Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Press. Freedom to Peaceably Assemble. Citizens in the United States have the right to engage in peaceful protest activity, as guaranteed by the 1st amendment, regardless of whether they are doing so in public parks or on public sidewalks and streets.
Recent events, particularly those that occurred in connection with Ferguson Missouri and the different Occupy and Black Lives Matter (#BLM) Movements, suggest that these rights are being challenged by federal, state, and local authorities. Even members of the public have come out to criticize public protest when they find it is inconvenient or feel the cause is not one that affects them.
Student activists are increasingly coming under fire on college campuses around the country. For instance, U.C Davis students protesting campus governance and CUNY students protesting everything from tuition increases to the adjunct appointment of the former General and CIA Chief David Petraeus, who many accuse of complicity with war crimes, have all been variously pepper sprayed, beaten, and jailed by campus security and local police for engaging in constitutionally guaranteed free-speech activity.
Two of our authors, Stephen Graham and Radley Balko, look at the trend of criminalizing student protest activity; a development that they situate within a general critique of the militarization of society and police forces in particular. Instead of merely looking at the “small picture” of whether or not the students were polite/impolite or whether the protesters did/did not have permits, the authors help us to situate the activity within a larger social spectrum of developments taking place in the United States [note: you can find a concise rendering of information on what constitutes lawful protected protest activity on the New York Civil Liberties Union website http://www.occupyyourrights.org/].
The UC Davis pepper-spray incident occurred on November 18, 2011, in connection with an Occupy Movement demonstration. Students seated on a paved path on the campus quad were, after failing to respond to an order to vacate the premises, sprayed by UC Davis police officer Lt. John Pike. This photo and a video of the incident went viral and became an Internet meme. Later, in October 2013, a judge ruled the officer would be paid $38,000 to compensate for pain and suffering he claimed he was forced to endure as a result of his own actions.
CCNY Students Protest
In September of 2013, 6 CUNY students were arrested during a protest that took place on the street outside Macauley Honors College (see video below). Students and alumnae were similarly arrested together at City College, a major hub for student organizing activity in the CUNY system, when the Morales/Shakur Student and Community Center was closed without warning by the CCNY administration. Two CCNY students were “banned” from CUNY campuses without due process (one student was as forcibly removed from class by campus security). To make matters worse, the university’s proposed (and recently voted to change) policy on “expressive activity,” which essentially codifies/legitimizes this kind of violence against students in what can only be seen as an action intended to put a lid on student dissent at CUNY [a draft of the policy can be found here: http://www.cunyufs.org/EXPRESSIVEACTIVITIES.pdf].
Link to the full article: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/11/tafadar_sourov_khalil_vasquez_ccny_
morales-shakur_criminal_charges.php
Discussion Questions
What do you think about the student protesters and the police interaction in the video clip? Have you ever participated in a student-led protest?
What is the purpose behind maintaining a campus police force separate from the local community’s police department? [there are actually clear and good reasons for this]. Nonetheless, why does it increasingly appear that the tactics applied to deal with students are no longer different from that which we might expect not only from a civilian police force, but from an occupying army?
What explains the recent uptick in violent encounters between students and police officers? Are students becoming more violent, compared to students in the past, or are the police? How does this make you feel as a student? Do you feel comfortable engaging in protest activity on important issues (i.e. tuition increases), or do you feel afraid?
Based on the current anti-protest climate that is being cultivated by institutions AGAINST students, what does this say about the values of higher education? Do you think universities perhaps now care more about money than students?
Why are peaceful protests that are completely lawful continuing to be criminalized?
Why are universities, who are charged with the educational development and care of students, forming league with law enforcement to monitor student organizing activity and in many cases physically hurt them?
To what extent do you think these aggressive policies might potentially threaten and undermine the democratic promise of higher education?
What institutional structural comparisons might you make between prisons and universities? Do you see any similarities in terms of how the “clients” of these institutions are treated?
I agree with peaceful protests because it is our right to protest. Its Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, and Freedom to Peaceably Assemble, no matter where you are it is your Constitutional right to be able to peacefully protest. I feel peaceful protests is continued to be criminalized because some authority no matter what the constitution says, they just want to put an end to it to show they have the power. In the incident that happened at U.C Davis, it was finalized that the officers had to pay for what they did, when in the beginning they should have not done it at all. Authority figures are there to be useful and helpful but when they pepper sprayed the students when by the law they were doing no harm, that to me is just unlawful and not right. Also in the CUNY incident I feel that the school administrators cannot take that right away from the students to be able to protest.
I agree with a peaceful protest and it is unlawful that they are being criminalized. Because we live in a democratized country it is our right to take a stand. The police do not need to hard anyone just to get their point of authority across. The students that were pepper sprayed at CUNY makes one realize just how corrupt people that are supposed to protect use can be. I am not making the claim that the police forces are corrupt I am making the claim that changes need to be made. The fact that an incident like this is normalized make one realize the issues at hand.
This incident reminds me of the video we watch in class about stop and frisk. This article about disorder plays are roll in the idea of stop and frisk as well. The way the guy was being spoken to and treated by the policed was disgraceful and made me sick. It is unbelievable and unacceptable that people are treated like this for following the law peacefully by people that “protect and serve” the community. Violent acts have become so normalized and in my opinion the major problem is not protesting it is how the protest are handled.
The first amendment gives us the right of free speech and to assemble in peaceful protests. When the enforcers of the law do not allow people to exercise their constitution right it is then when we have a problem. I can understand a lot of the time when protests occur that the act alone is a form of civil disobedience which is why officers are usually there to see if someone is going to cross the line. All it takes is one person to do something wrong and it could turn the whole event into a crazy mess. But the one thing that I absolutely cannot stand is when officers abuse their power and seemingly attacked or provoke protesters with their power hungry, get away with anything attitude. We have seen these actions take place and there is video evidence to prove that these things happen. Police officers know they are protected by the system so they go ahead and do whatever they feel like doing. Officers who take action like this need to be held accountable. We have to change that system because these officers shouldn’t be attacking innocent students, teachers, or law abiding citizens.
