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Maybe the cops across the country should use water cannons and German shepherds on protesters.

wait

any Scooby Doo fans?

contribute to my retirement fund

(I know, its a lot. just fishing)

My understanding is that the cop spraying was a senior cop. A lieutenant.

Whatever happened negotiation? Instead it’s pretty much line’em up and weapons free.

This reminds me of the time a boss of mine chased a mouse across the shop floor while dousing it with lacquer thinner. Horrifing.
and,
When as student while working on college grounds crew I watched as my supervisor sprayed a bee hive with a cannister of pesticide. Looks about like that photo.
This is how assholes handle “pests”. Unthinking, unfeeling, angry and out of control

@Capt Howdy: Right? I wouldn’t put a Kent State incident past these people.

@texrednface: And that reminds me of Borgnine’s rat-jabbing scene in Willard.

@Tommmcatt Be Fat, And That Be That: I haven’t bothered to confirm, but I heard the other day that initial public reaction to Kent State favored the National Guard.

It’s well within my time, but I have no memory of it. Must have checked out after ’68. Nine-year-old ennui’s a bitch.

@nojo: the future teabaggers of america celebrated on the university of tennessee campus when both john kennedy and MLK were assassinated. they also rallied for nixon at a billy graham rally not too much later. see what i’m up against in this motherfucker!

@Tommmcatt Be Fat, And That Be That:

I have been sort of expecting one actually. sad to think it may take that to really get peoples attention

@nojo:

my memory would confirm that. not surprising really. hippies were hated and feared by the media even tho they were fascinated by them.

@nojo:

also you could call that winning the battle but losing the war. opinion turned and it became a major galvanizing event for the peace movement.

@jwmcsame: Having not heard of the FFA until I was a reporter in McMinnville — the Orygun McMinnville, named for the Tennessee original — the thought of an “FTA” seriously amuses me.

did we all see the thing reported on MSNBC this morning about the bank lobbying firms (if memory serves) plan to discredit the movement and politicians associated with it?

they are worried. they are smart. their biggest worry was stated as public opinion turning so much that republicans would no longer be willing to carry their water

@Capt Howdy: Didn’t see it, but Rachel hinted at it last night.

But Fox is already doing a gangbuster job with the smears — billing the “Occupy Shooter” this week, in honor of the wacko who shot at the White House.

My take is that while I’m still not an OWS fan, they couldn’t have chosen better enemies. If the plutocrats just ignored them, they wouldn’t have near the traction.

@nojo:
I watched Nixon minion Ben Stein on the CBS morning talk show the other day flogging his book. He called the Occupy protesters quote: “BUMS”. I remembered at that moment Nixon, his boss, said the same in 1970, a day or so before the Kent State murders.

@nojo:

you should see if UP with Chris Hayes is on line yet. if not Sherrod Brown, who is one of the pols names is going to be on his show tomorrow morning. it was pretty interesting stuff.

wasnt it Gandhi who said ‘first the ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win’?

Four dead in Oh-Hi-Oh.

@texrednface: Grover Norquist tweet, yesterday:

Walked past OWS campout in DC. I hope they keep this up. Irritates swing voters. Hippies elected Nixon. OWS will beat Obama.

Wishful thinking. As long as OWS practices solid nonviolence, the cops provide all the footage. It’s all about discipline.

@nojo:
that is my biggest worry. clearly they are going to try to provoke violence. it has already started.

Here‘s the link to Up With Chris Hayes

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Every time I hear the name of his show, I expect backup singers.

@nojo:
and banjos

actually its pretty good.

UPDATE: One of the Davis students was taken by ambulance to the hospital for treatment for chemical burns.

BREAKING HARD: Occupy Ess Eff encampment on the Embarcadero is being cleared out as I type. But unlike other places, The City sent in Department of Public Works garbagemen to start collecting garbage and ask folks to pack up, and the Park Rangers and SFPD stood far back and watched. And what do you know? Folks are peaceably packing up their tents and tarps and leaving.

