Student walk out yesterday: UC Davis protestors clash with police in attempt to block I-80

[annm4peace]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/05/18639754.php

About 300 protestors confronted a blockade of police today in an unsuccessful attempt to march on Interstate 80 in Davis, resulting in one student's arrest. Tensions erupted when protestors tried to push past shoulder-to-shoulder lines of 120 officers from 10 law enforcement agencies.

Laura Mitchell, a fifth-year women and gender studies major, was arrested on suspicion of inciting a riot and resisting arrest and was dragged from the group of protestors into a law enforcement vehicle. Protestors left the scene after police agreed to cite and release Mitchell instead of taking her to jail.

The protest was part of the March 4 Day of Action, a nationwide series of rallies for K-12 and higher education funding.

Officers in full tactical gear fired pepper balls at the ground in front of the protestors. At one point, police used batons to beat back a throng of students pushing forward.

Some police had stun guns, but a UC Davis police spokesperson said they were not used by any officers, despite what many students reported hearing and seeing. A California Aggie photographer captured an image of a California Highway Patrol officer pressing a stun gun to a protestor's neck. The Aggie has not been able to confirm with CHP whether the stun gun was actually triggered.

Protestors encountered three separate lines of police on Old Davis Road and pushed through the first two. At the second line, about 100 yards from the I-80 on-ramp, police began firing pepper balls at the ground. At the last line, Mitchell was arrested and protestors stopped pushing against police.

Read the full article here: http://theaggie.org/article/2010/03/05/protestors-clash-with-police-in-attempt-to-block-i80

[slackmaster]

1. UCSD students blocked Interstate 5 one time

They were protesting an illegal war.

[Echo In Light]

2. k/r

[backscatter712]

3. That's the way you do it. Rule number 1 to make protests useful: DISRUPT!!!

Block the streets, shut down commerce, make it physically impossible for businesses and people to go about their regular lives.

Signs on a street corner don't cut it. Blocking the street entirely does.

[NoNothing]

4. Hmm.

That certainly gets attention. It doesn't necessarily get support.

Did the bus boycotts make it physically impossible for people to go about their lives? Did the lunch counter sit-ins?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. I agree, attention, but not support. My take in today's world where many people are fairly hard

pressed financially, interfering with their ability to get to their job, pick up their kids, etc, is negative added value

[Jim__]

6. I agree. Left wing peaceful protest is largely ignored by the media.

Protesting things like the economy, we could hand out leaflets to the drivers about what's going on (a little bit dangerous as irate drivers might be agressive). But peacefule protests without media coverage are usually pointless.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Yeah, no. Fucking with other people's right to live their own lives

and getting to work, the doctor, or appointments is no way to engender support for your cause.

It pisses them right off.

If turnabout is fair play, then those people demonstrating should have no problem when their lives are interefered with by, oh, say, anti-gay rights demonstrations flooding the street, or anti-choice demonstrators blocking their way to work.

I've walked picket lines and know the difference between lawful activity that can maintain support for your cause, and assholiness.

[backscatter712]

8. It's how they do it in France.

Get the masses pissed off, and they'll flood the streets, block the freeways, and cause so much chaos that government officials contemplate fleeing the country.

I'm sorry you find it inconvenient, but sacrifices must be made if you want your government to actually be responsive to the people's needs...