There is no such thing as freedom of speech. The minute you voice your opinion there is a police officer waiting to pound on you and many others. Having police officers and barricades it diminishes the purpose of protesting and it then becomes more then just voicing your opinion. It then becomes an issue of how many were hurt or arrested during the protest. While we are thinking of exercising our right of freedom of speech we must also look at the dangers of doing so.
Ask yourself why the response to the protesters have been so violent. Ask yourself why campus security shows up in full riot gear. Ask yourself why universities suddenly have no interest in protecting their students when they exercise their first amendment right to protest.
They suppress them because they fear their power.
College students have been at the forfront of many social and political movements. Let’s not forget that the Black Panters group were founded by college students. They showed the people that they fought for the flaws of our institutions. They challenged the establishment.
The oppressive power structure that capitalism has birthed is spread throughout most major American institutions. That includes universities. These institutions are very comfortable with their power and positions. So when they see educated working class people who challenge their status quo, you better believe that they would take any action to stop them. Just look at the Kent State shootings.
Fear of violence is the perfect way to combat a revolution.
But know that the establishment is trembling.
I always thought it is really strange that nowadays, in pretty much every protest I have seen around the city, there are not only cops present, but some kind of barricade around the protesters to restrict the space they can protest in. In a way, it feels like it is there to minimize the amount of physical disruption the protesters can make, and in a way also minimize the impact they make on the people around them. I also feel that the huge amount of police officers there are also to box people in and to label the boxed-in people as “people doing something they really should not be doing and you should stay away from them.” I would imagine that if protesters were able to take over the streets and if there were a lot less police, their protests would get more needed attention and it would feel more like a publicly-approved one. They are trying to keep protests small and contained, trying to stop them from getting attention and growing into million-person marches like the ones in the Civil Rights era that made changes happen.
Also in the video (as well as many other protests), the cops seem to be actively shooing away people who are taking picture or recording what is happening. I think this media suppression by the cops themselves has gotten so bad that people have created special recording apps for smartphones that instantly saves and uploads footage of police brutality and wrongdoings onto the internet.
I think that schools have their own campus police force that is separate from the local police force because they operate within the school’s own internal laws rather than the community’s laws. Upon doing some quick research, I found that many of these police forces were created or significantly expanded after student protests. They can also be right there on campus to catch anyone doing anything “suspicious” and can act immediately (compared to the community cops who are not amongst the students until they are called in after a significant amount of time). In that way their constant presence, surveillance of students (and most likely everyone else), and show of power make them very similar to an occupying army instead of a regular police force that deals with actual violent situations.
Like an occupying army, I think that these police officers have orders to not restore peace but to restore their employers’ status quo, which means they have to suppress anyone who disturbs it. Here, it means any student or civilian who are trying to protest and change that status quo. As more and more students become defiant, the police become more and more strict and nitpicky with the “law.” Under these pressures, I think it is likely that even small gestures from a protester can look like or be loosely (but sufficiently) considered an offense, and the cops will just jump right onto them with force. Then, as protesters try to defend themselves, that will also look like he or she is “attacking” (and on top of that there is also the possibility that the media will bend all actual footage of that incident to defend the cops). There is also the possibility that the cops will be ordered to just bring out their heavy equipment and pre-emptively try to quickly and violently disperse the protesters before anything can be caught on camera and sent off to the rest of the country. With these two possibilities of violence, I think that most protesters out there now are not violent, since it will benefit nothing but the cause they are trying to protest against, which makes me really believe that it really is the cops that are becoming more and more violent. Honestly this makes me a sort of scared to protest, especially if there are not a lot of people in it. If on the other hand it is like a million-person march that floods Manhattan, I will be more confident, since there is always strength in numbers, to the point where it is impossible to ignore or suppress.
With all this anti-protester attitudes, as well as with so many schools trying to suppress protesters, it really does seem that they are not representing the students and teachers anymore. This will probably be very bad if the schools have been more and more privatized, since I would imagine that they are under immense pressure from the businesses that fund them to suppress protests quickly. Even in the case of the CUNY protests, I believe that if the people running it really cared about the students and professors, they would fight alongside the protesters instead of sending in cops to beat them up. Since that did not happen, it is clear that they care more about their own money instead of their people. They want to create students who will follow the status quo and weed out the ones who are trying to challenge it.
Protesting is a very tricky topic. In the United States everyone has the right to protest. But, at what point does a protest become dangerous? Or at what point does a protest incite violence? Liberal Media will spin the arrest of an “innocent” protester, while conservative media will talk about the threats that the “criminal” protester had posed. The fact that neither parties are correct or incorrect is precisely where my opinion stands. Yes, an innocent and peaceful protest is a beautiful testament to American freedoms. On the other hand, are police officers trigger happy? Sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that every time someone is arrested at a protest the officer is wrong. Yet, no one is sure what happened to provoke an arrest at a protest and the media will spin the story however they desire. As an unbiased bystander to a protest on Hunter College, I witnessed pro-palestinian protesters incite violence against Jews and encouraged and celebrated the torture and murders of innocent American Jews on the Hunter campus. Was there a police presence at the protest? Yes. Did they intervene? No. Should they have? Most definitely. Anytime anyone’s existence is challenged by a group of protesters, police presence is warranted. Believe it or not, protesters incite violence and in many cases deserve to be detained.
