America's Wackiest University (UC Santa Cruz) "Occupied"

This past few days witnessed an occupation of UC Santa Cruz by the usual anarchists, who were upset about the funding cuts in the UC system and tuition hikes. It followed a previous "occupation" of the Graduate Student Center in Late September.

On the evening of the 15th, a potluck dance turned into a protest as a group of demonstrators barricaded themselves into the Humanities and Fine Arts buildings. They began to move large obstacles like trash dumpsters around to block traffic. At this point, the campus gendarmes arrived and ordered them to stop-only to be met by the usual curses. At this point, a few students were maced and put under arrest. Of course, the campus community is outraged. Not outraged at the vandalism and defacement of school property, but that the perpetrators were arrested.

Here's what one arrested student, Brian Glasscock 18, had to say:

"Last night, I was brutalized by the UC Police. Without warning, a UC police officer sprayed me with OC spray (similar to pepper spray).and then arrested me. I was not told to stop, was never told I was being put under arrest and never read my rights. I stand in solidarity with the occupation of Humanities 2 and with Olivia Egan-Rudolph, who was also the victim of police brutality last night. F--- the police.
f--- the systemic violence of capitalism, the movement will not stop here. (sic) The administration has been put on notice. We want everything and we will f---ing get it."



Not surprisingly students and anarchists from other universities have jumped into the fray. The usual collection of "socialist revolutionaries" at San Francisco State issued a "statement of solidarity" with the UC Santa Cruz students who demonstrated and were arrested.

The winner though has to be this news clip from the UC-Irvine campus paper, the New University: (Keep in mind, this is not from the opinion page. It is from the News in Brief section, p 5.)
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Students at UC Santa Cruz Sprayed by Police for Sit-in


Outraged students at the University of California, Santa Cruz met violent police opposition during a protest in which the former stormed their Humanities and Social Sciences buildings. Frustrated with the constant budget cuts, lack of compassion from the University of California and the compromised education being given, the students occupied the buildings with the intention to obstruct Dean Sheldon Kamienecki’s workplace.

Police cruelly sprayed mace on the students, failing to warn them beforehand. After saying, “hey folks, let’s go, this is vandalism,” officers proceeded to mace the entire group. To add insult to injury, officials arrested students without reading them their Miranda Rights beforehand. This violation of fifth amendment rights angered many parties involved, and the students of Santa Cruz released a statement the next day in response.

Students described their intentions for the protest, while also noting the difficulties most have been experiencing. They also scrutinized the University of California, making large claims against the educational powerhouse.

“The University of California has already been securitized, ensuring that none of us have a future within this system,” read one particularly cutting line of the treatise.

Negotiations have yet to be solidified, but UCSC and its students continue to try and work together to achieve some sort of middle ground."

Emphases mine)
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Fousesquawk comment:

First of all, police do not advise persons of their Miranda rights before arresting them. It comes after. Secondly, note the use of adjectives; "violently", "cruelly"-used to refer to the police. Somebody in the UCI Journalism Department needs to explain to the young writers that opinions and facts are two different things-and reserved for two different sections of the newspaper. This is a never-ending occurrence in the New University.

As for Mr Glasscock and the other students at UC Santa Cruz. If I were running that institution up there, Glasscock et al would be former students as of right now. Let's see what the UCSC administrators will do (or won't do) to this bunch.

And why has all this commotion taken place? As it says in the New University, the students are frustrated with the budget cuts, "lack of compassion" from UC and "compromised education". Hey, what do you think they will do when they find out that the whole UC system has decided to reduce in-state admissions in favor of (higher-paying) out of state and international admissions. They don't even know that yet.