Rally being livestreamed now HERE
If you, like me, had a normal busy weekend full of the usual chores or family time or other standard weekend activities, you may have, like me, only caught the meager bits and pieces of the alarming event at UC-Davis from Friday’s tweets, & people’s media alerts. At first. Maybe, if you are like me, you shuddered briefly and thought to yourself, I’ll have to catch up more with this one tonight. Or tomorrow. Or just… later. After laundry. After dishes. After homework helping. After… whatever... when I can focus better. When I can stand to, I’ll look.
If you’re at all like me, you might’ve hesitated to click PLAY on the video. It’s just too horrible. Pepper spraying college kids? Really? I can’t look. Okay, I have to look, I do. So I looked. Then I paused it. I couldn’t look. Too awful. Too harsh on my soul to see those kids on the ground, peacefully protesting the brutalities they’d witnessed occur at other UC Occupied campuses. Peacefully protesting the bankruptcy of their future. The 10 students were enacting time-honored passive resistance body language tactics: they were sitting down, arms locked at the elbow. I saw the apparent absence of any tents. I saw students with not even any kind of weaponry or threat of such. I saw the police actions against them so outrageous, so disproportionate to the students gathered on their Quad. Big sigh. Sad at my country. And I returned to go on about my day without finishing out the entire video. Big mistake!
Sometime later, I read an email from a respected friend, urging me to go read this. When I did, I realized that in my reluctant & scattered way, I had missed the most important part. Maybe you did too, so here it is.
Watch the whole thing HERE.
Whatever harsh was on your soul will soften to mush. The kids got it right. You will realize that they won. We won. They’re winning it for all of us.
6:12 “Mic check! Mic check!” (hoarse, urgent) “Shame on you!” Shouting.
6:15 Three weapons raised horizontal [by police].
6:20 “Mic check! Mic check! We are willing…”
Occupiers: “WE ARE WILLING…”
MC: “to give you a brief moment…”
Occupiers: “TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF MOMENT…”
MC: “of peace…”
Occupiers; “OF PEACE…”
MC: “so you may take your weapons…”
Occupiers: “SO YOU MAY TAKE YOUR WEAPONS…”
MC: “and your friends…”
Occupiers: “AND YOUR FRIENDS…”
MC: “and go.”
Occupiers: “AND GO.”
6:35 Policeman in front of line of weapons, now, holding two red cans, presumably pepper spray. Police faces behind visors puzzled.
MC: “Please do not return!”
Occupiers: “PLEASE DO NOT RETURN!”
MC: “We are giving you a moment of peace.”
Occupiers: “WE ARE GIVING YOU A MOMENT OF PEACE.”
MC: “You can go! We will not follow you!”
Occupiers: “WE WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU!” “You can go!” [confused shouting]
7:04 Occupiers: Chants, shouts, “You can go!”, “You can go!”, “You can go!”
7:11 And the police begin to back down the path. “You can go!”, “You can go!” “None of you is getting a pension!”
7:14 Now for the first time, the camera pans left to show who the police were facing: A loose crowd of students in hoodies and student gear, many of them holding cameras, chanting and shouting. No violent body language, no visible weapons.
7:20 Police still in a block formation, backing away.
7:45 Finally the police turn their backs on the Occupiers and walk down the path. Cheers. “Yeah!” (Somewhere military historian John Keegan says that in a rout, the first troops to flee are not at the front, but at the back of the column, instancing the collapse of the Old Guard at Waterloo. Notice that here, the first police to turn their backs and walk away are indeed those at the back of the column, and not those, weapons still partially raised, at the front.)
“Shame on you!” “Shame on you!” “Our university!” “Whose university?” “Our university!”
“Whose quad?” “Our quad!” “Whose quad?” “Our quad!”
Some additional observations and commentary form the link:
"The Occupiers displayed remarkable ingenuity. The tactic of taking an internal, General Assembly deliberative technique and externalizing it for use in a confrontation with police was brilliant. The tactic (as commenter LucyLulu pointed out) both defused tensions with the police, and refocused the crowd on non-violence. And empowering the police with “You can go” was also brilliant. So, who had the power here?"
more
Oh. My. God. … I just sat here and cried watching that ... such courage, so grounded in such a decisive volatile moment. The UC Davis students, with their words, fully and effectively diffused and disarmed the police who had already pepper-sprayed them and who continued to stand there in their riot gear looking as confused and ridiculous as a Tim Burton movie scene.
These students masterfully deployed key tactical elements of non-violent action with such courage and honor. All at once, I am humbled and grateful and hopeful. They get it. The Revolution is Love.