Christ. They’re killing protesters in Egypt again? ::sigh:: Who owns the mitary now, esp with upcoming elections?

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!:
The generals.

It is starting to sound like what my dad told me about the student riots he participated in South Korea in 1961 when Rhee Syngman (distant relative) rigged one too many elections. The provisional gubbernment reigned in chaos for 9 months till General Park decided he had enough and took over.

My dad left for Japan soon after.

Looking at the photos taken from the other angle, where you can clearly see the reaction of the observing crowd (for example, the young Asian woman whose mouth is open in shock), what strikes me all the more is that given the crowd of hundreds taking pictures and videos (how did protests occur pre-camera phone?), is the sheer nonchalance and deliberateness of the cop, brazenly and methodically walking down the line of seated students who are not moving and are sitting there covering their eyes. I all but expect him to come to the end of the line of kids, look at the cameras, and mug with a thumbs up.

The psychology of how quickly someone in a position of power can get to that point chills me. I’m reminded of Prof. Zimbardo’s prison experiment.

@SanFranLefty: A friend of mine posted the photo with the cop’s name and alleged home phone, and the message “call him.”

No one should go into one of these situations without a gas mask rated for everything up to and including nerve gas and body armor for baton attacks.

Still, if the cops saw them enduring gas attacks and baton beatings, they’d just bring in snipers.

@SanFranLefty: Al Jizz over here just showed the video – very methodical. I too noticed the Asian woman, but my thought was “hmm, I wonder how the ethnic makeup of these protests compare with the 60s”.

@”Four dead in Oh-HI-oh” – puh-leeze give us back the thin David Crosby? He wasn’t such an obvious dick then. Neil can stay the same, thank you.

@FlyingChainSaw: So else besides me has gotten maced*? Offhand, I know that pepper spray is made with a cayanne extract (the stuff I carry is 10 percent OC). Further reading says that OC or CN can irritate the shit out of sweaty or sunburned skin and has been claimed to cause chemical burns.

Mr Saw has a good point about gearing up. You can get a gas mask for about $40. Body armor is about $400 handgun rated stuff but a catchers chest plate should be a lot less.

ADD: But if they really want to accessorize, Occupy should invest in tricorner hats, thirteen star flags, short breeches, buckled shoes and flintlocks. Then they’ll get all kinds of respect.

“Mace” is the name of a brand of pepper spray.

@Fat Ass Crosby: His Al Jizz made some Ethridge babies. I still don’t understand how the belly didn’t get in the way of the cup and other things.

Brian Stelter weighs in

Attention bourbon drinkers: Fighting Cock bourbon. Had this at the memorial service for a friend’s dad today. It was his favorite hooch before he died. His college roommates from 50 years ago were loading it up with ice and water, but it was very, very good neat. Salud!

@Capt Howdy: To be specific, it was (apparently) an unsolicited pitch that was (reportedly) turned down by the American Bankers Association.

Of course, we don’t know if the ABA would have considered it if it hadn’t leaked.

their biggest worry was stated as public opinion turning so much that republicans would no longer be willing to carry their water

I’m actually reminded of computer-security firms that play up the latest “threat” to sell their goods. But clearly the lobbying firm thought it was worth trying to land an $850,000 contract.

This particular example may actually tell us more about DC business practices than the mood among plutocrats. But it doesn’t tell us anything more than what Fox is already doing quite publicly.

my baby daddy, “the donor” did his undergrad at kent state and was THERE. he was standing next to his friend who was gunned down.
fast forward 20 some years where we find bakette living in downtown Manhatten 4 blocks away from ground zero.
this fucked up world is too close to me.

@ManchuCandidate: The timing is surreal. Friday night I’m talking to this kid who was so full of pride and hope, and now this. Fuck.

@redmanlaw: More Occupy Suburbia might do the trick.

Here’s an interview with one of the kids that was sprayed.

