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Indybay Feature

Victims of Violence: When UC Police Attack

by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
If you've taken a glance at the corporate press' headlines recently, you'd see something like this: "UC Santa Cruz Protest Turns Violent," or, my favorite, "Police Break Up Violent Protest at UC Regents Meeting." The mainstream media blatently suggests that it was the students - the protesters - that were violent. Yet, to have violence you have to have victims. 'cus if nothing or no one was hurt, how can you claim that any crime has been committed?

If you look at Wednesday's (Oct. 18, 2006) protest and all the reports and documentation, you'll see that, in fact, there were victims of violence. The victim wasn't property. The victims weren't the cops (except the one that sprayed himself with his own pepper-spray). The victims weren't the Regents (unless you call really having to pee a form of violence). For the most part, the victims weren't even the corporate visitors (one guy from the Chamber of Commerce claims he got spit on, but that's it). If you were present or if you looked at the documentation, you would see that the victims were, by and large, the protesters.

So.. if violence creates victims, and the victims were mostly protesters, who were the instigators of the violence? The police. This is my argument: that Wednesday's protest was in fact violent, and we should all abhor unjust violence, yet the majority of violence came in the form of pepper-spray in the eyes and batons to the bodies. If we are truly concerned about violence and safety, then we must also be concerned about the police.
101806_victims_01.jpg
To republish photos, or for larger sizes, please contact sugarloaf [at] riseup.net - thanks! Also, please contact me if you feel uncomfortable having your photo displayed online.
§Pepper-sprayed
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_02.jpg
Immediately after police snatched 3 activists, they used their batons to push away nearby protesters, eventually pepper-spraying the crowd.
§Water
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_03.jpg
§Friendship
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_04.jpg
§Pepper-Eyes
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_05.jpg
§Here to Help
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_06.jpg
§It Burns
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_07.jpg
§Rinse and Repeat
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_08.jpg
§Hit in the Head by a Baton
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_09.jpg
§Didn't Realize 'til He Saw His Hands
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_10.jpg
§Bleeding
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_11.jpg
§Cement Burn
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_12.jpg
This is the back of the same guy from above. He was dragged on the ground by cops before he was yanked away by friends.
§Eyes Won't Stop Burning
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_13.jpg
§Wrong Place Wrong Time
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_14.jpg
Like most of those pepper-sprayed, these two just happened to be at the front of the crowd when the cops attacked.
§Victims of Violence
by josh sonnenfeld
101806_victims_15.jpg
Still recovering after being pepper-sprayed, how do you think these two will feel when they find out the corporate press is going to call them the violent ones?
§Sentinel photographer was smiling
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
sentinelphotographer.jpg
oh and for the record, the Sentinel's photographer was smiling while he took photos of kids trying to wash the pepper-spray out of their eyes. In fact, the photo on the left is him taking this shot: http://www.santacruzphotogallery.com/gallery/protest/ucsc_protest4

what's to smile about?
Add Your Comments
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TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
interested observer
Fri, Oct 27, 2006 5:57PM
don't think so
Thu, Oct 26, 2006 3:22PM
Dan Coyro
Thu, Oct 26, 2006 12:15PM
interested observer
Wed, Oct 25, 2006 12:53PM
_
Tue, Oct 24, 2006 8:46AM
a
Mon, Oct 23, 2006 11:41AM
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