Saturday, April 12, 2008

Alma Matters

I am so ashamed right now. Last Friday night at my alma mater, the University of British Columbia, a group of some hundred students staging a "protest" of a proposed campus development plan became involved in an altercation with police, resulting in the arrest of nineteen. At present, these students are calling this a "police brutality incident" and are rumoured to be considering going to the BC Human Rights Commission to seek some sort of inquest or redress. The police have issued a statement saying the protestors turned violent and resisted arrest. One protestors says "nuh uh, it was peaceful, man, they're violating our right to protest, myaaaan!" Is our stony friend right? Were his rights to peaceful protest violated?

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms describes those rights which are inalienable to all people fortunate enough to find themselves in Canada. Those described include the right to free speech, the right to equality before the law and, of course, the right to stage peaceful demonstrations. Nowhere does this venerable document enshrine (let alone describe) the citizen's right to get drunk and light a fire. Make no mistake; this was not an example of principled, disciplined social action. It mas merely social. (And in the shadows a little ways away, there was probably some action happening too. Giggity.)

So to respond to my stony friend... Nah, brah.

It's not really surprising that when you start one big, hella dangerous looking bonfire in the middle of a public thoroughfare, without a permit, the fire department is gonna show up pretty quick to put it out. It's also not all that surprising that the cops will show up too (it is after all, illegal to start a big fire without a permit). Also, one shouldn't be surprised that when someone tries to stop the fire department from putting out a dangerous, illegal fire, the police will exercise their authority to facilitate the putting out of said bonfire. Especially if you're acting like a bunch of drunk yahoos.

And what better a cause to act so stupidly about than the knoll?

Still, weren't the protestors' rights being curtailed? Weren't the police there because the protest was being shut down by the university or the government? Weren't the police there to serve and protect the interests of the global corporotocracy?

No. They were there because they received a call about an illegal bonfire and a bunch of public rowdiness. They were there because a very reasonable and just law (burning permits) had been broken and because the fire department would require their help to deal with the crowd.

But what about the alleged police brutality?

Now we didn't see what events took place immediately before we see the protestor being handcuffed on the ground. But I'm going to guess that this individual wasn't standing aside, being a completely harmless law abiding citizen. I would imagine that this person was probably being less than polite to the police. And so far as I can tell (from the video and the news) there was no baton, pepper spray, or taser involved. Just a little wrestling in the mud. Because this is how the police handle intransigent individuals, those who don't say "oh yes, officer, here you go, I'll just put my hands behind my head now."

Simple fact; if you resist arrest (which includes squirming) they will do what they need to do to subdue you. I once had an experience with the law. Someone had stolen an eighteen wheeler, been chased by cruisers, ditched the thing and ran for it through my neighbourhood. Unfortunately for me, I was walking home from my then girlfriend's house. The police had dogs and guns drawn when they found me they mistook me for a fleeing suspect (whom they expected to be armed). Anyway, one officer had me pinned to the ground (under his knee) while another was cuffing me, while a third read me my rights. I did not resist arrest and was not injured.

There's a lesson there. The police mistook me for an armed fugitive, yet I followed their orders and I was not injured. Obviously, it wasn't kid-glove treatment, but they didn't cause me harm. Now, those arrested last Friday night were pretty upset that they got their clothes dirty, but if you're standing on wet, muddy ground, what else can be expected? Should the cops politely ask if it would be amenable to be arrested here? Or would over there work better?

Furthermore, consider the circumstances. There's a crowd of erratic people. They might be drunk. They are, en masse, interfering with the work of the fire department. They are not listening to you. The situation could conceivably escalate. You're a human being that's having verbal abuse heaped upon you simply for telling people that the fire has to be extinguished. You're on edge. Then maybe someone jostles you. Maybe they spit on you or call you some horrible thing. You react because you're human, because you're nervous, because the situation could get out of hand, and because you're trained to.

We don't know what happened before the first arrests, other than the crowd was trying to stop the fire department from putting out the fire which is illegal. The later arrests were because the crowd then decided to hinder the police in fulfilling their duties. Which is also illegal. Of course a bunch of university kids would interpret this police action through the ideological lenses with which they are so newly and deeply enamoured, seeing this as an assault to democracy itself.

The truth of the matter is, of course, that they were being stupid, acting like child delinquents, throwing a tantrum when they couldn't have something their way. Instead of an inquest, this incident demands a shameful apology from the protestors. They've made the university look bad. And if they're at all representative of the way UBC educates its students then I suppose that rep is well-earned.

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