OWS: Police beat protesters with clubs at "Occupy Cal" protest, UC Berkeley

Above, video footage of police beating protesters at Wednesday's "Occupy Cal" demonstrations on the UC Berkeley campus. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Miles Mathews. More on the peaceful protest, and the violent police response, here. In videos surfacing today of this and other police beat-downs at Berkeley, observers note that cops are routinely covering up their badge numbers to avoid being identified later.

• [Zero Sonico]

  They have to learn protesting is unamerican

  • [Navin_Johnson]

    Unless you’re rioting over a fired *college* football coach.

• [Incipient Madness]

  It didn’t look like they were trying to clear the crowd or anything else. Just having a little fun? Loved the crotch jab at backpack in the front guy.

  Really, what is up in California?

• [artimusClyde]

  “It is hard to imagine that such an act could occur at the exact location of Berkeley where the Free Speech Movement began.[...]You can imagine that the sense of irony will not be lost on the public, that the UCPD violated the Free Speech rights of protesters at this particular location.”

  I’m pretty shocked at such unprovoked billy-clubbing. I also don’t see what it was supposed to accomplish, besides move them back 3 feet. The poor kids in the lower left are continuously beat while one of them holds up a peace sign. I really hope we don’t see another Kent State type of response from these overzealous cops.

• [Zachary John⚡on]

  “Campus administration has made it clear it will not tolerate an encampment in the style of Occupy Oakland, and the UCPD has said that it will take ‘appropriate actions’ to enforce campus policy” … So, aggressively gut-jabbing nonviolent, unarmed students for camping is appropriate?

• [Calvin]

  Covering their badge numbers?  Cops are, at heart, nothing more than cowardly Fascist thugs who believe they are above accountability.

  • [Matthew]

    Please do not paint all police officers with the same brush.  That fits the exact definition of prejudice.

  • [D Wyatt]

    Maybe I missed the memo but unfortunately for us, for a long time they have been “above accountability” along with a long list of their superiors.  Changing THAT ALONE would be a major win for OWS.

• [Teller]

  According to the local rag, UC said they could protest there 24 hours a day, no problem, but no tents. Introducing the Protest Poncho™.

• [Guest]

  Perhaps the police have heard that the people, united, will never be defeated?

• [bigorangemachine]

  **BARF**

• [niktemadur]

  The message plain and clear:
  This is not about law and order, nor “protect and serve”, this is about showing you little people who is boss around here.
  Why is most of this noise coming from the Bay Area?  Even after what happened in Oakland, either the same or neighboring pigs are STILL at it, having not learned anything.

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    They don’t need to learn, because there are no consequences for them.

    I’m sorry but the thugs need to either be prosecuted or retaliated against – I’d prefer the former, but the latter is hardly a disproportionate response.

  • [Tommy Riley York]

    Same. The 60 riot police that came in at 10pm were half University of California Police Department and Alameda Sheriff’s department.

    They were much, much more brutal at 10pm than the video here. Friends have bruises on their faces, chests, legs, etc. One friend is in crutches. Though they did manage to hospitalize a student in the 3pm raid.

    It was bizarre: they came in all amped up, sweating, yelling at us. Then they made their “skirmish line,” pushing the media away from the corner where they were doing their more violent beatings. Grabbing people by their hair, really railing into people on the ground with riot sticks. It was no confrontation; it was a beating.

    After the 10pm raid, Occupy Oakland left their General Assembly to immediately join Occupy Cal. They managed to push the police line back a bit (they all brought cameras!), and there was a consensus discussion with over >1000 people, all completely defiant of reports that the Berkeley Police Department considered us an unlawful gathering.

    Vice Chancellor Le Grande said we could be there 24/7 without tents. Then they used militarized police violence to take our tents. Then they threatened the people who gathered and had a democratic discussion.

    I’m honestly embarrassed and ashamed to go to UC Berkeley at the moment. I would like to see some resignations from University management.

• [Bodhipaksa]

  It’s a shame it’s next to impossible to get a policeman arrested for having assaulted you. Every one of these cops should be behind bars.

• [lavardera]

  I think I saw this before. Isn’t this the part where right after the beatings of non-violent protesters that NATO organizes air-strikes on the oppressive regime? 