The way the police officers handle this issue is absolutely absurd. These students have a constitutional right to assemble. As a Greenpeace activist I have been to a few protests which were more organized in nature. I must wonder however, why do protests need to be organized? One in particular stands out where we staged a protest of Hillary Clinton taking campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. We had to go through extensive permitting only to find that the area we reserved was exactly where Sect. Clinton would be walking into the event at the Dakota. We were then forced to move to the opposite side of the road in pens. This undermines the very reason we were there and allowed to her to further ignore us. As far as separating police forces, Washington DC has a great model. They have a separate force all together for protest and civil disobedience issues that are called in and better trained to handle dealing with people in less aggressive ways. The point of higher education is to cause challenge, ignite an individuals passion and get them involved in society. With students who want to go out and protest something they believe in getting physically harmed it causes other students to become fearful of questioning and undermines the higher education system.
While I myself have not participated in any, I have witnessed several student protests on our own Hunter College campus throughout my three years here. As intense or out of control as the protests may escalate to, these students have the right to engage in this protest activity. I was alarmed to read about the 6 CUNY students who were arrested during a protest in 2013. To make matters worse, the video of the student protesters and cops left me shocked. The rights of these students were stripped from them and the police were taking advantage of their power. People are always encouraged to exercise their rights and express themselves, however we see through this issue that they are then punished for doing so.
I do think it is okay, and sometimes it may be necessary, to have one or two officers at the protesting site to keep the area in control. However, that does not give them the right to intervene at times which they are not needed and especially in a manner which is way out of proportion. Seeing an image of a police officer punching another CUNY student is horrifying. It makes me think what if that was me protesting for something I believed in and that was what it resulted in. How is this okay?
Reading this module reminded me of a quote by Noam Chomsky who stated that “education is a system of imposed ignorance.” Schools are supposed to groom students into forward thinking individuals but since they are now getting funds from the private sector in return for their rights to “suggest” some changes in the curriculum, they have veered from their intended goal . Consequently, young people are told what to think and who to trust; they are being brainwashed into blissful ignorance and turned into “Stepford Wives and Husbands” with perfect behavior as dictated by The Power Elite. The curriculum prevents open debate, suppresses individualism and rewards conformity.
Gone are the days where students could organize and speak their minds freely without fear of physical and societal reprisals. The silent invasion of the private sector on America’s public school system is pervasive; they are buying their way into the minds of public school students, undermining institutions’ abilities to provide sound academic programs, pushing their own agenda and rejecting a democratic civic culture.
Stephen Graham’s reading on the New Military Urbanism gives a better understanding on the reason why the tactics applied to deal with students who dare think on their own and protest are similar to those used by the army. He mentioned Michel Foucault’s term “the boomerang effects” where you have techniques developed for military purposed to be used abroad that are now returning to urban cities under the form of aggressive policing at public demonstrations using the same non-lethal weapons as those used on the battlefield.
He discusses the shift from external to internal colonization. I might be overthinking his explanation and my analogy might be weak but the student protesters can be seen as the minority group. Just like in internal colonialism, they are exploited by the country’s dominant group, in this case the private sector. The latter manipulates the social institutions (i.e.: the public school system) to suppress the free-thinking minorities who are stepping out of line with their ideas and might influence the masses. Peaceful protests are then criminalized because they go against the message passed down by the majority to the minority.
It was just blown out of proportion in the clip of a student protester being pinned by multiple men who were each of larger size than his. Even when the man was not moving on the ground at the curb of the sidewalk, he was even punch twice by another person that the police officer seemed to be covering. There should not have been anymore force need since the person was already unable to resist and pinned down to the ground. All this unnecessary violence that was not needed on protesters who were not armed.
In my opinion I was shocked when I saw the video of the student protesters and the cops. I felt that the cops were violating the protesters rights and there was no need for the protesters to get arrested. In the beginning of the video I saw how four or five cops were trying to arrest a protester. I don’t think it was necessary for all of those cops to arrest one guy. It does show that he was resisting arrest but the cops were literally bending his arm backwards and one guy even hit him in the back. It’s upsetting to know that some cops at times abuse their power and they feel that just because they enforce the law they can do whatever they please. I don’t think all cops are bad but there are some who just don’t care about following the law they just do as they please. This is why all cops are viewed as bad for some people because of the actions of the cops who take advantage of their authority.
Another big issue that needs to be fixed in order to make this country function properly. They encourage people to exercise their rights and as soon as people go out to protest they send out militarized police officers to terrorize the citizens. The government controls everything we hear on the radio and everything we see on television and now they are going after protesters. Almost feels like this is not a free country anymore.
If our first amendment is freedom of speech, why is there a problem for People to have the right to participate in peaceful protest movement, regardless if they are in public parks or on a public sidewalks and streets. Isn’t he police supposed to be there just in case if there is a big riot? In the U.C Davis student’s case there was a peaceful protest on tuition rising. Since the students didn’t obey by clearing the premises does that give them the right to pepper spray them in the face while sitting on a curb. If it wasn’t for that video going viral would have the officer paid for damages? In the other video I don’t understand why they needed 4 officers to assault one student when he wasn’t resisting arrest nor was he trying to fight back. one officer is punching him in the back. I also see one of the officer not minding to be recorded but want the student to listen to authority. I don’t condone the student to get in to the officers face because that would lead to violence. I don’t think I would participate in a protest because I am frighten what could happen to me. Seeing what goes on in a peaceful protest and still they are able to make it in to violence against a citizen scares me. Also this would not be a race issue because I’ve seen Caucasians get assaulted for protesting. Although I’m a student and they have increase tuition since 2013 I wouldn’t still protest, because everything in life has price.
