From a former SRJC band student currently attending UC Berkeley. Berkeley has always been a hot bed for protest and during my years in California, most of the violent protesters arrested in Berkeley or Oakland werent even residents of the area but looters from the Central Valley trying to take advantage of the chaos. The discrediting of protests in Berkeley goes back to J. Edgar Hoovers attempts in the 1960s to quell communism and socialism. When people are this angry, it is a sign of an endemic problem and we should be listening, then looking for solutions. From Colin: I just spent 15 minutes looking at half a dozen domestic and international news sources. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC US, Al Jazeera America, CBS News. I found nothing about the police violence going on here on CNN or MSNBC (on the BBC, there was only something spouting what the NYC Police say happened in the Garner case). On most of the other sources, I found articles illustrating the instances of violence against police and seemingly condoning the use of tear gas on public streets, where people in their homes were affected. Only Al Jazeera seemed to actually have a balanced perspective, and I say that in the loosest of terms. I found not a single article that stated that the people causing the violence are most likely not protesters and that the protesters are stopping violence and looting from happening. Yes, Trader Joes and Radioshack were broken in to. It seems to have been done by men dressed in black balaclavas who were there to take advantage of the distracted police. Regardless of the fact that a very small number of people (who most likely were not involved in the protest) acted violently, I see no possible reason for the police to fire rubber bullets into a crowd or to use a chemical weapon that is banned under international arms treaties on protesters on public streets where people live. My friends were gassed walking to get dinner or exiting their apartment building to go to a friends. In the video here, I did not see a single instance of violence against the police and yet the camera operator is hit with a nightstick repeatedly and the police use tear gas on the protesters. At several points, you can see a few officers holding other officers back from advancing on students. They had to be held back.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:40:06 +0000
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