I was on campus early in the evening. When I heard the message along the lines
of "This has been deemed an unlawful gathering. If you do not clear the area you
may be subject to police force which may include gas, arrest, etc..." being
blared from an armored police van, I returned to my apartment and stayed there
all night. If you wanted to be outside in such a dangerous and confusing
situation, then it was your own responsibility for assessing the risks at which
you put yourself. Was I robbed of my right to freely roam campus that night? Yes.
Was it the police? No. It was the eruption of violence and disobedience from the
protesters.
Below is his facebook post. It received only two "likes" and 8 comments, several which argued against him. My guess is most of you won't agree with it, but like I said, I wanted to offer a different perspective on the whole event.
There has been a lot of buzz going around Pitt, Pittsburgh, and, sadly, the
entire country, about the police reaction to the "protests" this weekend. I am
absolutely sick of hearing about this nonsense, and I wish that people would
just take a deep breath and use their heads for once in their life.First of all,
the assembly was declared unlawful. Is the word "unlawful" unclear to anybody
else? Because it is perfectly clear to me. Unlawful - (adj.): NOT lawful:
illegal. You have the constitutional right to LAWFULLY assemble and petition our
government. Who decides if an assembly is lawful? YOU DO NOT. The police
declared the assembly to be unlawful. Meaning that if you remained in the group,
you are now breaking the law. What about this is difficult to understand?Furthermore, WHAT WAS the POINT? At one point in the night, the crowd
just started chanting "We, the people, have the right to assemble." There was no
point. This disgusts me. Our forefathers gave us the right to assemble for what
purpose? Thats right, to get shit done. If our government decides to make a law
that 90% of the American population disagrees with, we have been given the
PRIVILEDGE to assemble and fight for our cause. THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE SHOULD NOT BE ABUSED TO PROVE A POINT. NONE of your rights should be abused to prove some point about how free you are. Your constitutional rights were created to ensure that you can live a life where you are able to achieve your goals and fulfil your dreams. The freedom of speech was NOT granted to you so that you can CLEARLY flaunt your rights just to cause unecessary controversy. Everyone
participating in this weekend's riots is, in my eyes, anti-patriotic. You have
taken what made this country a peaceful and amazing place to live, and used
those rights to purposely create conflict with the law enforcement.Also, the
phrase "police brutality" is being used. Brutality. BRUTALITY. Really. Brutality
is NOT being shoved with a night stick. It is NOT being gassed. It is NOT being
pepper sprayed. It is NOT being shoved with a plastic riot shield because you
are too stubborn to OBEY LAW ENFORCEMENT. BRUTALITY is a vicious use of physical force. If you were not hospitalized, you did not encounter anything BRUTAL.Tazers, pepper spray, nightsticks, riot shields WERE DESIGNED as means of
non-brutal physical control. What EXACTLY do you propose that they do to
maintain physical control of a situation? They have to move you. If you don't
move, and are breaking the law, they have to move you. It is their job. You must
be physically moved. What is your solution? Cause right now, the tools the
police used to PHYSICALLY CONTROL the situation are the best tools available. If
you want to be controlled by a "Pillow-covered Comfy-shield 3000" then I suggest
you invent it. Furthermore, you should feel LUCKY that you live in a country
where you are not SHOT ON SPOT for such blatant disobedience of law
enforcement.Finally, the most irritating of all of my problems with this whole
event, is just the blatant disrespect for authority. Disrespect is a fucking
widespread epidemic in this country, and I blame the anti-spanking hippie
movement (both in schools and at home). The police of Pittsburgh were out there
risking their lives and you people don't give a FUCK. FUCK you. If you got a
problem with decisions made by a law enforcement OFFICIAL. FINE. Take it up with the city. Or the president. I don't care. But EACH OFFICER was doing nothing
besides THEIR JOB. To serve and protect...protect YOUR UNTHANKFULL ASS. They didn't each decide "Hey! Lets go gas as many kids as we can!" They were all just doing their job as best they could, taking orders FROM A SUPERIOR. Somebody told those officers to get out there and stand in a line and hold that line. Do you
think that 1000 individual riot police drove there by themselves and said "Shit!
999 other guys had the same idea!" No. They were put there by the city.The
officers did not have some personal beef with you, they were doing what they
were told to do. If you disagree with the declaration of an unlawful protest
that is fine, but to physically confront an officer is unfair, disrespectful,
and just disgraceful. These men and women have dangerous jobs. Do you think that
police officers are forced into their position? Do you think its easy? No. They
take this job because they love to protect the innocent. They're not trying to
hurt you. They put their lives at risk every day to enhance the quality of
yours. What thanks do you give them? Disrespect, disobediance, and you wave the
Bill of Rights in their face like it is a fucking weapon. We had 3 Pittsburgh
police shot and killed, in ONE day, this past year. I will never question an
officer and his use of force. Just think for a moment about what kind of shit
police offficers come across. Three of them were murdered responding to a
domestic call. YOU NEVER KNOW where the danger is going to come from. Some of
the protestors we demonstrating in violent ways, and you never know when other
people might get the same idea. You don't know who has a gun, a knife, a bomb,
ESPECIALLY in this scenario.....People from all over the world were here. There
was a large liklihood of any one of you rioters being a dangerous terrorist.And
just consider what was at stake here....the most important leaders in the world
were in town. Not miles away from the riot getting ready to erupt. Do you let
the group grow larger and larger, moving, destroying, getting more riled up? Or
do you protect the safety of the area that THE PRESIDENT is near, and put an end
to the excitement and make sure the situation is in control.I'd probably say
that the safety of the president is of high importance. Wouldn't you? Plus
leaders from around the world....and how does Pittsburgh look to the world if we
let a riot run free to engulf the city...I dunno man. You were all just looking
for a reason to riot. You were all looking for reasons to get mad at the police.