• [Phil Fot]

  If this keeps up, someone’s going to start voting from the rooftops for a governmental change.

• [dutchboy99]

  Is it brutality when they could have just walked away in the other direction?

  • [scottbp]

    Yes. 

  • [futnuh]

    Not possible. The protesters were inadvertently blocked from retreating by a line of tables stacked with donuts … Ahhh.

  • [MB44]

    If I punch someone in the face for no reason, my defense can’t be, ” Well, they should have gotten out of the way of my fist.”

  • [DrunkenOrangetree]

    Who is “they”? You mean the cops?

• [Anonymous]

  Does everyone forget there is civil court? Is there some law that you can’t hold an individual officer accountable for a tort?

  Civil court is pretty cushy for the plaintiff.

  • [TooGoodToCheck]

    yeah, that’s probably part of the reason why the cops are covering their badges – you can’t sue someone you can’t identify.

• [Kwolfbrooks]

  What a disgusting display of violence.  I think those protesters are heros for keeping their cool and standing up to those thugs.

• [The Chemist]

  This is the simple appeal of non-violent protest:

  People who try to stop you with violence will always look bad.

  • [ZikZak]

    People who try to stop you with violence will always look bad.

    And then what?  Does everyone get up from watching YouTube and non-violently shut down the police station?  Does everyone surround the police force and peacefully take away all their weapons?

    Because I want more than just the police to look bad.  The police have looked bad for a very long time.  They beat Rodney King, and that looked bad.  They murdered Amadou Diallo and that looked bad.  Kathryn Johnston.  Scott Olsen.  Oscar Grant.    There is so much video of cops looking bad out there that you probably couldn’t watch it all if you tried.  And yet, bad as it looks, it continues.

    I want this stuff to actually stop, I want the police to no longer have the ability to do these things.  And I don’t see how more martyrs are going to make that happen.  At some point we have to realize that nobody cares about our martyrdom – or at least, people don’t care enough to actually put a stop to it.  We’re going to have to have some self respect and defend ourselves and each other.

• [awjt]

  Théoden: “So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?”
  [The Uruk-hai keep trying to break the door.]
  Aragorn: “Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.”
  Théoden: “For death and glory?”
  Aragorn: “For Rohan. For your people.”

• [lavardera]

  said it before, trickle-down economics will always eventually lead to trickle-down violence…

• [CSBD]

  Luckily for the bay area police, the newly freed libyan people will not be able to return the favor with smart bombs.

• [charmingquark]

  The police beating on protesters at UC Berkeley?  What’s new about that?

• [PapayaSF]

  A few weeks ago I drove by the Occupy Berkeley encampment. My first thought was “Hasn’t Berkeley been ‘occupied’ for about 40 years now?” Then I cracked up when I saw one of the signs: “No tax money for Star Wars.” Did somebody have that stashed in the back of his closet since the Reagan administration? “Hey, honey, there’s a protest happening! I can use my signs! I found the Star Wars one, where are ‘No Alar on our apples’ and ‘US out of Grenada’”?

  • [bob d]

    Sadly, it’s not funny at all: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1859393,00.html

  • [Teller]

    I’m troubled by your Star Wars sign not being funny anymore. An old “Hell no we won’t go” recycles perfectly, neh?

• [The Sharkey]

  I’m not siding with the cops or with the students, since I think both are in the wrong on this one, but here’s basically what happened:

  1.) The students were told not to set up any tents.
  2.) The students set up tents anyway.
  3.) The cops were told to take down the tents.
  4.) The students formed a human barricade between the cops & the tents.
  5.) The cops asked the students to move so they could take down the tents.
  6.) The students refused to allow the cops access to take down the tents.
  7.) The cops then used force to get to the tents so they could take them down.

  • [T C Carter]

    That still does not justify their actions, that type of offense should receive a ticket not a billy club to the gut.

  • [Strato Head]

    also not intending to defend inappropriate use of force… but what I see on that video, while uncalled for IMHO, is also not a “beating” they are not “beating” anyone… they are prodding them with their batons… or poking, or jabbing etc.  Semantics? maybe, but words mean something is all I’m saying, and if given a choice between being beaten with a baton and what is happening in that video…I’ll take whats in the video.
    (it’s also a legally sanctioned “non-lethal” riot control tactic).  just sayin.

