In the past, campus cops–even the “real” ones at places like the vast government university system in California–tended not to be vicious to non-violent student demonstrators. Like so much else, the appalling facial pepper-spraying of peaceful kids, from a Hitler-size can, shows that’s changed. But it is already backfiring, as the YouTube goes viral and the resistance grows.
UPDATE from Scott Weisman:
“I went to UCSD, Davis’s southern sister school. It was always kind of absurd to me that the campus had its own police department. But indeed, when I went to school, the campus cops were indeed quite tolerant of a little bit of chaos. I remember the culture of the 1980s being a bit less strident. There were regular protests and other goings-on then that barely got any attention that would have aroused similar pepper spray responses had they occurred today (like the apartheid protests and sleep-ins in 1984-1985, my first exposure to such). I have brief excerpts of interviews of campus cops from then on various subjects in student papers. They were extremely reticent to get involved in issues unless truly necessary. Better times in many ways. But there is no question that today we are that much closer to a return to genuine liberty today regardless.”
3:09 pm on November 20, 2011
