I'm sorry, but what happened to freedom of speech and the right to assemble?
I think this photo says it all.
Breaking up a peaceful Occupy sit-in at UC Davis yesterday, a police officer strolled nonchalantly up and down the line of (sitting, heads ducked down, silent) college kids and hit them full in the faces with a steady stream of pepper spray. (For the YouTube video, click here.)
Does no one else see this as disturbing? I don't care what you think about Occupy Wall Street and its thousands of spin-offs in cities across the U.S. Repeat: I don't care. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. These people are crazy. These people are right on. These people are confused. Whatever. It is NOT OKAY to treat them like this, for wanting to put some action to their beliefs and demonstrate peacefully. NOT. OKAY. AT. ALL. It might not be your cause, but you should care, just the same. (At least care more than UC Davis' chancellor.)
It's pepper spray, not guns....but eerily reminiscent.
Courtesy The Digital Journalist/LIFE magazine
And just take a look around the world to remember what happens when decent citizens are silenced, and when good people start to shut up for fear of reprisal.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. —Edmund Burke
Shannon, it's Sheryl (used to be Mrs. Humphreys) and yes, I found the UC Davis thing way beyond disturbing. The pictures of Kent State, and others of UC Berkeley were vivid in my memory. Particularly because I remember them on the news when I was in high school. With the advent of things like pepper spray, it makes it even more disturbing. More and more often I think that the America I live in today is the the America I was taught about in History and Civics. It is disturbing, and I am not totally sure what we can do. The power seems to be in the hands of the mega-rich and the corporations.
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