Paul Cantrell
The author’s direct observations at USC, backed up by national study: “With few exceptions, the encampments have been overwhelmingly peaceful, well-organized microsocieties.” “The image of a lawless, violent, antisemitic pro-Palestinian mob stands completely at odds with the reality.”
But people •were• violence at USC. Who?
- Proud Boys
- anti-gay activists
- actual for-real Nazis
- and…the Los Angeled police https://union.place/@inquiline/112497242322621862
Paul Cantrell
The author here correctly ties the action of police-summoning university presidents to a larger anti-democracy movement. The whole piece is worth reading.
Paul Cantrell
Just in case it’s not obvious: there is another way. And it’s the obvious one.
There was no violence at the college where I teach. There was a multi-day occupation of a campus building in support of Palestine and in support of peace — but no police, no violence. Why?
Because the administration actually •talked• to the protestors, while publicly defending their first amendment rights. They worked together on a specific plan of action, and the occupation ended. That’s it. The one weird trick.
Paul Cantrell
I’ll note with a bit of pride in my community that all this happened in mid-April, weeks before Brown made headlines for doing something similar, and weeks before the right-wing / police violence descended on other campuses.
Not to say we always get it right, or that all parties got everything right in this situation. Just to say that common sense and the basic decency of participatory democracy go a hell of a long way.
![[empty]](https://gnusocial.jp/avatar/79669-48-20221224011648.webp){kind=small}
[empty]
@inthehands It seem like "reach an agreement with us and there won't be any trouble" is extortion
Paul Cantrell
@allanb
It would be if somebody said that.
Paul Cantrell
@allanb
Yeah, no, they very pointedly and publicly did not say, do, or imply that.
So…wondering who this person is who’s blundering into a situation and so carelessly assuming they understand it better than the people who live there, I looked at your posts, and…
…turns out it’s the same person who wrote that “Israel is a landlocked country.”
Muting you — no point — but…go look at a map, and maybe reflect a bit on your general ability to gauge your own understanding of things.
[empty]
@inthehands They don't have to say it. The message is implied.
Universities who didn't negotiate got more trouble through escalation of tactics, extended occupation, more bad actors inevitably entering the fray.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.