You were pushing your Constitutional rights to the edge just to get a
reaction....its all just fucked up, man.Leave it up to Americans to create so
much stress, controversy, and violence out of a simple thing: freedom.
There's a lot I could argue with in this, but I'm not going to.
ReplyDeleteInstead, I'll just say I found it really amusing, partly because it made me picture an indignant 50 year old man from down south, ranting about the hippies and how we aren't allowed to spank our kids anymore. Also, the author is just really funny; "Pillow-covered Comfy-shield 3000" makes me laugh out loud.
I'll also say that I definitely agree that people can't hate or blame individual officers and that disrespecting a single policeman is disrespectful, ignorant and unfair. Just about everything else I disagree with entirely.
That's actually a really good description of my friend... creepy. Lol...
ReplyDeleteActually, that basically was my point of view, the "idignant 50 year old man from down south." I think that radical liberals will destroy a lot of what makes this country great, and I think that people, such as the unlawful protestors, are too concerned with being allowed to do whatever they want in this country, without enough concern for what liberties they may be robbing other people of.
ReplyDeleteWe all have the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government, but when it gets out of control, it infringes on other citizens rights to live in a safe and peaceful community.
Well, let me ask you, unnamed adversary: What is it that makes this country great?
ReplyDeleteMost people would say, in one word: freedom. And what is freedom?
1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.
The list goes on. In short, freedom is my right to do what I want. You say, "Your constitutional rights were created to ensure that you can live a life where you are able to achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams. The freedom of speech was NOT granted to you so that you can CLEARLY flaunt your rights just to cause unnecessary controversy." People chanted they had the right to assemble. This wasn't a pointless flaunting of rights. To flaunt something, you must have it. And when people were arbitrarily gassed and beaten and arrested, that showed they didn't have that right. Part of me having freedom is that I can stand for something even if you think it's unnecessary. Even if 90% of the population thinks it's unnecessary.
Now, I'm not saying I should be able to do WHATEVER I want. That's where the law comes in. You defined "unlawful" in your note: Unlawful - (adj.): NOT lawful: illegal.
Okay, fine, an assembly was declared unlawful. Now, that's not a reason not to assemble. You can't thoughtlessly do whatever somebody with authority tells you to do. To draw on an admittedly over-the-top example, this is how the Holocaust happened.
You have to question WHY you should do something not against some arbitrary set of rules, but against morals. You're a big boy; think for yourself.
Ideally, the law is supposed to limit my freedom so that I don't abuse it to limit anyone else's. In other words, "My right to swing my fist stops where your face begins."
ReplyDeleteNote I said "ideally." Because I completely believe in the principle that my right to swing my fist stops where your face begins. I don't support destruction; I think rioting and breaking windows is messed up. It doesn't get a message across, it alienates people, and worst of all, it hurts innocent people. NOTE: This is why after the Steelers riot, which had TWICE the amount of damage in TWO HOURS over a GAME as the G-20 summit had in TWO DAYS over PRESSING POLITICAL ISSUES, I was disgusted and ashamed to associate myself with Pitt students. If you'll remember, the damage was infinitely worse.
Anyways, I digress. My point is, over the summit weekend, the only proverbial (and sometimes actual) fists hitting anyone's face were those of the police. It was not "rioters" that made the streets unsafe. Rioters is an entirely misleading term. On Thursday, they were marchers. On Friday, they were loiterers. In a PUBLIC PARK. Nobody rioted, except a few assholes who rolled some dumpsters and a handful of kids that broke windows (Thursday). The Steelers, now that was a RIOT. Someone I know had to stand in front of their car begging a mass of raging monkey-shits not to put a pole through the window as the mass chanted "PUT THE POLE THROUGH THE CAR" and "FLIP THE CAR." That's a riot. If I had been out in that, I would have been afraid to get in the way of those students. But think about the G-20 weekend. Why didn't you leave your apartment? Was it because you were afraid some kids standing around the street were going to hurt you? Or was it because you didn't want to get mixed up with the POLICE gassing, hitting and arresting people? Think about that honestly. You didn't want to get mixed up with the police's "control tactics." But if you weren't afraid of the "protesters" in the first place, that means there was no real cause for them to be controlled.
You talk about the police not knowing if any of the people were terrorists. That's true. But nobody ever knows if ANYONE is a terrorist. You need some evidence to show that a situation is dangerous. It's unreasonable to take preemptive measures based on zero evidence, because then they can be taken against anyone. The police gassing and hitting and arresting all the protesters because SOME protesters are SOMETIMES violent is exactly the same thing as me punching every single Muslim I see because SOME Muslims are SOMETIMES terrorists. A democracy should be a society where people think for themselves, assessing situations based on their moral qualities, and the law and the police enforce those moral qualities. The power comes from the people and belongs to the people.
It is not a society where police take it upon themselves to infringe on peoples' rights based on a hunch that they might disrupt something, and then the people blindly follow the instructions of the police without ever questioning the morality of the orders.
People too often confuse patriotism with supporting the government or the law or the police in whatever they do. This is a very dangerous misunderstanding. Patriotism is supporting the ideals of your country. Politicians, policemen: they're put there to represent and enforce those ideals. When the actions of the government and law enforcement are in conflict with our country's ideals, it is our duty to fight back.
Our pledge of allegiance is essentially our promise to be patriots, and it ends with the phrase, "liberty and justice for all." This is what America stands for. This is what a true patriot stands for. Not the politicians, not the police. Rather, the promise, the ideals.
So were those people anti-patriotic, as you say, for insisting that they had a right to assemble? No. YOU were unpatriotic for not joining them, and for allowing and even supporting that right to be violated.