What can i say? I've never been known for showing an abundance of tact anyway...
Just as a little aside rant, feel free to disagree but this is just my personal opinion... the University of California Police Chief is just a political animal that deserves no respect. He caved to public pressure and fired Lt. Pike despite the LT operating FULLY within the use of force continuum, Lt. Pike and the officers on scene that deployed pepper spray against the foolish protesters actually showed remarkable restraint and warned all of the civilians what would occur if they did not disperse. The important thing to remember here is that pepper spray is not a 'weapon' it is a 'pain compliance tool' and as such was used appropriately.
Just my personal thoughts, if you agree or disagree either way feel free to share your opinion on the case in the comments section for this post (for those unfamiliar with the story, here is the link to said incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Davis_pepper-spray_incident )
Song of the Week: Guilty Pleasure by Gone for Days
I seem to recall something in the first amendment that acknowledges that the people have a right to peaceably assemble...did any of those protesters kill anyone? Commit a felony? If not, what constitutional amendment gives police the authority to do *anything* to them?
ReplyDeletethe issue here is that they were ordered to disperse as their protest was no longer lawful, they failed to disperse and ignored direct orders from the (outnumbered) LEOs on scene, who were then surrounded by an angry crowd that threatened the LEOs by shouting at them that once they let the seated protesters go then the LEOs there could leave too. Seeings how the officers could have gone hands on instead as the protesters were now subject to arrest i thought this showed remarkable restraint when surrounded by what could have turned into a violent crowd.
ReplyDeleteGranted the video looks bad, but the question is if you had their training and were now required to arrest or force the dispersal of these students when you were that outnumbered, how would you have proceeded?