Photo of the Day: The faces of #OWS cluelessness as exemplified by #UCDavis
The now-infamous UC Davis pepper-spraying incident from 11-18 has become a rallying cry – a call to arms – for Occupiers nationwide as they seek to legitimize their entitlement movement partly by way of screaming “police brutality” over every single incident where the police have had to act to move belligerent protesters who refuse to not occupy – which was the case with UC Davis. The CS Monitor on what happened:
Police use of pepper spray to disperse “occupy” demonstrators at UC Davis has set off a firestorm of protest, the suspension of two officers, and calls for the school’s chancellor to resign.
Video of the incident at the University of California campus, showing demonstrators sitting peacefully on a sidewalk as officers sprayed them with a red mist of pepper spray at very close range, quickly went viral.
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who initially voiced support for the officers Friday, soon backtracked.
“I spoke with students this weekend, and I feel their outrage,” Chancellor Katehi said Sunday in a statement announcing that two officers had been put on administrative leave.
“I have also heard from an overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and alumni from around the country,” she said. “I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident. However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place.”
Katehi said she is accelerating the timetable for a task force to investigate the events surrounding the arrests of 10 protesters Friday, including communications from the police to the administration, according to the university statement Sunday. She set a deadline of 30 days for the task force, which will include representatives of faculty, students and staff, to be chosen and convened this coming week.
What a surprise to find spineless, backtracking “leadership” at UC Davis. Astonishing, really, when you read about all the violent threats that UC regents have been under over the last few years for a whole host of typically selfish “me-first” liberal reasons like rising tuition rates, budget cuts, etc. But apparently that means nothing to Chancellor Katehi, who would rather have a high approval rating with the student body than actually possess a backbone and knees that don’t jerk.
Oh, as to the viral video of the pepper-spraying? Of course the context was completely left out. What’s been going viral is the one minute video showing the officer walking up and pepper-spraying the students who had locked arms and sat down, refusing to move – and, no, they weren’t “peaceful.” The context of five minutes before hands shows obnoxious juveniles in “adult” bodies sitting down with locked arms participating in “mic checks” with the rather large crowd, yelling at officers, etc. You also see the officers giving the crowd – and the sidewalk sitting morons – plenty of opportunity to get up to avoid being pepper-sprayed. They knew, everyone around them who saw the officers shaking the orange cans knew. But they stayed anyway. And they got sprayed.
Do I have any sympathy for these fools? No. I don’t. The police really didn’t have many other options to get the students to move short of dragging them kicking and screaming off the sidewalk to prevent them from “occupying.” In response, OWS’ favorite bullies, the Anons, have already “doxed” one of the officers by revealing personal information, including his home address and phone number, and are encouraging harassment and threats.
Again, it’s not a “free speech violation” to be told you can’t occupy. It’s a free speech violation to be told you can’t speak at all. Marching, chanting, etc – no problem. Occupying? A problem. And one that is growing, if troublesome communes like Occupy Oakland and Occupy Seattle are any indication. These thugs, aging hippies, and self-important college nitwits could learn a thing or two from Tea Party rallies, which effectively helped spread the message to politicians and other prominent political figures that they WILL be held accountable for their votes and actions. All of it was done without occupying and the general thuggery and violence that has become synonymous with it.
Lastly, 1 percenter Michael Moore weighs in with what is arguably the most laughable quote of the entire Occupy “movement”: “[T]he [UC Davis] images have resonated around the world in the same way the lone man standing in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square resonated.”
*Head-desk.*
With all this in mind, make sure you read Derek A. Hunter’s “Generation Mutant: Occupiers are the Natural Spawn of the Progressive Movement” column from Sunday. It’s essential reading for those of you who, like me, are eager to learn everything you can about exactly who and what it is we’re up against. Here’s a sampling:
The “occupiers” are the post-digested remains of the natural journey through the intestinal tract of the metastasizing liberal ideology in education and pop culture.
The “millennials,” as they’re called, are the first generation spawned from the “progressive” idea of equal outcome disguised as equal opportunity. They are the “Participation Ribbon People” – a generation rewarded and praised simply for showing up. The result of social promotion, time-outs over spanking and the misguided concept that reward is deserved and not earned.
The movies, books and music these kids devoured portrayed business as evil and CEOs as thieves in suits whose wealth comes not from hard work but by exploiting the poor or selling dangerous and defective products to an unsuspecting population.
This generation grew up with “reality TV,” which is not, of course, realistic at all. It measures success as drinking more beers before you vomit than the next guy. A sex tape brings not embarrassment but celebrity status.
It might have seemed as if these children of entitlement treated rioting as an audition for the Jersey Shore, but they weren’t – although MTV was at Zuccotti Park recruiting candidates for “The Real World.”
The only thing more prevalent among the “occupiers” than body lice is their sense of entitlement. They’re entitled to forgiveness of the college loans they willingly took out. They can trespass on private property and stay as long as they like. They claim to represent the “99 percent” of the country not among the wealthiest 1 percent. But do they?
[…]
Nothing undermines civil society more than the belief that every thought is correct, that every desire should be fulfilled. It doesn’t work that way, of course. And when people discover their every whim won’t be met, they find scapegoats.
Zuccotti Park has been filled with people who’ve been coddled their whole lives, who’ve never been told they’re wrong, who’ve been raised to pursue feeling over logic. They’re being confronted with an uncertain future, and its doubly scary for them because they never have been allowed to face the consequences of failure.
They’ve been encased in an emotional bubble-wrap that protected them from reality until graduation. They’ve never truly faced failure. They got a ribbon or trophy every time. Now, suddenly, someone won’t hire them or promote them or give them a good apartment at a low price. What’s worse, someone else did get that job, that promotion. That someone must have cheated.
Make sure to read the whole thing.