    • [occamvanrijn]

      They do actually swing the batons at them; at 0:54 or so a student reaches out to try and prevent another student from being beaten and has his arm smacked by another officer–there’s an audible thud, even above the shouting. This really isn’t that controlled a response by the police.

    • [Nathan Hornby]

      Go poke a policeman with a bat, see if you get arrested for it – something tells me they’d make a pretty big deal of it.

      Also this isn’t a riot, it’s a protest.

    • [Guest]

      Okay, you yell at me and I’ll poke you in the stomach with a stick a couple dozen times, and then let’s see if youstill think I was appropriate. Fair enough?

      • [Strato Head]

        Well…since the first part of my comment I clearly stated
        “also not intending to defend INAPPROPRIATE  use of force”  followed by “but what I see on that video, while  UNCALLED FOR  IMHO”

        I’m going to with No.

        also… reading is fundamental… as is comprehension.

        • [Guest]

          yes, what I read there are warnings about your impending devils advocacy. Warning people that what you’re about to say is douchey and blames the victims for complaining too much does not make that not exactly what you’re doing. 

    • [GlenBlank]

       they are not “beating” anyone… they are prodding them with their batons… or poking, or jabbing etc.

      Baton ‘ jabs’ can cause serious injury or even death: ruptured internal organs, severe internal bleeding, permanent nerve damage.

      if given a choice between being beaten with a baton and what is happening in that video…I’ll take whats in the video.

      If given a choice between administering a  swinging baton blow or a ‘jab’ – and I want to seriously injure you – I’ll go with the jab every time. (unless I’m guaranteed a clear shot at your head).

      You seem think that the baton strikes you see in that video are less dangerous than ‘beating’, than swinging blows.

      You’re badly misinformed.

      • [Strato Head]

        Actually…I’m not.  Having grown up with several relatives in law enforcement, USAF SP’s and New York State Dept of Corrections, all of whom I discussed their jobs and tactics with at length, as well as was taught self defense from…etc etc etc… I have a pretty good handle for a laymen on what I’m looking at in that video.

        there the jabs you see in the video are less dangerous than swinging a baton.  I don’t see any lacerations, I don’t see any bleeding, I don’t see any broken bones or skull and or facial fractures in that video.  Yes they can cause internal damage, hemorrhaging, ruptured spleens, but the sheer majority of the time they don’t.

        but hey… whatever… I guess I was wrong… words in this country no longer mean a damn thing… the only thing that matters is making assumptions about the motives of total strangers and shouting them down online.  please… go on.

        • [Garrett Mace]

          “Yes they can cause internal damage, hemorrhaging, ruptured spleens, but the sheer majority of the time they don’t.”

          Thanks for confirming based on your experience and knowledge, that this behavior can cause serious injury or death. In this case, risking injury or death of nonviolent students over a few tents.

        • [GlenBlank]

          Having been on both sides of a baton, I stand by my assertion that you are misinformed.

          Apparently by your LEO relatives.

        • [hassan-i-sabbah]

           ”I don’t see any broken bones or skull and or facial fractures in that video.” Xray eyes  malfunction perhaps.                                                                                     “The only thing that matters is making assumptions about the motives of total strangers and shouting them down online.” Perhaps we should come round to yours and poke you with batons,because your nice uncle police man has told you “Hey, Its OK”. But that is not nice, we would never do it.And I dont’t think you would like it done to you.

      • [Garrett Mace]

        Agreed…there is a point where a little girl is jabbed pretty hard from the side, appearing rather deliberately right in the kidney. Pretty risky behavior if you don’t like the idea of escalation.

    • [Guest]

      That is extremely foolish. 

      Those batons are hard, and that kind of jabbing motion can damage internal organs. 

      It’s why spearing is such a serious penalty in ice hockey.

      Usually it’s best to have some knowledge before opining. / just saying.

      • [Strato Head]

        I’m am fully aware, and have knowledge. I’m also correct in that it is a legally approved method for crowd control. I’m not saying it’s right at all.   You might also take note that there is a huge  distance between “can” damage internal organs , and “will” damage. 

        but sure… jump on me, then continue to applaud all the overheated hyperbole.  that’s helpful.

