Queeg
1881
A bit different perspective on the UC Davis incident, from an interview with one of the students who was pepper-sprayed:
ELLI PEARSON: Well, we were protesting together, and the riot cops came at us, and we linked arms and sat down peacefully to protest their presence on our campus. And at one point, they were—we had encircled them, and they were trying to leave, and they were trying to clear a path. And so, we sat down, linked arms, and said that if they wanted to clear the path, they would have to go through us. But we were on the ground, you know, heads down. And all I could see was people telling me to cover my head, protect myself, and put my head down. And the next thing I know, I was pepper-sprayed.
Doesn’t necessarily excuse the police action but does perhaps explain what they were thinking. Sounds like at least some of the students intentionally escalated the situation.
I’d post the full interview, but I can’t. It’s at Democracy Now!
Timex
1882
They encircled the cops and tried preventing them Fromm leaving. Ya… So, enjoy the pepper spray.
Who said that the police kicked her? According to her report (linked above), the police officer “lifted his foot and it hit her in the stomach.” That doesn’t sound like he kicked her.
Troll sticks up for troll. News at Fuck You O’Clock
I’m not surprised that you choose ad hominem attacks over actually responding to points.
Better still, Adree called her a cunt and nobody said anything.
You’re pretty smart for someone who doesn’t know what a kick is.
CharlesC
1887
You saw the video right? The cop stepped over them to pepper spray them in the face. Its not like they were trapped or something.
The psychology of pepper spray:
“When you have something that is readily available to you, something that’s on your belt like pepper spray, and you have a confrontation in front of you — the first thing you’re going to do, because you’re human, is use whatever is right there,” said Ana Yáñez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a non-partisan group that has successfully lobbied to make pepper spray less readily available to law enforcement officers in that state’s youth correctional system.
“All of the training that you might use, anything that allows you to use your other skills, goes out the door,” Yáñez-Correa added. “The first thing you do is say, ‘I’m going to pepper-spray that kid.’ That’s a natural response.”
Indeed, while law enforcement scholars unanimously acknowledge that, on a per-violent-incident basis, pepper spray results in fewer injuries than direct physical violence, research suggests that having pepper spray could lead to higher numbers of violent incidents.
In one analysis, criminologists found that police use of force rose by 33 percent in Concord, North Carolina following the approval of pepper spray as a law enforcement tool. After an arrestee died in custody after being sprayed, pepper spray use was restricted; use-of-force incidents then fell by 57 percent, even though arrest rates rose by almost 4 percent.
Interesting but I’m not really surprised. Once the notion of a weapon causing severe physical injury is purged from the thought process (this only needs to be believed to be the case, not actually the case) things change. The question isn’t “why use pepper spray?” anymore it’s “why not use pepper spray?”
If you have Bill on ignore, you’re too humorless for this forum. I have no idea what he said to upset you. I’m sure it was totally offensive. That’s the Dungsgroman charm. I’m a little surprised that you’re over 150 posts in and don’t get it yet.
From Mankiw’s blog a couple of Milton videos titled what Milton Friedman might say to the Occupy movement.
What I find really interesting is that, usually, Milton Friedman makes decent arguments. However, his arguments against the inheritance tax are almost entirely specious. I think that is fascinating.
The 2nd video is also not very compelling. Although he gets off some good quips. I wonder why Mankiw chose these videos, they are horrible. Maybe he harbors some hatred for Milton?
Mankiw appears to do good work, but then Bad Mankiw shows up occasionally to play for Team Republican.
jeffd
1893
Mankiw’s a fantastic economist, but as soon as he dips his toes into politics or social commentary he turns into a total hack.
Milton Friedman was a fool.
Yet he also figured out the trick to inflation! Apparently no one else could do it. People are strange.
He was a very smart guy with an ideological commitment to a particular vision of economics that made him blind to certain realities. It’s unfortunate that this kind of “selective blindness” is actually so common in econ; it seems to attract a particular personality type very strongly.
No, other people got it long before. I guess people listened to him because many fools need a fool to point out when they’re wrong.
Democratic congressional candidate Ray Lutz was arrested for registering voters in San Diego’s public Freedom Plaza (AKA Civic Center Plaza), where the local Occupy protest has taken place. The San Diego police arrested Mr Lutz for trespassing and confiscated his voter registration forms.
