Everyday it seems like citizens are finding new reasons to gather in large groups to protest for a cause they believe in. Which is great, to an extent.
The problem with a lot of these so called organized sit-ins is that they are not very organized at all. Most of these demonstrators lack a core message that all of their participants agree on and they tend to fail at properly informing the public and authorities about what they are protesting for.
Ok, I get it. I’m part of the 99% of people who have been disenfranchised by Wall Street; I couldn’t agree more. But now what? How is sitting in a tent going to solve that when I could be going to school or getting a job that will help work me away from that?
Criticism has erupted towards the chancellor of the University of California Davis, Linda P.B. Katehi and the police officers involved in the recent pepper spraying of student’s on campus.
The students who were engaging in a non-violent sit in were asked by police officers to move out of a pathway. Lieutenant John Pike chose to use non-physical force to disperse students who refused to comply with their verbal requests.
People like Joy Behar from “The View,” who is crying police brutality and comparing this event to the Kent State University incident where student protesters were shot need to take a chill-pill. These students weren’t shot and they weren’t graphically brutalized. They were pepper-sprayed.
The purpose of the sit-in was to protest against the rising cost of tuition. A very admirable and important message to send. But when were they going to move? Congress wasn’t going to call together an emergency meeting to vote on the fiscal year 2012 budgets to appease these UC Davis students.
So what did they expect to happen?
You can’t pose a problem and not offer a reasonable solution. That doesn’t get anybody anywhere.
The purpose of a college campus is for education and learning, but it’s doubtful that was happening with students skipping class to protest, and impeding other students from getting to their classes as well.
With not much end in sight Katehi requested for the students to leave and police offers followed their orders. Students need to understand that as citizens, we have to reasonably comply with authorities who, are just trying to maintain peace and order for the community as a whole.