Former national poet laureate/Berkeley professor Robert Hass writes about getting hit by batons the other night on campus by Darth Vader-looking troopers, and makes the connection:

My wife was speaking to the young deputies about the importance of nonviolence and explaining why they should be at home reading to their children, when one of the deputies reached out, shoved my wife in the chest and knocked her down.

Another of the contingencies that came to my mind was a moment 30 years ago when Ronald Reagan’s administration made it a priority to see to it that people like themselves, the talented, hardworking people who ran the country, got to keep the money they earned. Roosevelt’s New Deal had to be undealt once and for all. A few years earlier, California voters had passed an amendment freezing the property taxes that finance public education and installing a rule that required a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature to raise tax revenues. My father-in-law said to me at the time, “It’s going to take them 50 years to really see the damage they’ve done.” But it took far fewer than 50 years.

My wife bounced nimbly to her feet. I tripped and almost fell over her trying to help her up, and at that moment the deputies in the cordon surged forward and, using their clubs as battering rams, began to hammer at the bodies of the line of students. It was stunning to see. They swung hard into their chests and bellies. Particularly shocking to me — it must be a generational reaction — was that they assaulted both the young men and the young women with the same indiscriminate force. If the students turned away, they pounded their ribs. If they turned further away to escape, they hit them on their spines.

Last night, after playing her usual set, Lucinda Williams played an inspired 40+ minute set of political protest music dedicated to the Occupy movement. She opened with Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home and closed with Inner City Blues, Rocking in the Free World and For What It’s Worth.

I share Nojo’s reservations about the movement, but agree they have great taste in enemies.

I’m getting a gross World Net Daily ad on this post.

@mellbell: Not any more.

@Walking Still: The Occupiers have now accomplished something tangible and practical: They’ve shown the utter inability of the country’s local powers to deal with them. None of the iconic violent imagery of the past week has been coming from the hippies — and in NYC, at least, Bloomberg has been using anti-terrorist laws to manage the scene.

Too soon to tell how that will resonate, but those pictures ain’t going away.

@nojo:

the attacks will pick up IMO. what I am interested in is how much democrats will defend the protesters. republicans have clearly decided it it in their interest to rag on them. did you catch Newts remarks last night at the Religious Fanatic Dinner?

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Thanks for that link. Interesting to see all the pre-spraying photos, and Nabisco can see the ethnic makeup is different from the ’60s college protests. Unfortunately a lot of those kids are there protesting precisely because if the Regents jack up UC tuition yet again this year, the kids won’t be able to afford to be at Davis (or Berkeley, or UCLA, etc.).

heres a link to Newt on OWS

who could believe the dirty hippy thing could be revived with a straight face.

NYT saying that UCD’s computer server system is all but down, because of all the messages coming in asking the chancellor – who is provided with a car and driver, $400K salary, and free housing – to fire the officers and resign.

Linque: http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/contact.php

@Capt Howdy: I skipped the Fascist Forum, since nobody was broadcasting it. From the accounts I’ve read, nothing new.

But here’s the thing: Demrats can now jump on the bandwagon without backing the goals of the Occupiers. Peaceful Assembly is a First Amendment right, and while Political Squatting is an edge case, the means of suppressing the protests is wildly incommensurate with their behavior. The door is now open to run with the disagree-but-defend-to-the-death line.

Of course, Demrats remain craven. But they don’t have to go the full Elizabeth Warren on this one.

@Capt Howdy: I know you young ‘uns are tired of hearing guys like me say “Well, in the 60s we . . .,” but I saw this kind of animal violence by the cops against peaceful, unarmed protestors over and over again. And what did we get for nonviolent reaction? Richard Fucking Nixon.

@SanFranLefty: Where’s Jerry? I have been searching for his comments.

@Dodgerblue: You’re skipping Lyndon Fucking Johnson, Hubert Fucking Humphrey, and the Democrat Fucking Convention. Plus an assassination. Calling Nixon a failure of nonviolence is overlooking a few steps.

Counter-example: The Civil Fucking Rights Act.