Students protesting or any other individual protesting, should have the right to protest, this is why there is something called the freedom of speech. I believe it is always a good thing to stand up for something you believe in. I may not ever go out to protest but just looking at other people trying to go out and protest to get their point across is a wonderful thing to see. I just believe there should not be a lot of police officers surrounding protesters like that because they just want their point to get across, protesters are not there to harm people. I just feel when police officers interact with people and try to stop the protesters, things escalate real quick. Especially, in the video clip i just watched. The video clip just describes everything I’m trying to say.
Police brutality is a broad topic when it comes to policing. Police brutality is very common and it happens often all over the world. Police brutality is unfortunate and injustice in my opinion, because I feel like police officers have a huge advantage over a regular civilian. This picture makes me afraid, alienated, and displaced because cops are the ones who are supposed to protect us, instead they can physically and mentally hurt us. Police officers are armed and have way more power and authority over a regular civilian, which obviously means that they have the upper hand!
I have never participated in a protest before, but when I watched the video, “NYPD Officers Cuff and Assault Student at Petraeus Protest,” which is attached to the article, I was speechless. I can not believe the police officers stand there while an unknown guy repeatedly stuck the victim in the ribs while they place handcuffs on him. In the video the police officers are aggressive and do not care about the situation, but more about the arrest.
That was a CUNY student he was punching! Imagine if that was you? What if you decided to protest “tuition increases?” Do you think they would treat you different?
From what i saw in the clip I can say that some of the police was using unnecessary force to handcuff the man on the floor. I saw one police officer punching the man. I think some of them are bullies and some of them just do what they are told. I have never been in a student protest and after watching this I do not want to. That might be why I haven’t seen any because students are scared and do not want to deal with police brutality.
When police officers act violent towards protesters because I believe they feel the need to make examples out of some of them. In my opinion they want to show people this is what happens to anyone who decides to protest. I think the police feel protesters make their job hard and pretty much enjoy the opportunity to get their frustration out on them. Protesters are easy targets and the police know they will get away with knocking a few of them upside the head and wouldn’t be penalized for it.
Why are peaceful protests that are completely lawful continuing to be criminalized?
It is so sad that when people express their rights they are mased or brutilized in such a animalistic mannor. It amazes me that our first ammendment right is freedom of speech but police officers continue to violate those rights of other people during peacful protests. Why mase students that are only expressing their justifiable right of free speech they were not hurting anyone, I bet if someone did that to them that civilian would either face a brutal beating or jail time. This makes nosense to me that after all the suffering all the hate the world still has not learned and continue to face one another as enimies when we are all the same type of mamal we make look different but we still have the same insides and feelings as everyone else. A DR. needs a nurse to do their job, a Bank needs tellers to open, as well as people need police officers for protection but my question is if people need protection from police officers whose job is that?
I haven’t participated in a student-led protest because it can get violent and dangerous. This isn’t the first video I’ve seen where police officers brutally attack protesters. I understand that it can be frustrating for the police officers to see and be in contact with protesters because they are loud and are annoying people around them. But in this situation the student protesters were protesting for better education, and there is nothing wrong with protesting and being heard. The police officers had no right to get violent with the protesters, they weren’t doing anything wrong. Watching the police brutally attack the protester was painful to watch and was not necessary at all.
I have never participated in a student protest because I have seen that it always ends with violence coming from the police. I have to admit that some protests and protesters are violent and it drives officers crazy. But when it has to do with education and real students protesting for a good cause it should be understandable and controlled the best way possible to avoid more problems that can cause any other harm to this society. It is unfair that the people who are fighting for what they deserve or say something about what is not right are the ones that get the worst of this government.
I never participated in any protest because when I see the videos some of them are violent because the police gets involved. When I saw the video of the student protesters and the police interaction it doesn’t really surprise me because when there are protests like that the police tend to get involved. As you can clearly see that, the police doesn’t like to see the students protest so those are there reactions. I personally don’t like seen these videos because it’s sad how the people can protest without any violence occurring. But then again there can be two sides to the story because when you see a video on the internet a person can always react to it. Rather differently from when the person is there at the scene to see what actually occurred. Sometimes people tend to record the bad stuff so the others can judge the other group bad. But yes there are some cases in which the person captures everything and we can see what happened. The video shows how the cops are arresting a person but the police are doing it by attacking the person which shows us that they are bad. Yes they are doing there job but they do it a way that is violent which isn’t good in my opinion. The police tend to attack the victim with more officers so it’s a whole group of police officers trying to arrest one person in a violent way.
After watching this video of police striking against protestors, it has made me realize that police officers can not take the heat. They hate to be the center of negative attention.They don’t want to see people protest especially if it’s against them. They don’t seem to like it at all! Some of them even get angry and that’s when the threats start flying out of their mouths. The officers who pinned that person down on the ground were angry…all over a peaceful protest. One of the officers even took it to the extreme and began performing body shots of punches to the rib. How is that right? How is that ok? If citizens are protesting and not causing an obstruction to the property or they aren’t a threat, why isn’t it ok for them to protest? Police officers remind me of gangs. All of them stick together, to protect and defend one another, no matter if they’re wrong. The crazy part about an officer harming someone else, is that when they do it, in their eyes, they can do no harm. Everything they do is right and just. Everyone else are the enemies, when clearly, they are threats!
Yes, I agree with a few of your statement. Historically protesting has brought the biggest changes in our laws and in our social lives. Protest like the Boston Tea Party, Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Suffrage, the fight against Jim Crow laws, and the most recent push for equal marriage rights for those in the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered) community have all brought about change. Although the right to assemble is still protected police presents and force along with denying permits to protesters are ways to keep people quiet and control the spread of ideas and new public opinions. It is one thing to talk or learn about people and the issues they face because of government and it’s another to hear or see just how many people are being effected. That is why police present and force is used to deter people from protesting.
