Posted on 11/28/2011 7:37:18 PM PST by SmithL
The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association, representing approximately 64 campus police officers, understands your frustration over massive tuition hikes and budget cuts, and we fully support your right to peacefully protest to bring about change.
It was not our decision to engage campus protesters on November 9th. We are now faced with “managing” the results of years of poor budget planning. Please know we are not your enemy.
A video clip gone viral does not depict the full story or the facts leading up to an actual incident. Multiple dispersal requests were given in the days and hours before the tent removal operation. Not caught on most videos were scenes of protesters hitting, pushing, grabbing officers’ batons, fighting back with backpacks and skateboards.
The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association supports a full investigation of the events that took place on November 9th, as well as a full review of University policing policies. That being said, we do not abrogate responsibility for the events on November 9th.
UC Berkeley police officers want to better serve students and faculty members and we welcome ideas for how we can have a better discourse to avoid future confrontations. We are open to all suggestions on ways we can improve our ability to better protect and serve the UC Berkeley community.
As your campus police, we also have safety concerns that we ask you to consider.
Society has changed significantly since 1964 when peaceful UC Berkeley student protesters organized a 10-hour sit-in in Sproul Hall and 10,000 students held a police car at bay – spawning change and the birth of our nation’s Free Speech Movement.
However proud we can all be of UC Berkeley’s contribution to free speech in America, no one can deny this: Our society in 2011 has become an extremely more violent place to live and to protect. No one understands the effects of this violence more than those of us in law enforcement.
Disgruntled citizens in this day and age express their frustrations in far more violent ways – with knives, with guns and sometimes by killing innocent bystanders. Peaceful protests can, in an instant, turn into violent rioting, ending in destruction of property or worse – the loss of lives. Police officers and innocent citizens everywhere are being injured, and in some instances, killed.
In the back of every police officer’s mind is this: How can I control this incident so it does not escalate into a seriously violent, potentially life-threatening event for all involved?
While students were calling the protest “non-violent,” the events on November 9th were anything but nonviolent. In previous student Occupy protests, protesters hit police officers with chairs, bricks, spitting, and using homemade plywood shields as weapons – with documented injuries to officers.
At a moment’s notice, the November 9th protest at UC Berkeley could have turned even more violent than it did, much like the Occupy protests in neighboring Oakland.
Please understand that by no means are we interested in making excuses. We are only hoping that you will understand and consider the frustrations we experience daily as public safety officers sworn to uphold the law. It is our job to keep protests from escalating into violent events where lives could be endangered.
We sincerely ask for your help in doing this.
Like you, we have been victims to budget cuts that affect our children and our families in real ways. We, too, hold on to the dream of being able to afford to send our children and grandchildren to a four-year university. Like you, we understand and fully support the need for change and a redirection of priorities.
To students and faculty: As 10,000 students surrounded a police car on campus in 1964, protesters passed the hat to help pay for repairs to the police car as a show of respect. Please peacefully respect the rules we are required to enforce – for all our safety and protection. Please respect the requests of our officers as we try to do our jobs.
To the University Administration and Regents: Please don’t ask us to enforce your policies then refuse to stand by us when we do. Your students, your faculty and your police – we need you to provide real leadership.
We openly and honestly ask the UC Berkeley community for the opportunity to move forward together, peacefully and without further incident – in better understanding of one another. Thank you for listening.
Of course Bezerkely “cops” are on their side.
Free speech? Berkeley is responsible for more destruction of free speech than any other single university, and perhaps than any other single city.
“signed, Neville Chamberlain, interim police chief”
Good luck with that.
"We should've machine-gunned you all" wouldn't have worked as well, despite what some would have you believe.
Cut these courses if you want to save money:
African American Studies
Arabic
Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies
Chicano Studies
Croatian (see Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian)
Czech
Egyptian Studies
Ethnic Studies
Gender and Women’s Studies
New Media
Sanskrit
Women’s Studies
and many other useless classes in finding employment, except to enlarge the liberals ego or empower the socialist party.
Urban Design
Does Bill Ayers or Bernadette have any tips?
Methinks the writer of this letter is a little priss who wears a tutu around home. The dumb shit hasn’t got a clue. The clash between “da man” and people intent on getting their way has always been violent. See the William Bonney/Pat Garrity or OK corral stories for confirmation. Look up Guy Fawkes. Do a search on “shot heard ‘round the world.”
For Czech, or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, some people may take them because of personal reasons (ancestral ties) or to be able to do research (historical or international relations). That could be tied to a future job (State Department, academic career) or could be not job-related (most students have room for some electives and if they choose to study a difficult language, I'm not inclined to put them down).
The professor at Berkeley who teaches the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian courses (formerly called "Serbo-Croat") is co-author of a standard textbook on the subject.
I don't think they offer Czech at Berkeley--they do have Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. The Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz was a member of their Department of Slavic Languages.
One of the best courses I took in college was an elective on Asia taught by Peter Boodberg of the U. of California, Berkeley. Boodberg was an expert in Sandskrit and the Hsiung Nu.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.