"No cuts, no fees, education should be free." and "Let us in, let us in" were among the repeated chants of "angry" protesters who tried to force their way into a trustees meeting in Santa Monica College. They were angry about tuition costs about to be raised. As they tried to storm into the meeting room, campus police, apparently unable to otherwise control the unruly mob, let loose with pepper spray and reportedly doused about 30 of the protesters with it. See:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/04/students-angry-over-raise-in-course-prices-pepper-sprayed-at-california-college/?test=latestnews
I say, good for the officers in this instance but sadly, I believe that school officials will try to turn them into scapegoats. One school official has already said that the incident has given the school a black eye and my guess would be that he meant the officers' use of pepper spray. I think with odds of 30 to 2 (two police officers and at least 30 folks in the crowd or even a higher number of protesters as the overall mob size was never mentioned in the article) the officers has more than a reasonable fear that they might be hurt and the use of pepper spray, which is considered a 'soft technique' not necessarily requiring threat of bodily injury by many LE agencies and departments, was more than justified - it was prudent.
The people at fault here were the protesters in my opinion. Just their attitudes alone reek of ultra-leftist idealism. Watch the video and listen to the arrogance of the one apparent student saying something to the effect of how dare they pepper spray students. Who does that asshole think he is? Does he think he is entitled to the sweat off of other peoples' brows, and the money out of their pockets, just because he and a handful of others want to go to school on the cheap. What did they chant, that 'education should be free'? I have to wonder, just how do they think the building materials for the campus were obtained, did students go out and by the sweat of their own brows mine the gypsum for the sheet rock, did they get aching backs by digging the foundation holes, did they draw up the architectural plans and then implement the actual construction of the buildings - all without pay. I ponder whether or not they wrote and printed the books and other educational materials all at no charge. Did they also produce the paper on which the printed word was written, doing so as a community effort at no cost? Then did they walk into the classroom and teach others receiving no salary for their efforts and will they make that their careers. Or was it that, in the real world and not in their ultra-leftist communistic fantasy world, all the things associated with the education they are demanding cost money or some other form of trade. Why is that? Is it because others, such as architects, construction workers, planners, trustees, publishers, researchers, faculty, administrative workers and on and on have worked hard at it and they want to be able to eat and provide for themselves and their families?
I think these people who want it all for free, who demand it for free, do not gives a rat's arse about you and me and how hard we have worked to earn our keep. They seemingly think themselves special, as being better and more deserving than anyone else. They want it taken from us and given to them so that they can have the benefits of it all without having to earn those benefits themselves. I have two words for them: Fuck Them. If that language offends anyone who reads this, tough noogies. It is the protesters and their 'what's yours is mine' attitude that should offend you!
One thing is kind of nice in this whole thing - seeing that those bastions of liberal dogma, the colleges, have turned into exactly what they have been preaching against for years. That is, they have turned into big business. Hey professors, "Welcome to The Establishment, welcome to the real world" is all the rest that I can say...
All the best,
Glenn B