Recently, I read how our government plans to use technology that will block people from accessing Twitter and other social media outlets on their private phones and laptops. They plan to do so when the court rules on whether or not the officers that shot Mike Brown will face punishment or not. I believe the use of such technology is just as bad as the use of force shown in the article. People have the right to lawfully and peacefully assemble and if they want to use social media outlets to organize a protest they should be able to. If safety and protection of property is an issue, both, private and public stores and insurance against theft and arson and all levels of law enforcement have enough resource to act if a violent out break should.
The clip showed the police officers acting very aggressively towards the student protestors. They’re interaction was very violent and unnecessary. The reason people attend college in the first place is to find themselves and in order to do that they must express their feelings. In this case, the students chose to hold a protest. If you were to watch the video clip with no volume you’d think the student who has been arrested was shooting at the officers or something severe like that. I have never personally been involved in a student protest but I am in favor of them and think they can be beneficial. I think the purpose of maintaining a campus police force separate from the local police department is to keep the college misdemeanors separate from community problems. The way I see how campus police work, is they decide whether or not a student’s behavior is severe enough to be brought to the actual police’s attention or if it should be kept within the school. The negative side to this is that not all illegal activity that occurs on college campuses will be reported to the authorities in order to keep the school’s reputation positive. Campus and community police are increasingly looking the same because they are the same. They are constantly given more and more power.
The increasing violence between students and police officers is produced because officers are constantly holding their power over student’s heads. The student’s mentality is that there is nothing that they can do once they are in custody of police even if they haven’t done anything serious. This is exactly how police want student’s to feel; below them. These aggressive policies may endanger higher education in that they are taking away so much of student’s freedom. By making peaceful protests illegal, they are setting themselves up for dealing with forced protests and more violence in the future.
I personally have never really participated in a student led protest, or really any protest. However, I think it’s crazy how much students are being targeted. We learn since we are little that we live in a completely free country where we have freedom of speech and the freedom to say what we want. Now, when we are older, we realize that all of that is being challenged. I think people in power think students are a weaker group, and are easier to pick on then others. I think that’s exactly why student protests are being targeted. It’s even more ridiculous how much force police are using against these protestors. I also think that students are a small enough group of people to control, and also get the message out that police and those in power won’t let anyone or anything get out of control.
No i have never been in a protest and as being a college student myself i feel much sympathy for the cause and i admire their brave conduct. Campus police and local police have the same police academy training. The officers feel threatened by unarmed college students that could have been their own children, the officers have guns and pepper spray and they have the nerve to say we were surrounded. The officers surround the protesters. I feel as though they do not care about their own children. Karma does exist. Students aren’t just being criminalized some students are being killed during these protests. What happened to FREEDOM OF SPEECH??? Comparisons between prisons and universities are college they cost about the same per year, 18 and over you can get in, millions of people are in both institutions, etc.
I truly believe that voicing an opinion is what allows us to hear different sides of a situation. All we do around the world is protest and some are a lot worse then others. some get get violent and out of control. Many protests occur and the some states and government have passed laws that are ok with protests. We should be able to voice our opinion without feeling judged and many of these protests are affecting us in such a negative way. Some issues really affect people and people want things to change, but not being able to voice out and say how we feel does not help the situation. A lot of towns fear consequences to speak out and this is not right. New York City is a huge city in our country that put these policies into effect. We should be able to voice our opinion and show everyone that the government and police are not always right. Being able to see a different side to a situation and not have legal repercussions occur should happen. We all as U.S. citizens have different rights, freedom of speech is one that needs to be enforced a lot more. We specifically have a right that allows us as citizens to speak freely. Slowly these rights are being taken away before our very eyes.
The purpose behind maintaining a campus police force separate from the local community’s police department is that the campus police deals with young adults and their issues rather than the issues of an entire town. The community police deal with more acres rather than campus police. Campus police deal with more young adult issues like underage drinking, drug abuse, and violent protests, while the local community may deal with all of that and then car accidents, burglary, and others. Community police also deal with more children and elderly while the campus police deal with more young adults and few adults. Yet campus police is like other police forces outside of the college, they deal with less issues and a smaller area compared to community police. They are increasingly now seeming to be the same, because people are becoming more violent regardless of where they are at. For example, in this article, protests are being heavily watched by police officers nowadays. This includes arrests being made to protesters. Regardless, society still needs a police force, whether campus or community police.
When I see videos like these I have to truly wonder what the students were even doing to receive such treatment. From what I have seen, they are usually protesting peacefully about important matters of society that need reform and that are hurting us as students. Throughout history it has taken protests such as these to spread messages about what is corrupt in our society so that action can be taken and more citizens can join the fight. Symbolically, the violent way police forces are dealing with peaceful protests among students represents their voices being completely shut out and silenced. Students are also criminalized through this process even though they are within their constitutional rights by protesting. The message this communicates to me as a student is that our rights are unimportant and our voices are invalid. It makes me feel like universities, the institutions that are supposed to be liberating and protecting us, want us to be kept quiet. I always thought higher education in our society was about learning and becoming a better, more evolved person, but it seems to have become increasingly about business and money for the institutions just as prisons have. The focus on money exceeds that on the quality of learning at universities. This is extremely discouraging to me.
I have never participated in a student led protest, or any other protest before. The police’s interaction with the protesters I felt got out of hand. There was no reason to start punching that man that was already down when trying to arrest him. There was also no reason for that one guy to get in the protesters face that was behind the barricade. The police’s behavior in that video clip was unnecessary. All they should have done was keep the protesters in one area and make sure nothing got out of hand. The students have every right to express their feelings about their institution and what is being taken from them. It’s sad when they aren’t being heard and are treated like criminals for something that they believe in and want to change.
The purpose of having a on campus police force is for safety and convenience, incase an issue occurs on campus they can be there right away and the school can handle it rather than the local police station that may take too long. On campus police force rather keep what happens on campus within the school rather than the town.
