Comments on: The Race Is Heating Up

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:56:56 +0000

In reply to hipparchia. Hipparchia, just showing up in riot helmets is an escalation of force. We were taught this stuff in the 1970s and nothing has changed. You are supposed to start at the bottom and build as you encounter resistance. Showing up in the riot gear was just looking for a fight. They kept pointing their pepper-ball guns at the crowd, that is another provocation. They were lucky they weren't dealing with 'street people' in an urban environment, because they would have gotten their butts thoroughly kicked with their attitude.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:36:06 +0000

They really are good at this, and they had to defuse the situation because the UC Davis cops obviously didn’t know how.

that was truly impressive. kids these days are pretty darn smart, after all.

meanwhile, you have to wonder if cops these days are even being taught about defusing anything. probably not: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00394.x/full

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:30:49 +0000

I don’t doubt that Pike had ‘issues’ with the other officers and felt like showing what a ‘hard case’ he was, Badtux. I doubt he would have done it if he had felt there was any possibility of being attacked by those he sprayed. You hand out this crap with Fed funds and people will use it sooner or later.

Read the Lambert article I posted, Steve. He and many of the commentators stressed the conduct of the students. They really are good at this, and they had to defuse the situation because the UC Davis cops obviously didn’t know how.

Yep, Hipparchia, just what I always wanted ؟

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:13:34 +0000

Someone needs to acknowledge the degree of restraint the students exercised. That was in the best tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience, though it is not clear to me there was anything legitimate to disobey.

I try not to end up in such circumstances because I feel such a strong urge to fight back. Yeah, I know; a court of law is the place for that, but considering what cops have been getting from judges (e.g., loss of 10 days’ time off), there hasn’t been any punishment really commensurate with the pepper-spraying these bastards inflicted on nonoffending protesters.

Personally, I’d be satisfied only by immediate dismissal without pay: cops who would do that in the first place are not going to learn anything from punishment. Get ’em off the force… immediately.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:09:13 +0000

ot, but since you were asking about snark markers some time back: http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/13-punctuation-marks-that-you-never-knew-existed [scroll down to the end of the list]

By: Badtux

Badtux — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:33 +0000

Ya, ’cause U.C. Davis is the clear and obvious target for terrorist attacks, so it would have seemed harmless to give a staff weenie the Homeland Security liaison job. I mean, what could he hurt in such a position? Non-existent terrorists?

Well, he showed them, didn’t he! I suppose if you consider a dozen non-violent students sitting in a circle to be terrorists, suddenly his job is a lot less useless, right?

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:41:42 +0000

It is more likely that he was sucking up and convinced the chief to give him ‘command’ of the ‘tactical squad’. He was probably the contact for Homeland Security at the department.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:37:23 +0000

That said, what in hell was the reason for sending a ‘staff weenie’ to command a policing operation?

just a guess: possibly he’s near retirement, possibly they needed someone to take the inevitable fall, and possibly he’s going to be ‘allowed to retire’ very soon.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:09:12 +0000

Dave, everyone starts out the same way – ‘parkers and barkers’ on the graveyard shift. There is no ‘staff’ line of promotion even at large departments, so Pike had do the job and knows what it is. Becoming a ‘staff weenie’ doesn’t excuse you from firearms re-qualification and the other basic job requirements if you want a law enforcement pension at 20 years, which is a better deal than the standard civil service pension.

That said, what in hell was the reason for sending a ‘staff weenie’ to command a policing operation? It is possible that he is also in charge of the ‘tactical squad’, which would be a major failure on the part of the chief of the department, as he obviously wasn’t in good enough physical shape for the function.

Yes, Badtux, ridicule is the best and most effective weapon against the police. It drives cops up the wall. There is something in the minds of the guys I worked with that could tolerate all of the hate in the world, but they snapped when someone laughed at them.

Jams, the whole ‘War on Terror’ has totally corrupted police forces around the world. It is a disease that re-routes thinking from the frontal lobes to the brain stem. The core function has shifted from keeping the peace to fighting a war – except the enemy is almost never actually present.

By: jams o donnell

jams o donnell — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:13:14 +0000

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the footage. It’s lucky for the police that the crowds didn’t get ugly or I think Pike would have been taking meals through a straw for a long time.

Another coward feeling big by going macho on peaceful protestors.

I am not the person who believes in ACAB “All Coppers are Bastard, I was a SCAB sort of person (Some Coppers), now I am heading for LOCAB (Loads of Coppers are Bastards).

I cannot imagine how it feels as a cop seeing so called brothers acting like scum