        • [Phil Fot]

          The proper way to force a crowd back when armed with riot batons is to grasp the baton in a “port arms” hold and shove them, not jab.  A jab is a conscious physical attack that is intended to do damage when directed to the head/neck/torso.

          An even better and safer method is to use a shield wall.

          The police are going to very shortly begin receiving  rooftop votes if they continue in this manner. I don’t condone such an action, but I’ve seen this scenario before.

        • [Karen Ficke Hathaway]

          Please elaborate — what are “rooftop votes”??

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          Please elaborate — what are “rooftop votes”??

          Molten lead through the gargoyles while yelling ‘sanctuary’?

        • [Lobster]

          You wouldn’t have to settle for molten lead if you didn’t buy your castle defenses from China.  Sure it’s cheaper, but it’s not clean, even-burning, American boiling tar.

    • [Douglas Stuart]

      Jabbing? #14 there batoned a girl in the chest for no reason. 4-5 time pretty clearly. And he put his weight into it. Empathy would suggest you wouldn’t consider that a jab. Dude in the lower left at 53 second is NOT just getting jabbed.

    • [Guest]

      Or we could just call a baton a baton?

    • [Pablito]

      Although I don’t subscribe to the ‘words always mean this’  definition of language, here’s the definition of beat from  threfreedictionary.com:
      ‘To strike repeatedly’
      If as you assert we need to use words correctly because they ‘mean something’ , then using the words beat and beating seems perfectly reasonable because the cops hit the protesters with their batons, repeatedly.

      Also, is it just me or is the qualifier “just saying” a variation of “I’m not racist but…”

      Just sayin

  • [Stephen Olsen]

    I think the problem is that people are being beaten/abused/tickled with night sticks over tents. This show of force is inappropiate. They have some tents up and they are not allowed. They won’t listen so we will use force. It’s a show. The college needs to be held responsible for asking the police to get involved. The lesser of two evils, beatings vs tents… is tents… You use force when it is needed. When people are blocking a hospital entrance. When innocent people are being attacked. Not when people have tents. 

    It just shows that the real crime is disobedience.

• [Designz]

  the police response is deplorable however predictable as has been shown many times (what happens when you repeatedly poke a bear?).  The protestors are counting on such a display to raise awareness.

  What is beginning to happen though in many jurisdictions is the largest element of society is indicating that the people participating in the unending protests with no clearly articulated objective (though many objectives are likely at play) are not in fact speaking for the 98%.  There is now 1% represented by Wall Street who proclaim they are representing the economy, 1% represented by the protestors who proclaim they are representing society and now 98% are beginning to say its time for everyone to move along.

  OWS may given time, prove to have been a useful exercise relative to a wider social discourse, or it may not.  The police are careful to “say” they take their orders from the 98% to clear the public spaces on their behalf.  They use questionable tactics (which history shows they always have) and the protestors bring attention to the questionable tactics.

  This is all fine, until the protestors lose the interest of the 98% and this is now happening.  The police in the end will not lose the 98%’s interest as they are on it’s payroll.  The protests need to evolve soon because they are now devolving.  The 98% are not a daft as either of the 1% groups feel they are.

  • [Guest]

    So because one guy posting to Boing Boing is over it, they should all go home?

    • [Designz]

      yes I agree the should either change tactics or go home, the point has been made and now its time to move forward with a process that actually might accomplish something.  The game being played out may amuse some, outrage others and entertain many I suppose, but the police will continue to clear out many sites in many centres across NA as has begun this past week.  People will likely continue to get hurt and no meaningful change will happen.  This is all so predictable – it does not mean its proper only predictable.  There are much better strategies to effect change.  The 1% protestors do not have a right to perpetually occupy the 98%’s public space nor in some cases private property (see Edmonton protests).  Nor does WS’s 1% have a moral right to do what they have been allowed to do in recent history.  The difference is that it appears WS gamed the system to be able to legally do it.  The protestors need to learn how to change the game and these protests will not do it.  Simply my opinion

• [michaelfhn]

  At what point are people going to cop on that chanting aint doing a damn thing and standing there while the cops beat you isnnt doing anything. Why arent you all rushing the cops, you out number them by so many, put them in cuffs for once. They are neither the 99% or the 1%.