Arresting these students is going against the constitution of this country (Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Press. Freedom to Peaceably Assemble). The way law enforcement is handeling the situation with the students reminds me more of tyranny where they will conform through fear of getting locked up, rather than a democracy where they are free to have a say in their government. I have never participated in a student led protest; however, if law enforcement is capable of doing these actions to students for just being an active voice, that definately strikes fear inside me to never do what these students are doing. I feel like I am not the only one who would feel this way, and this is not what our country was originally about.
Although I have never participated in a student-led protest, or rather, any protest at all, I can definitely say that I have been aware of them and all of their consistent deficiencies. For as much as I try to agree with police and acknowledge their “protection’ and recognize that what their doing is for the best of us, the best of our community and our people, there’s just too much footage and significant data that tends to prove to me otherwise. Just simply watching this Petraeus protest video, for example, was extremely disturbing. Looking at the NYPD officers brutally holding down a student and being completely careless with their approach, even being aware that there are people surrounding them “catching it all on video” (and definitely making it known), and knowing that this will most likely be shared, just completely scares me. It clearly goes to show how powerful officers know/think they are and how high in authority they know/think they stand and how injudicious they don’t mind acting as due to how “right” they can be perceived to be. IT IS PAINLY SCARY. And to think that this proposition is only getting closer to us students; I mean, regarding our campus police… they, too, are beginning to stack up on military weapons, becoming no different than the regular police on the streets.I feel as though these violent encounters are just becoming more and more of an eyeopener to how authority can be so dismissive in regards to student voices and how they generally look at a student body just as a number of people they robotically need to control, no matter what the circumstance is or may be and no matter how or what it takes in order for them to reach that particular goal (control), obviously consisting tremendous violence. I mean, this just threatens our relationship within us a whole. It threatens our protection and our fear to contribute to society, our fear to be free. It completely just ruins and contradicts the whole “role” police are idolized to play.
The interaction between student protesters and the police is alarming. The individual being arrested seemed helpless and there was such a large amount of police officers surrounding the individual and violently trying to contain him. Campus police along with other police forces are becoming more militarized and violent. The students have the right to peaceful protest and situations like this undermine their rights.
After reading this its so sad how again poor innocent people are getting brutally beaten by law enforcement. The pictures are horrible to look at and I feel sad for those people who are experiencing this. The poor man with the blood all over him is just heartbreaking to look at because no one is there to stop this police officer from attacking the man. Even if one person was there maybe the poor man would not have been bleeding as bad if someone stopped the officer from doing it. Watching the video is another thing that when you look at makes me think how awful police officers are being to again attack this man by putting him down on the ground and then continuously beating him up. The only good thing was someone got it on tape to show people look how bad law enforcement is becoming. Police officers are not suppose to be this brutal to anyone unless they are a murder or someone who is committing a serious crime. Also in America everyone has the right to freedom of speech so people who are protesting innocently as long as it’s not violent should not be penalized for it. However law enforcement does not care. After reading this it’s so sad how people get treated.
The video clip that I just watched was very disturbing. To see how the police handle situations is very sad. If it is true that these protesters were not doing anything wrong and were following the law, the actions that these police took was not necessary at all. I have never participated in a protest before, but after hearing about what happens at protests and how some situations get handled, I will be a little hesitant to participate. I would not know if I would come back home alive. I would not know if I would end up in jail, just for standing up in what I believe in. We do have the right to speak what we want freely and the police do not need to threaten us with physical abuse because they do not agree. Police need more training or they should learn the law better when working with protesters or just regular people who want to speak their mind.
College police or campus police are suppose to be there for the students protection and safety, not to be there to beat up, haze, pepper spray, etc when a students stands up for what they believe. We can not even speak about something that is going on, on campuses because students have to keep in mind that maybe the police are not there to help them but to hurt them. In the video that was shown there were a group of cops on one individual person who seemed like they could not even more, and yet the cops were still throwing punches at the person. There is no need to harm someone for any reason, let alone a protest which is legal. I really hated watching that because it utterly disgusts me how cops think because they are “cops” they can do and harm whoever they want. They feel that they have so much power over anyone who is not a cop. If we cant speak and talk on things that are wrong with our society then who will. Its just boggles my mind what these “cops” think is morally correct and then the fact that they face no consequences for it but come up with an excuse of why they did it.
I have never participated in a student led protest but watching this video defiantly makes want to go next time there is one. It was really disturbing to watch a student being restraint by several police officers and one of police officers was hitting the student on his back for no reason. No policeman is allowed to use force unless the individual is resisting an arrest or trying to escape. In the video the individual clearly is not trying to resist nor escape. I thought that there is a law that if police officer see other police officer using unnecessary force or misconduct should reported otherwise they will both get in trouble for not doing so. There were more than 10 police officers and not one of them tried to stop the police officer who was hitting the student on his back. Therefore they should all get in trouble.
I feel that peaceful protestors are being criminalized because the institutions in which they are protesting do not want the bad publicity they are giving them. For some reason I feel that institutions do not like these protests and could be giving police officers and even swat teams funds to keep the protesting to a minimum. Another common thing I see with protests is the police antagonizing the protesters because the second one reacts, that gives them the green light to use force.
An interesting thing I saw when looking at these pictures in the section was the “New World Police” patch on the side of a guys arm that is beating a civilian. Even though it is a cartoon this seems to be swat’s motto and they do think they are bigger than what they actually are.