@texrednface: You and me both are waiting for Moonbeam to comment on this. Hell, I’ve been waiting for Black Eagle to comment on what’s going on across the country.

@nojo: Fuck yeah!

@SanFranLefty: It’s really a Made-for-Obama Moment.

Well, Made-for-Spring-2008-Obama. Your Obama may vary.

@Dodgerblue:

dude
I just turned 60. I remember it well. I know what tear gas smells like.

@nojo:

that would be funny . . .

@nojo: Obama could connect the Occupy Movement to the class warfare being conducted by the Repugs/1 Percenters against the rest of us. He could then tie it to the Repug’s eagerness to send the country to the toilet in pursuit of their holy grail: tax cuts for the rich.

@SanFranLefty: Occupy Suburbia might persuade Obama that weighing in on this is worth the shit he would take for raising this issue.

Can’t say that I’m optimistic he will poke his head over the foxhole on this. If the repression continues to escalates, he will find it tough to continue to duck.

@texrednface: Moonbeam is on vacation at an undisclosed out of state location, which means — gulp — Lite Guv. Gavin McDreamy Newsom is acting governor and in charge.

Jerry, come back, your state needs you!

@Capt Howdy: I got pepper sprayed at a post-football game frat riot I was covering as an intern reporter. Some at the University of RML decided to fight for their right to party* I got sprayed and hit with the catchall “refusing to obey” charge. The paper stood by me and I ended up having a decent, but brief, career in journalism.

Pepper spray pigs put on leave. Paid leave? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/police-officers-involved-in-pepper-spraying-placed-on-leave.html?_r=1

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: Bear spray the chancellor.

@redmanlaw: TJ/ Man, why didn’t they teach this class when I was there? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/teaching-good-sex.html

@redmanlaw: @Capt Howdy: @redmanlaw: I got tear gassed during a near-coup in Guatepeor cerca 1985. Also saw my first Huey with the side doors open and weapon sighting the crowd, while APCs hummed up to the main intersection as the crowd surged like the incoming tide. It was awesome.

Know what sparked it? The military-led gubmint had raised bus fare 100% (from a dime to twenty cents). Generals dug deep into their pockets, and peace was restored.

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: When one of the pigs who participated in the beatdown raid of the Atlanta Eagle was fired, he came back to appeal his firing, telling Atlanta’s gheyz that they should just forgive him and take up the mantel of Dr. King. For reals.

The APD has two “LGBT liaisons” now but they’re never called to hate crime scenes and they’re never kept in the loop. Our mayor, Kasim Reed (I voted against him), and the police chief do their going-through-the-motions with town halls. No matter how much bullshit they try to pose, it’s all bullshit and I have never, ever trusted a cop since then.

I’m not Jesus. I’m not Gandhi. I’m not MLK. I do not forgive easily. And I sure as hell do not forget.

@Cubbie: Here’s something they starting doing in AC. At one point, there were very few black cops on the force but many many reports of black suspects getting the shit kicked out of them. So, the black cops organized to show up at arrest sites and just chill across the street watching the arrest. Very, very publicly. (As long as they weren’t answering a call themselves.) Maybe the liaisons can institute something similar. Have a scanner and just observe and take pictures.

That’s not to say that there still isn’t that code of silence thing going on or that all cops aren’t capable of putting the beat down on people for GP. But it worked here in the 90s.

BTW, I don’t ever think I’ve called cops “pigs” before. Interesting.

Man, FUCK THAT TEAR GAS SHIT! It’s the only thing I stressed, okay, the major thing I stressed about in boot camp. Luckily it rained the day we were to go to the chamber, and the boot camp training schedule is so tight and, er, regimented that they can’t reschedule shit. So, yay me! Like I wanted the guys in our brother company see me like *that*. (I was 21, okay?!)

Someone posted the LinkedIn profile of Spray Pig on my FB wall. Phone numbers and Skype sign in. I’m leaving it there. Check it out if you like.

