Many of us have knee-jerk reactions to cops beating citizens. Mine comes from George Orwell, the subject of my honors thesis. He wrote something like this: When I see a policeman with a club beating a man on the ground, I don't have to ask whose side I'm on.
The above excerpt comes from this article by Jesse Kornbluth, "The Police Riot at Berkeley: If They'll Beat a Poet Laureate, Will They Kill a Student?"
From this article is Colbert's report on the beatings (posted here for your convenience):
Previously, I posted the video of the Berkeley police beating students with their batons. What I did not realize that there were faculty in the midst.
Pay special attention to the second video of the protest in the linked article...
When the police violence occurred again later that night, they broke the ribs of another English professor, poet Geoffrey O'Brien. When the police wouldn't stop beating him even after he too had fallen to the ground, a good friend and fellow graduate student, Ben Cullen, rushed in and demanded that they stop. The police, in turn, rained multiple blows on him, bruising his ribs as well. And just in case it's not clear yet that the violence was not only against 'some kids looking to make a fuss,' the police also thought it necessary to jab 70-year-old former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Hass several times in the stomach with a baton as well.
This is just AWFUL.
Here's the link again in case you missed it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/the-police-riot-at-berkel_b_1091208.html?ref=college&ir=College
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