UC Davis Response

I know this video (and others) has made the rounds and I know plenty of people have written really important and poignant responses. Mine probably isn't anywhere near those responses, but I had to, well, respond.

I just don't understand how anyone wields pepper spray and uses it against a bunch of nonviolent students who are simply sitting there. I don't get it, but I am also not surprised.

When I was in high school, I went to a large protest in New York City. My classmates and I were to meet up at Bryant Park (if I remember correctly) after the protest. We went there and stood, waiting for our friends and teachers to join us. A group of policemen wanted us to clear the park. They told everyone to leave. Being the innocent little kiddos we were, we tried to explain to the policemen that we were students (minors, at that) and had been told to meet up here. The policeman in front of me never looked down at me, said "keep moving", and pushed me until I turned around and walked ahead.

No big deal really. Not even close to the incidents happening in Occupy movements across the country, but the memory came to mind when I was watching the video. I remember realizing that to that policeman I wasn't a person, I was an obstacle to be moved. I can sort of see how, well, one may want to take that view in certain situations, sorta (not really), but it also terrifies me. Because when people just become obstacles, their destruction is encouraged. Destruction may start out as simply dispersing the group, but these protests have shown that that isn't as simple as some thought. Then the ways to destroy become more forceful, more violent. Isn't that the mentality that has led to some of the worst atrocities ever?

Call me innocent and naive, but it seems to me that in the best and worst of situations all we have is our humanity. Once we lose that, terrible things can happen.