K. Sweater time. Laters, Good Peeps. Don’t go shoving Buicks up your asses, mmmmkay?

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: I forget who told me about a premeditated fragging of a black officer in Vietnam by whites who didn’t want to serve under him. The planners came up to him (a white guy from Texas who was passing through on his way to the front) and told him what was up. He didn’t want any part of it. The captain died when someone threw a grenade in his tent one night. The guy who told me (just remembered – it was my CPR instructor) freaked out and got the hell out of there.

At the front, the guy was a scout who worked with dogs. He got caught in an ambush, got beat up even more when he fell down a steep slope but made damn sure they got his dog too when the chopper came for him.

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: I prefer to call police officers “coppers” in my best Scorpio voice, or use the preferred word of many of my clients, “the po-po.”

“Pigs” is so ’60s.

@SanFranLefty: Yes. “Pigs” reminds me of Charles Manson.

“Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.” Pink Floyd, “Pigs.”

@SanFranLefty: “Pigs” is so ’60s. ;-)

Pigs reminds me of a Beatles song and of Frank Rizzo. I grew up saying “the po-po,” but pigs is new to me as far as usage is concerned. I liiiiike it!

Anyway, the po-po keep rolling up on me on the QT and causing static. I be like back the fuck up, but I ain’t no Louima. Those fuckers crazy and beat down with the quickness. So I be like gotta bounce.

@redmanlaw: Bootfuckingleg video, but it really is an Us and Them world.

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: And here’s how you use “po-po” in a NorCal sentence (key: use the word “hella” early and often):

“My boo was driving hella fast on 880 and fuckin po-po pulled him over for hella old tags, dumbass be on parole and didn’t have his weed card from the doc in O-town, po-po took his ass to Santa Rita, and I had to walk hella far to BART.”

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: pigs is what we would say when we were driving around getting high and drinking in high school when the pigs would appear so everybody had a second or two to try to be cool as the pigs passed. that word stuck with me. i catch myself saying pigs when i should say cops or police in casual conversation with the typical 9 to5 status quo family types i spend entirely too much time with from monday through friday. even though i know i shouldn’t have said pigs, it’s very enjoyable watching the folks i just mentioned shock and surprise at hearing the cops called pigs.

@SanFranLefty: Ha! <3

BTW, thanks for taking OWS/99% seriously.

@jwmcsame: RIGHT (er) ₅ <– interrobang fail! I can't remember the name or entire lyrics of that Beatles tune, but Mom and I would be listening to it on her 8-track while on road trips. Rocky Raccoon made me cry. Don't ask me why. Don't make me cry. It made me blue.

/Silly tangent

I grew up on a street that divided two neighborhoods; one had a decent ethnic/religious/age mix, and the other was predominantly African-American with a good dose of refugess from the Indochinese penninsula (pretty awesome kids). I went to school on the other side of the street before I was shipped off to be tortured by the rich kids on the Main Line.

We didn’t speak BEV or use slang (they are not the same thing) in either of my parents’ homes, but I was exposed to it and “country talk” at school, around my local cousins who were deeper in the ghetto, and when we went down south to visit our folks on the farm — folks who still had outhouses and only cold running water in the kitchen. I think the country connection is the reason I adore Faulkner.

Both sides of my family were part of the great migration north, and many of our sayings, stories, mannerisms, and word play (like Doin’ the Dozens, you Signifyin’ Monkey!) go back to slavery. Some of our pronunciation (it’s “ahhhnt” not “ant”) go back to GB. Some of the things I do, like point to something with my nose, have been attributed to my GGMom from some unknown reservation far west.

Now that I again live in a predominantly brown and depressed (in so many ways) area, I’m picking up the BEV again with a good dose of Spanish. I like language. I like code-switching (we all do it) as a means to identify with people whether it be based on place, background, or time.

Language is amazing, and it has power. I choose “pigs.”