  • [Beth Cravens]

    “Why arent you all rushing the cops, you out number them by so many, put them in cuffs for once”
    You know, that was kind of my thoughts too. One guy is playing with his hair, others are either just staring or milling around. Nobody comes to the rescue anymore? Maybe I’m just not Zen enough because there are only so many licks I’m willing to take before I snatch that baton up and start swinging. They might beat the Jesus out of me anyway, but I’d want at least one good jab in.

• [OccupyYoga]

  CAN SOMEONE PLEASE REPORT THIS TO LEGAL, AND IMMEDIATELY POST UP THE BERKELEY POLICE NUMBER AND BERKELEY MAYORS NUMBER AND LETS FLOOD THEIR DAMN PHONES WITH CALLS NOW!!!!

  • [Lobster]

    Normally I wouldn’t be sure as to the efficacy of your plan, but the fact that you presented it entirely in capital letters and conclude with four exclamation points has fully convinced me.

• [John Burnett]

  We need to be actively working to identify the assailants in these videos so that they can exposed and dealt with. Sounds like a job for Anonymous? 

• [Guest]

  It’s officially time for the Arab Spring to yield to the American Autumn.

  The authorities will continue to lie, distract, obfuscate, and overreact, because that’s wha authority does, most especiall when it is challenged.

  Your videos, tweets, blog posts, and shared pix will force their transparency. They don’t yet understand this. Keep your actions civil, and keep their actions public.

  • [Josh Richard]

    The thing is, nobody in a position of power will ever force true change. 

    Sure, somebody may lose vacation time or perhaps, after 10 or 20 more of these beatings, their jobs, but considering the fact that the *PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES* has declared support for the OWS movement and this is still happening, civil protests and YouTube accountability isn’t going to change the way police handle protesters.  They have weapons and are, for all intents and purposes, “untouchable”. 

    The powder keg is dangerously close to the flame. 

• [mzed]

  The behavior of the police in this video is disgusting, and senseless. Why are my taxes being spent to arm a bunch of thugs and send them to bring violence into non-violent situations?  If somebody’s breaking the law, then arrest them.  This is a completely punitive response to a relatively small and peaceful protest.

• [Guest]

  Cops are proving to be pretty stupid these days. One day they’ll discover that if you take a group of angry, upset, and possibly scared people and start treating them like rioters, they’ll riot! They’ve gotten lucky so far, but how long before a group somewhere has had enough of it and snaps?

  • [Douglas Stuart]

    That worries me. People are going to start showing up armed. Then it will escalate.

• [confused2000]

  Maybe photographing the offending officers faces (where possible)  and setting up a name and shame website might sort these bad apples out

• [Layne]

  I’m having a little cognitive dissonance - 
  These are the same “selfless public servants” that everyone is in an uproar over whenever the public tries to cut their cushy pension/benefits. But here we see the reality of cops these days – violent, overwhelming reactionary force. 

  As far as police overreach goes nowadays, this is sadly tame. Past protests in NYC and general police malfeasance nowadays is typically ‘shoot first, plant evidence/lie later’. And the person who suggested arming themselves apparently hasn’t seen what cops do to your average photographer, much less someone exercising their 2nd Amendment. You can bet that if someone showed up with a weapon the cops would cry wolf and show up with M-16s.

  There will be zero fallout from this or any of the other aggressive actions by the police, because these days it’s just swept under the carpet and relegated to a police discipline board that does nothing.  

• [bingo]

  “protesting” tuition by setting up shop in the middle of campus under the philosophical umbrella of OWS is just stupid.  how profitable are universities?  the problem is the dropping state and national government support of education.  your anger is misdirected, and some people actually are just trying to actually go to class.  /morons.

• [CSBD]

  So then it is agreed?  Nothing will change unless either:

  1.  the protesters arm themselves and the police decide not to be violent any more (It worked for the TEA party).
  or 
  2. The protesters arm themselves and fight it out with the police (who are better armed now than at any time in history).

