Dr. Charles Thorpe, Associate Professer of Sociology at UCSD, posted the following open letter to the UC Regents at change.org to condemn police aggression at last week’s protests at UC Riverside (captured in the youtube video by a UCSD student below). In less than a week, 78 signatures were gathered including 45 members of the UCSD faculty. Other open letters about this event have been posted at the Nation.
An Open Letter to the UC Regents,
When the Board of Regents met at UC Riverside last Thursday (January 19, 2012), police officers engaged in violence against students and staff members who had gathered to protest. News reports and video footage document officers jabbing protesters with batons and firing projectiles. This follows outcry within the UC community, across the United States, and internationally about police violence toward protesters at UC Berkeley on November 9 and UC Davis on November 18. We, the undersigned faculty of the University of California, San Diego, believe that the use of violence against students and staff exercising their right to peaceful protest is entirely unacceptable. Such use of force by police against peaceful protesters runs directly counter to values of reason, dialogue, and free expression that are basic to the very idea of the university as an institution. We therefore call on the Board of Regents to publicly condemn the use of violent tactics in the policing of campus protest.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Charles Thorpe, Sociology Professor Morana Alac, Communciation Professor Lisa Cartwright, Communication Professor Ivan Evans, Sociology (President, UC San Diego Faculty Association) Professor Martha Lampland, Sociology Professor Chandra Mukerji, Communication Professor Luis Martin-Cabrera, Literature Professor Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies Professor Wm. Arctander O’Brien, Literature Alanna Aiko Moore, Subject Librarian, Social Sciences and Humanities Library Professor Roshanak Kheshti, Ethnic Studies Professor Christian Wuthrich, Philosophy Professor Tara Knight, Theatre Professor Stefan Tanaka, History Professor Brian Goldfarb, Communication Professor Zeinabu Davis, Literature Professor John Blanco, Literature Professor Stephanie Jed, Literature Professor Robert Horwitz, Communication Professor Valerie Hartouni, Communication Professor Nitin Govil, Communication Professor Patrick Anderson, Communication Professor Guillermo Algaze, Anthropology Professor April Linton, Sociology Professor Marcel Henaff, Literature Professor Kelly Gates, Communication Professor Isaac Martin, Sociology Professor Nancy Caciola, History Professor Anna Joy Springer, Literature Professor Nina Zhiri, Literature Professor Rosaura Sanchez, Literature Professor Lisa Lowe, Literature Professor Rebecca Klatch, Sociology Dr. Beatrice Pita, Literature Harrod Suarez, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies Professor Jann Pasler, Music Professor Anya S. Gallaccio, Visual Arts Professor Robert Westman, History Professor Jin-Kyung Lee, Literature Professor Gerald Doppelt, Philosophy Professor Rachel Klein, History Professor Fred Lonidier, Visual Arts (President, UC-AFT Local 2034) Professor Ricardo Dominguez, Visual Arts Professor Kartik Seshadri, Music Professor Louis Hock, Visual Arts
This is absurd propaganda diminishing the credibility of honest, peaceful protesters. Get your facts straight. I was there, and though most protesters were peaceful, a small crowd of them certainly were not – they were threatening, assertive, and violent. That is NOT ok. They were taunting the police all day – it looked like they were intentionally trying to provok them – and late Thursday afternoon they became physically aggressive. I SAW one of them assault an officer with a stick (who was rightfully arrested) – and assertively approach police. I also saw one non-student break away from the crowd in a police standoff and go through campus yelling, “the police are batoning your fellow students!”- when it was not true. (the only time I saw police putting up their batons was in a defensive measure, and that was later in the day) It became unlawful assembly when some protesters blocked exit access to the regents and started to get aggressive. Freedom of speech has limitations (e.g. you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater) – you can’t threaten anyone’s safety, and you can’t infringe upon other people’s rights. Blocking public access to anyone (in this case the Regents) = infringing upon their rights. “Negotiation” of their exit = they are being held hostage, and that’s not morally okay, or lawful. It’s being a bully. To act like the police responded to “peaceful protesters” is a lie – they responded to threatening extremists who were infringing on the rights of others. As someone who wants to protest rising tuitions, it disgusted me, and it disgusts me that propaganda like this is being spread as truth. Therefore call upon yourselves to research the facts and publicly condemn the use of violent tactics in protesting. Target non-peaceful protesters and target the real problem – the politicians in Sacramento who keep slashing the UC education budget (that is, unless you are in bed with them – then this all makes sense, and is especially shameful).