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: fuck is the most powerful word. if you don’t believe me, then walk around mumbling some jibberish that no one really wants to hear. walk around doing this to every one in your presence, like an office for instance and see how they pay you no mind. then walk back to your office, slam your fist on your desk (like when you find out you’re not getting paid on that last deal) and shout FUCK!!!!. watch everyone go fearfully quite and then watch them email, text or call someone in a power position to complain because FUCK is such a powerful and so often misunderstood word. also, ask bobby knight:
http://www.myvidster.com/video/2008940/Coach_Bobby_Knights_Favorite_word

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: Just watch what you say to the Highway Patrol.

@jwmcsame:

Step 1: Instead of ass say buns, like “kiss my buns” or “you’re a buns hole”

So just use the word mmmkay!

Why, yes, I did watch the South Park movie again over the weekend…

A bit late to the party, but a friend of mine mentioned this article on FB, and I thought it was particularly relevant (I was in Seattle for the WTO riots, but very cleverly kept far, far away from them):

Seattle’s WTO police chief discusses paramilitary policing

@redmanlaw: my favorite jr brown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMR-PX4OHK0
broke down south of dallas.
a friend of mines then wife got tossed out of a jr brown show for trying to crawl on stage…twice (wine and pills). she was a hooters waitress. jr coulda hooked himself up, but i think his wife was on stage playing bass. i had to drive them both home. jr shoulda wrote a song about it.

Nov. 22, 1963

@jwmcsame: Haha! Bobby! He also made chair throwing a competitive sport.

“Fuck” is awesome. I use it so often that people start thinking it’s their name or an invitation or they run and hide.

I’m about one month away from answering my phone with, “Who dis? Oh? Where you at? Yo’ humpty [AKA “beater”] straight? Then come pick my black ass up before these fools start shootin’ up in here. Don’t be stoppin’ an’ runnin’ yo’ mouf, neiver. If you ain’t here before I flick this butt, don’t be callin’ me no more and askin’ me to lend you two-fitty. Bitch, you owe me more than you can count. You in the car? Why ain’t you here, then? I told you take that shit to the shop.”

@redmanlaw: Gah! I’m in a different library (don’t ask), and they have all the USB ports and the headphone jack covered with red tape and plastic, and I’m in the rich library. I’ll click through later. HWP can kiss my black ass, too, especially because my black ass is hoofin’ it.

@jwmcsame: JNOVJr. got to dance on stage with Toots and the Maytals in Santa Cruz. Good times.

@nojo: I’ve never seen any of them (there are two plus the marionette one?).

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: One cartoon, one puppet.

The cartoon is the best musical of the 1990s. Plus, you get to keep making Manchu apologize for Bryan Adams.

@jwmcsame: “You’re wanted by the po-lice and my wife thinks you’re dead.”

Is this your friend’s wife? The booze and pills have anything to do with being a “then” wife?

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: On the Navajo reservation, one’s humpty is called a “chitty” as in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

@nojo: [Insert inappropriate teasing about your love of musicals, a South Park episode, and Benedick HERE]

@redmanlaw: Haha! My favorite part of Smoke Signals (besides Thomas’s stories), is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI1WBztE-Kg (I have no idea if this link works or if it’s what I think it’s to because the library hates me).

@JNOV will never finish this fucking sweater!: “Indian Car” song.

“One Eyed Ford” Plains Indian round dance.

Navajo pictorial rugs showing hogans (traditional homes) and pickup trucks.

@redmanlaw: she really was wanted by the police later and served time in a kentucky prison. we all kept wondering who would get hard up enough first to go break her out. and then we wondered if when one of us got there, the pigs would tell him he was too late, somebody beat us to it. like bambi bembineck (sp?) she was very hot. that’s how she got away with doing stupid shit all the time. she hooked me up with a hooters waitress named rayhun (ky. spelling), pronounced ryan. and as is always the case with guy named chicks, she was hot. unfortunately today, i couldn’t drag a hooters waitress home with a bottle of oxycontin and a cro-magnon club.

@jwmcsame: I once had cause to correspond with a woman named Rena, pronounced Renée. All I could think of was kidneys.