  I really wish/hope there would be some way to end police brutality with something other than violence or the threat of violence, but i guess when you are dealing with a group of Jack Booted Frat Boys (heavily populated with former high school bullies) who are juiced in with and protected by every level of the criminal justice system, there don’t seem to be many alternatives.

• [dimka]

  Is there a legal way to punish the cruelty? And if some police people do not want to be painted with the same brush why don’t they protest actions of other police forces?

• [Eric Rucker]

  So, the trick is that, with quite a lot of people that I know – even some of which share the OWS core philosophy that Wall Street committed massive crimes against the people – OWS is a laughingstock.

  The awareness stage is still important – and even the slightest resistance (even possession of weapons) turns public opinion almost universally to public support of police murdering OWS protesters.

  Now, the moment an OWS protester is murdered without any protesters doing anything but forming a human shield, but not pushing back against police, things might change.

  Another approach that might work is a competing, Tea Party or higher level of armament (as in, potentially, open-carrying rifles and a large amount of ammunition, as well as body armor, helmets, gas masks, etc – basically, be openly prepared for military-level conflict), anti-corporate protest movement that is careful to distance itself from the OWS movement itself, both for its own sake and for OWS’s sake, but that shares similar (but more focused) views.

• [GlenBlank]

  I cracked up when I saw one of the signs: “No tax money for Star Wars.” Did somebody have that stashed in the back of his closet since the Reagan administration? 

  It’s true that, originally, ‘Star Wars’ (as used in this context) was a sarcastic reference to the Reagan-era ballistic-missile defense program called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). 

  That program was administered by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), which also subsumed the Nixon-era Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).  In 1985, the BMDO was renamed the ‘U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command’.

  The ‘BMDO’ name was revived in 1993 when the SDIO was renamed the BMDO by the Clinton Administration.  

  In 2002, the BMDO was renamed the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) by the G.W. Bush administration.  The agency has expanded its mission from defense against nuclear ICBMs to all ballistic missile threats, from ICBMs down to ‘theater defense’ against short-range SRBMs (nuclear or conventional).

  Since 1985, the SDIO/BMDO/MDA has spent $141.2 billion.  

  The MDA’s FY2012 budget request is $8.6 billion.  

  The names may have changed, but the gravy train marches on.

• [Douglas Stuart]

   ”No tax money for Star Wars.”
  Maybe they consider ILM “too big to fail?”
  I so, I would direct them to the “Star Wars Christmas Special” and Jar Jar Binks.

• [Chauncey Scott]

  Occupy:The Movie, already?

• [jimh]

  Kudos to the protesters for keeping their cool and not responding to violence with more violence. Nonviolent protest met with violence exposes the police enforcers as the armed and riot gear-wearing thugs that they are. Shame on the administration for ordering this response, and shame on the cops for following through with unnecessary force.

  But as I said before in a previous thread, I fear we are headed for another Kent State moment.

• [jimh]

  Nonviolently holding your ground is not *asking* for a physical confrontation, it’s just … nonviolently holding your ground. This crowd was not threatening to stomp anyone to death.

  What is your motive for defending police violence in this case?
  EDIT: The post I was responding to was removed; sorry to respond to the trolls…

• [Trent Baker]

  If you see someone being beaten by a another person you are within your rights to attempt a citizens arrest. If that person then identifies themselves as a figure of authority, but then refuses to provide identification backing that claim, then they still are a thug you should stop.
  The police are losing sight of the ideal that they are there to maintain the peace and serve the community because they are a part of that community. They are not a stick to be wielded by a government sick with fear that one day the masses will realize that the illusion of authority is granted by the people and that they can take it back.

• [Zachary John⚡on]

  So, in Kent State in 1970, four people were murdered and nine others shot and wounded — end result?  Nobody got fired. Nobody went to jail.  Total of $675,000 settlement split between all 13 victims.  And now police use rubber bullets.

  Sad.

• [Zachary John⚡on]

  In 1770, British troops shot and killed five civilian protesters in Boston — end result? Six soldiers were acquitted, and two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences.

  Sad.