The students who were protesting had every right to do so, however those cops started to abuse and beat the man who was lying on the floor because he was going against them. This is not right, because he had every right to express his opinion on the streets. Even people that were standing on the sides were saying that the man was not doing any harm but those cops found a problem with it. I personally have never been in a student-led protest because I never had a need to start one or never was there one around me. The campus police is only good for keeping control of the students themselves so that they do not get into some serious trouble such as a fight. Most campus police just patrols around but there are some that are violent to the students, which they are taking their job too seriously. They are better in my opinion than local community police since they do not intervene with students as much as a regular police would. However over the last few years, campus police is starting to be like a local community police because they wish to have control over the site that they are patrolling. Students tend to argue with police for different arguments, but since they are educated they know that police is making up some rights against them and when they stand up to a cop, the officer will feel as if he is losing an argument (he is an officer thus it means that he should be right at all times; he is the authority) that he can take desperate measures and arrest the person. Whenever police feels as if they are losing an argument, they get violent and cause more trouble. Peaceful protests are being criminalized because police is trying to control what goes around them Universities could be teaming up with the law enforcement because they know what goes on campus so that they could control their students but they do not seem to notice what horrible things do those cops are doing to them. They are taking away democratic rights of higher education by limiting and controlling students. If they cannot protest, then everything will go as they please. The institutional structural comparisons that could be made between prisons and universities, is that police is trying to criminalize students because the prison system needs to make more money so they go after those students that seem to stand out and stand up for their rights.
Just recently I did my first protest in the city of Newark. Over the summer we did a walk through downtown Newark protesting against “One Newark”. I can say that wasn’t violent, and it was well organized. One Newark is for the students of Newark to choose what school they want to go to, but the real subject behind it is to close the public school and make it into charter. Children are supposed to choose ten schools and your first three is supposed to be your chosen school but they will send you to the last school on your list. This not only affect the high school students but also elementary and especial kindergarten. Parents have to take their young kids across town to drop them off. It’s all sacrifice either way. I was always taught to stand up for what I believe in, my daughter doesn’t go to a public school but it wasn’t fair for the other kids who don’t. Since we didn’t make a difference students eventually walked out of school to protest and that was a violent situation. A high school senior in honors got her arm broke from a Newark officer because she tied herself with chains. That became a violent protest because the youth started to attack the cops to let that girl go. To me we don’t have freedom of speech or press.
After watching that video i think it is ridiculous the way the police treated those students. They are obviously protesting for a good cause/reason. But it seems like every little thing you do to try to make things better for you or everyone else it is a problem. I have never protested for anything before but from watching this video i don’t think i would want to if this is what happens. Also it could depend on where you live at how the police will react. But as a child my mother always told me to stand my ground, never let anyone do anything to me they wouldn’t want done to them. Also if someone wants respect they have to give respect. From watching this video those police were not respecting those students and i know for sure they wouldn’t want that to happen to them.
The purpose of maintaining a campus police separate from the local community police is because they are supposed to be able to handle situations pertaining to young adults and college students, they should be there to protect and help more so then punish and seek crime. When you go on college tours they all mention their own campus police in high regards and often have a police at orientation stating that they are there for your safety as you go through the different college experiences. In the video it shows about six or more police officers surrounding an individual on the ground that doesn’t seem to be resisting or even capable of moving their bodies due to the position they are held at, and yet they are forcing him on the ground and giving damaging punches to his ribs. It’s troubling to watch because you think that your freedom to assemble and your freedom of speech will protect you but when police officers are the ones enforcing those rights you have minimal options for when they decide to prohibit you from exercising those rights. Campus police are adapting more militarized views just as state and local police agencies are with new equipment and less training. Although Montclair hasn’t had any riots where these tactics are been displayed it is evident in the amount of police even in the past three years I’ve been here has increased. I came to school this year and saw police officers riding around on Seaways and more police cars driving around what could be deemed as a relatively small campus. The interactions of student and police officers are being more violent due to this new view on policing and less training, along with the image of past riots and their troubling outcomes. When you have a good number of students trying to make a statement to the the University is going to want to minimize their voice as fast as possible and so by enforcing stronger police tactics and enabling officers with new equipment it’s a recipe for more violence.
I completely agree. The purpose of having campus police outside of regular local police officers is not only to uphold the law, but also allow students to feel that they are in a safe comfortable environment. Not only are they supposed to protect students from harm, but they should also be an entity where students should feel comfortable turning to for help our guidance. After watching this video I know I would not be able to put any of my trust in these officers.
I have never participated in a student-led protest and after seeing this video I probably never will. The interaction between the student protesters and police is not pleasant. One student who was being arrested and laying on the ground in handcuffs was getting punched in the side by an officer. For the purpose behind maintaining a campus police force separate from the local community’s police department would be to help lessen the work load community police departments already have. By having campus police they can keep an eye on students and make sure they’re behaving appropriately and maintain peace and control. Although, the two now seem to be the same due to instead of campus police interacting and walking around campus they have cop cars and stations where they can hold students and process them. Since colleges have grown over time and become more popular, more campus police may be required in order to meet standards for the amount of students that attend. As for the increasingly violent encounters between students and officers that communicated that you may not be entirely safe as a student. At any time you could be questions and become a victim of one of these violent encounters yourself. It also says that you do not have a right as a student to voice your opinion because it will be suppressed by police. This indicates that higher education in our society is changing and it may not necessarily be for the better. It is becoming more political. Instead of promoting growth and providing education for the children of the future.
i have never been part of a protest – but my mother raised to always take a stand for what i believe in – whether others liked it or not…if you dont fight (not in a physical sense obviously) for what you believe in then who will and how will the world evolve and change with the times? we teach and raise our kids to be strong independent productive members of society – yet they get beaten pepper sprayed etc….why is this? because they catch on to things being done improperly that execs and higher ups dont want anyone to bring to light? and ultimately we the students take the hit? example – tuition goes up – we suffer – more loans more debt the economy is crap jobs are scarce…just a basic example…its rough enough out here as it is and yet we have to fear speaking our mind despite it being our constitutional right….
