Pepper Spray – A little dab’ll do ya
During this holiday season it’s very difficult to determine the socially acceptable method for serving pepper spray to ‘progressive’ class warriors on the front lines of aimless protest.
Previously, Humboldt County, CA deputies had a situation where a lumber company’s offices were seized by protestors who refused to leave. Deputies announced pepper spray was on the menu and delivered individual servings on the end of a Q–tip gently placed inside the eyelid.
Ungrateful progressives did not appreciate organic extra–spicy and news conferences, lawsuits and attempts to have deputies fired ensued.
That’s one reason why it’s not surprising that last Friday when U. C. Davis’ officers faced much the same situation with a derivative set of occupy types; they dispensed with the personal touch and served their pepper spray family style.
The most popular video of the spraying incident is the usual out–of–context snippet showing peaceful students non–violently arranging paint buckets for the next community drum circle when jack–booted TSA thugs run up and grab their private parts. (Whoops, my mistake, wrong fascists.)
What you don’t see are the large number of protestors attempting to stop police from dismantling the occupy tent city. You don’t see most of the group leave without incident and then the hardcore — a term I use loosely when you consider what a bunch of whiners they are — sit and block the pavement.
Officers approach and attempt to disperse them with verbal commands and by pulling them to their feet. The demonstrators jerk their arms away and refuse to vacate.
Progressives term these protesters “peaceful” and “non–violent” as if that makes the group immune. Unfortunately, the law does not consider your resting pulse a factor in determining when you are in violation.
Even on their behinds these protestors are actively resisting a lawful command. You can term it obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct or whatever local ordinances apply, but the bottom line is they are willfully and purposefully breaking the law.
The occupy Davis types had plenty of opportunities to comply. They were told they had until 3 p.m. Friday to remove the tents. Police gave protestors written notice to vacate. When the operation began on Friday afternoon they were notified yet again.
In the face of repeated warnings, occupiers refuse to move. Do the police back down in the face of the mob? If so, where does it stop?
Police choose to do their duty. One calmly and methodically spreads the aerosol mist. It looks like he’s spraying deodorant on a particularly large armpit.
What’s more, it works. Once the spray hits a group immediately jumps up and leaves unmolested. Police approach and break what’s left of the line, rounding up the remnants. Problem solved without resorting to batons or Tasers, which are authentic violence.
But sure enough, following orders is beyond the pale in academia if liberals complain. U. C. Davis Chancellor Linda Kotehi — who now joins Virginia Tech President Charles Steger on the list of university administrators in need of a spine donor — called the actions of police following her orders “chilling” and professor of hysteria Cynthia Ching called it “inhuman brutality.”
It didn’t help matters when Chief Annette Spicuzza claimed that, “students had encircled the officers. They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out.” This is an obvious lie.
The spray was used to disperse the protestors who were continuing to disobey a lawful order, which is both standard and legal. When the police withdrew — which was actually the dangerous part of the operation, since the mob surges forward to fill the space just vacated and surrounds the cops as they retreat —officers with pepper pellet–equipped paintball guns moved to the rear to cover the orderly withdrawal and did not fire a round.
(Ironically on Saturday there was an effective, legal and non–violent protest when students formed a gauntlet that Kotehi had to walk through as she left the admin building. Students remained silent, and unsprayed, as they stared in contempt.)
Once again working cops get the usual morale booster: a howling media frightens squishy progressive leadership. Officers are suspended and promised a future filled with a witch–hunting investigation.
What you won’t read about are the law–abiding citizens who say Big Deal. So the squatters got a little weepy and had a catch in their breath. The same thing happens when a new ‘Twilight’ movie opens and no one suffers any permanent damage.
Besides, how can you claim to be a courageous class warrior for the 99 percent if you don’t actually wish to experience any combat?