• [Hanglyman]

   I’m always surprised how many people in these threads call for violence against the police, as though “if they hit you, hit them back!” would actually work. If they routinely beat up and shoot nonviolent protestors with rubber bullets and beanbags, what makes you think they would hesitate for one second to murder violent protestors, either deliberately with guns or “accidentally” with tasers or excessive force? The media would spin it as being all the protestors’ fault, if they reported it at all. The police have nigh-infinite resources and zero accountability. Unless the entire country is in outright revolution, trying to fight them is a losing battle.

• [Cowicide]

  On this day the students become the teachers for the rest of the United States.

  Violence doesn’t solve your problems.  Amazing people.  Thank you, Berkeley.

• [Zachary John⚡on]

  Whoa! This happened later the same night as the video above… suuuuuper creepy video:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G86rM5Xd1XM

  • [FrodeSvendsen]

    I fully expected to see him being carried away with a sack over his head, ready to be “disappeared”.. What was his crime? Making himself available to assault by turning his back? Was the text written on his back so offensive it threatened the big men in masks? 

• [unVault]

  I hope enrollment at that university plummets, and I sincerely hope that these students are able to sue the police and the university administration for such a violent response to… tents.

• [FrodeSvendsen]

  Like others have allready commented, seen from outside, the similarities between the events in the US now and the events in the countries who experienced the “arabian spring” is striking.. 

  Good luck everyone.. 

• [CpnCodpiece]

  I’ve noticed recently that the normal preview doesn’t come up when I paste links such as this, I guess it’s because the US police have asked facebook to help stop dissemination of it’s documentation of police thuggery against a peaceful protest?

• [Incipient Madness]

   Please everyone,  do not be confrontational with the police unless you have to. The police are in the 99% just like we are are. There were arrests in Tranquility Park in Houston Tuesday night. But one of the cops in Tranquility helped build improvised shelters until other police told him some Occupiers would be arrested for building shelters.

  Occupy Houston has been forced to follow the same laws the homeless follow in Tranquility Park.  We cannot have tents and cannot build shelters. We have a solar power station and watch movies on a big screen  TV.

  US Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee was at Tuesday’s GA. She promised to get us tents. I trust her.  She got us the awesome suspension bridges over US 59 and the trench under Montrose back in the nineties. We will get our tents to survive the winter rains.

  HPD has been mostly awesome. They understand rights to speech and assembly are not in conflict with concerns about safety and order.

• [Pepijn]

  America is sure turning into a scary place. Police shooting and beating up peaceful protesters, arresting members of the press? Hiding their badge numbers so they can beat up people with impunity? All this apparently without any accountability or any reaction from the establishment?

  It’s like I’m reading about Iran or Afghanistan or some such place, not the United States of America.

  What happened to the country? It used to be the land of the free. A beacon of freedom and democracy. It still pretends to be to the rest of the world, but in the mean time it appears to be devolving into a banana republic. How did that happen?

• [The Sharkey]

  Why was my reply to Stephen Olsen deleted?
  I do not believe it broke any site rules or was rude in any way, so I am confused as to why it was removed from the site. I would really appreciate it if whoever deleted it could send me an e-mail explaining why it was removed, so that I can refrain from making whatever mistake I made in the future.

  Thanks.

  • [Lobster]

    I have heard that comments can be down-voted out of existence.  Now, I’ve never seen any way to down-vote anything, but there may be other formats for viewing the site that offer additional options.

• [lavardera]

  Well, anybody get a reprimand for this yet? Any supervisors gotten a talking to for letting their subordinates get out of control? How about a public statement that the beatings were improper? Anything? Throw us a bone here?

  Otherwise I’ll save us all a lot of trouble and pain and report to my death camp now. 

  • [Lobster]

    You remind me of camels.

    Dramadaries, to be precise.

• [D Wyatt]

  SERIOUSLY FOLKS!!?? 

  The simple fact is that the police are not going to follow the most important and therefor 1st Amendment.  The police are well known to bend the living shit out of laws.  Sure there is no law against assembling peaceably but they will (unjustly) cite you with 10 other laws or just capture and release 20 hours later for no apparent reason.
   Keeping the PEACE, YES, Beating people senseless for a few inches of ground, NO! It is clear to everyone involved and even those of us still at home, FOR THE TIME BEING, that nearly everything the government is doing is completely selfish and wrong. 

