don’t remember that time and what it was … Or you know maybe you are and you don’t anyway. It’s not about how she’s Greek or about the Polytechnic and what took place. Back in the day things were always uprising. One of the reasons why it would be good to have more of the same. She’s not swift, she didn’t get it in this situation and probably some others. It does no good to look back and blame from afar. Kind of like kicking yourself for either fucking or not fucking that certain guy.
And, yeah, it is a sales gig and she just got Glen Garried. I’m sure she feels like shit and I hope she resigns as she should.
S. cerevisiae
@RalfW: Read Stannard’s American Holocaust if you really want to learn some of the history they gloss over in high school. Another good book on the allotment period and how the Dawes Act was blatant theft is Blood Struggle by Wilkinson.