
THE DIRTY ARMY: Nik, as someone who is extremely passionate about upholding the first amendment of the constitution, I have to wonder if you have heard about the happenings in the past week at Berkeley and UC Davis. Students at Davis were holding a peaceful protest, that was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association, to speak out against an 81% tuition increase and police brutality earlier in the week at Berkeley, where people were bludgeoned, pepper sprayed, and beaten during a nonviolent protest. The Chancellor at UC Davis called the police to the site of the protest where pepper spray started being used on students who were simply linking arms and sitting in a circle on the ground. Police were beating protestors, and spraying pepper spray directly into their eyes and throats…one person continued throwing up blood for 10 hours after being sprayed. The person in the picture actually being pepper sprayed is a former classmate and friend that I have known for well over a decade, which is why I wanted to shed light to this particular issue. The first amendment to the constitution blatantly states that it is the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Because of the actions taken by the Chancellor, a junior faculty member of UC Davis has written a letter demanding them to resign, which has become available as a petition.
The hypocrisy of the Chancellor, along with the decision to bring armed authorities into a peaceful, nonviolent protest is absolutely deplorable. I know that there are thousands of people who view this site daily and if there is anyone who cares as much about upholding citizens’ first amendment rights, it’s you Nik. Please help us spread the word and sign this petition to show police and college faculty that we will not stand for anything less than what we are entitled to do by the first amendment of the constitution.
The only fair thing to do is pepper spray the Chancellor. Kids sitting down acting on their rights is not warfare.- nik