UPDATE: A 'HEALTHY' DOSE OF PEPPER SPRAY

OUTRAGE! That’s what the internet, the newspaper headlines and the lead-in stories on the national TV news broadcasts have called the reaction to the pepper spraying of UC Davis student protesters. The cops are being excoriated while the protesters are called ‘peaceful’ and ‘passive.’

As I wrote before, the 1% are no longer the bad guys - now it’s the police officers trying to maintain law and order.

Campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza and the two cops who did the spraying have been placed on administrative leave “to restore trust and calm tensions.” The UC Davis faculty has called for the resignation of Linda Katehi, the university’s chancellor. The ‘university’ has called on the District Attorney to investigate if criminal charges should be filed against the cops. And a prominent educated idiot UC Davis professor has questioned why campus cops are armed in the first place.

Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California system, said he was “appalled” by the police action and declared that "Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history. It is a value we must protect with vigilance." Yudof announced that all 10 chancellors would convene soon for a discussion "about how to ensure proportional law enforcement response to non-violent protest."

The educated idiots, and that includes Yudof, that are screaming ‘outrage’ don’t seem to understand that protesters do not have the right to interfere in the rights of others to go about their business unimpeded. The pepper sprayed protesters were clearly blocking a path and were asked by the cops repeatedly to move. Then they were ordered to move.

In such situations it is common police procedure to resort to pepper spray. Since the protesters were squatting with their arms interlocked and were determined to stay put, removing them by prying them apart and dragging them off would have resulted in injuries to both the protesters and cops. That is something the educated idiots and all the others screaming ‘outrage’ do not seem to understand. And leaving the protesters - who are interfering with the rights of others – in place to continue their unlawful squatting would constitute a breakdown of law and order.

Law and order? That’s been a politically incorrect term ever since the protests against the Vietnam War.

Maintain law and order or let law and order break down? The cops are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. So fuck all those armchair critics and let me repeat: To our police officers I say, right on guys! If the OWS rabble refuses to obey a lawful order, go right ahead and give them a ‘healthy’ dose of pepper spray! And an occasional kick in the butt might not be such a bad idea after all.