  This video just makes me want to start making shields and handing them out…. Feel free to take that idea and run like hell with it, get backers, get large men, get shields and go 300 on their asses when they beat defenseless people.  Surround those being beaten, if this starts I will be in the front lines, period.  If you ask me they are lucky its still a PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY.  They are the bully, striking and striking and striking without feeling the sting themselves.

   Just in case there are some LAW ENFORCEMENT reading this……………
  “Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or
  prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the FREEDOM OF SPEECH, or of the
  PRESS; or the RIGHT of the PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

  I SUPPOSE THERE NEEDS TO BE A CLAUSE BELOW THAT STATING THAT THE POLICE WILL NOT HARASS THOSE WITH BULLSHIT CITATIONS WHILE THEY ARE IN THE ACT OF EXERCISING THIS ALLLLLLLLLLLL IMPORTANT RIGHT!!!

  FREEDOM!

• [CSBD]

  “#OWS can use some it’s new-found loot from donations to hire Xe or some other protection service?”
  Maybe they should go low rent and hire out of work Russian soldiers.  They would be more inclined to earn their money vs. the Cops

• [artaxerxes]

  There are plenty of American vets home from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars with medical bills, families to feed, and rent or mortgages to pay.

  Why not hire qualified Americans for jobs they’ve been trained for and in which they have a vested interest? I rather doubt OWS (which is not yet an organized entity) is drowning in filthy lucre. But I’ll roll with your assertion and engage in some fantastical theoretical thinking.

  I would contribute time, skills and experience to the establishment of an entity that employs former soldiers to use peace-keeping training in support of non-violent First Amendment expression. I’ve got a great slogan already: “To Protect And Serve…” Kinda catchy, eh? Maybe add “The American People” after the ellipsis.

  Launch this endeavor as a pilot program (away from Oakland and the Bay Area), then leverage the results of the experiment, using collaboration and technology to provide resources and support to other groups creating similar organizations in their own communities.

  George Lucas’s team at Edutopia is using the same model and the same tools to support schools.

  There’s no need to bill out contractors at $400/hr like Xe does… a well-organized, efficiently-run company with a realistic compensation structure, funded by donations and angel capital, could provide fair salaries and benefit packages. (I’m speaking only from my own experience running 4 businesses, small to medium in size: 7 – 150 employees.)

  This idea would require an unusually high budget for legal counsel and support, but VC firms do provide capital to start-ups whose success depends on larger initial outlays. I personally know several members of the 1%, angels and VCs, who agree with many of the grievances of the Occupy movement. Might be a good opportunity for the allies among the 1% to show their true stripes. 

  Whoa there!

  I got a little carried away thinking about the ways in which a need could be filled by employing unemployed people who would find satisfaction in jobs they really care about. In addition, the nature of the job, and the dignity and healthy camaraderie it would provide, could deliver positive psychological benefits to vets. That investment would, in turn, minimize future burdens on the health care system, the justice system, the VA, and the society that will suffer from the actions of angry, injured, broke, unemployed soldiers…

  I know, I know: it’s crazy talk! There’s no apparent revenue stream!! (Though that certainly hasn’t proved an insurmountable obstacle to much VC investment over the last 15 years.) And how do you assign a monetary value to a safer, more stable, functional democratic society? Thank Muscular Mortar-totin’ Jeebus the world’s in the steady, experienced hands of the experts. 

  ** The message above details a purely hypothetical thought experiment conducted on Not Earth and is in no way intended to be interpreted as a Real Idea™ for application here on Earth. **

• [Phil Fot]

  Why go low rent? There are plenty of unemployed US veterans. They blend in, better, too.

• [Lobster]

  With only the greatest of respect for our combat veterans, some of whom are my friends and co-workers, not all of them come back in the state of mind to safely subdue US citizens.  Think about what they’ve been through:

  They’ve spent months, maybe years, surrounded by people who look like civilians.  Some of them, they’ve been ordered to protect.  Others are just waiting for an opportunity to kill them and their brothers.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to tell one group from the other until you have a gun pointed at you.

  Do you want to put someone like that in a situation where, no matter how combative a civilian may seem, they aren’t allowed to even bruise them? What happens when someone inevitably snaps?

  PTSD is a real thing.