Same, I bet most of us like you and I, were raised to always stand up for what you believe in. If the problem is not addressed, there will never be an answer. And when we do fight for what we believe in, this happens? pepper sprays and beatings? America is the “land of the free” right? And campus policing and local police becoming similar… why? When I think of the two, local police are the strict, follow the law, arresting criminals, and deal with more serious crimes. And campus police, protecting the students of that institution, checking meters and giving tickets, dealing with racial slangs written on the bathroom wall, looking out for intoxicated student, drugs in dorm rooms, etc. But the photo of the officer spraying the students, raise a few eyebrows. What are they doing? They should be reminding us of our rights and protecting us from those who violate our rights. But no, they are told to keep us quiet and to do that in a short period of time and to keep others from joining the crowd, they use violence. I’ve never participated in a protest but to be honest the reason why is because I’ve seen the police get involved and beat the protesters why too many times. It’s scary. And when campus police do this to students, we realize that we cannot trust them and end up fearing them. Higher education will soon be just for rich people I suppose. With the tuition rising and not having money to pay for it – it’s either you take out a loan and pay for it for the rest of your life or you simply don’t go to college. Even at Montclair, tuition has been rising every year.
Having your voice heard on public issues such as higher education is what makes irises feel like they are part of a democratic society. Stating discontent is what the American society is all about. Negotiations and protests around the globe are more intense and sometimes even violent. High profile Protests in the U.S have been low on violence in recent history, but police violence has increased. The most recent examples of unnecessary police violence on citizens in non-violent protests have been Occupy Wall St and the recent CUNY student protests. The fact that the state and government have passed laws that deem non-violent protests to be unlawful is repulsive and alarming. We should be able to express dissatisfaction with issues that affect us in negative ways, especially tuition increases. Police force is not necessary at all. Students aren’t acting violent towards authorities. I don’t care how much the police departments try to justify violence towards students. A city where we can’t voice out concerns because of fear of legal repercussion? Graham and Balko foresaw the issues that imminently will lead, as we are seeing glimpses of it now, of military-styled security in the urban area. NYC being targeted as one of the first cities to put these policies into practice. As time passes, more of our constitutional rights are being taken away from the public and it isn’t even occurring subtly.
The issue at hand is much bigger than could the protestors have possibly instigated the incidents that happened. The protest was a peaceful protest, a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Understandably CUNY may not want protests, it gives the institution a bad reputation in the eyes of the public and questions the decisions made by CUNY. But it is our right, one that is supposed to be protected by the government and government agencies such as the NYPD. The bigger question at hand is when did the government and institutions that are supposed to teach and protect our rights turn against us? You can see in the video a young man on the ground with several officers on top of him. As I’d this was not enough restrain on the individual they begin to deliver kidney shots, while he is on the ground not moving. What gives the police this right? Certainly if the individual was aggressive toward them and still fighting them while on the ground maybe extra force was necessary. But when a group of people in peaceful protest begin to be beaten and corralled like cattle by the police there is an obvious misuse of power. I think CUNY’s new protest policy is horrendous. What does that teach the youth that go to these institutions? We will teach you what your rights are, but we won’t allow you to have these rights. Does CUNY even have the right to make this policy? What is the right way to overturn it since the biggest force used to raise awareness of such policies that go against our freedoms and rights is protest. Think of the 60s and 70s. When we had a problem with something we let it be known through protest. It was protest that got ROTC off CUNY campuses. When did that right get taken away? And why are so many people accepting of these policies? Policies like these take away the democratic promise of higher education by preventing students from being allowed free thought and free speech. Without the freedoms this country was founded on we are nothing.
Images such as these highlight the misconduct of law enforcement. In examination of the larger picture, law enforcement officials have been violent with individuals throughout the years. It has been increasingly reoccurring more recently and society is being exposed to these behaviors through social media interactions and live video tapings. Students should be able to peacefully organize and protest against opposing beliefs on the comfort of their college campuses. College campuses pride themselves on offering a safe space or an expressive environment which welcomes people of all diversities. At the college level students are introduced to political conversations being taken place on all levels of society and are encouraged to be a part of that conversation. The most controversial issues are presented at the college level where students develop ideas and prepare arguments to fight for what they believe in. The limitation of speech and expression contradicts our rights as citizens of this country. Law enforcement is now given the ability to silence students about issues plaguing the community at large. Aggressive policing tactics are beginning to take a toll on the youth population. It is important to remember the message that is being generated to the public when you see a group of youth handcuffed on the sidewalk while being beaten or mased. This type of police brutality sends a negative message to those simply viewing the interactions. The youth being subject to unfair treatment are being labeled by peers as deviant. It is important t note that bystanders are not usually aware of why an individual is being arrested they are on,unable to draw conclusions by the interactions taking place. Student protesters may be viewed by their professors, friends, and future employers in which case their actions do not portray a very positive image about them. The future of the student is jeopardy because their rights are being limited. Policies such as student censorship limit the influence students have on future policies and reform for education. Issues such as tax cuts, funding for education and lowering tuition may no longer make it to the platform if their is not a strong group of students able to fight for these changes. Students must have a voice.
This idea of gathering and expressing feelings of injustices is nothing new to many democratic nations. Aside from the United States another country that comes to mind is France and the French Revolution. People taking to the streets and demonstrating against government policies. America was build on these notions and even allows for it in it’s constitution.
When these rights are taken way from institutions such as CUNY it contradicts what we as students have learned. It also sends the message to learn but do not practice. College institutions are places where ideas develop preparing that generation for the future. When that generation is given limits on expression I feel that our future is jeopardized. College students and other citizens will begin to feel that if they protest or express any form of disagreement toward policy they will be targeted. This can be dangerous because like the French Revolution where people were at their wits end can lead students to rise up disrupting the primary goal of the institution which is learning.