Thread: Protesters, UNC police deflect blame

CHAPEL HILL -- UNC-Chapel Hill Police and a student group responsible for the protest that foiled former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's immigration talk on campus have different takes on what caused it to get out of control.

The student group, UNC Students for a Democratic Society, claims UNC-CH police used "violence and extreme force" against protesters, escalating a confrontation during Tancredo's speech at Bingham Hall.

"All organizations involved in the protest were nonviolent," the UNC Students for a Democratic Society said in a news release. "Rather, it was the violence employed by the Campus Police that created a climate of fear and chaos."
UNC-Chapel Hill Police and a student group responsible for the protest that foiled former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's immigration talk on campus have different takes on what caused it to get out of control.

The group asked for an investigation into the police actions and a standing student review board to oversee all police conduct on campus.

The SDS and other student groups organized a protest against Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, who had been invited to talk about his opposition to in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. During the event, protesters smashed a window and held a banner that blocked Tancredo's face. He left the forum without completing his talk.

The SDS claimed that police dragged two women out of the room where Tancredo was speaking and threw them to the floor in the lobby. Demonstrators chanted, "Shame on you," and tried to help them up, the SDS said.

"Five minutes later and without verbal warning, police started pepper-spraying," the organization said. "Contrary to police reports, the pepper spray was not 'broadcast' into the air; it was sprayed directly at people's faces."

The organization also claimed that an officer "sparked" a Taser over people's heads and another officer pulled a woman's hair.

But police tell a different story. Randy Young, a police spokesman, said earlier this week that officers did only "broadcast" the pepper spray towards the sky in order to get students to leave an overcrowded hallway. And the Taser was triggered over one officer's head -- not in anyone's direction -- to send the same message, Young said.

"It was not directed at anyone," he said. "It was a communications tool."

The UNC-CH police's official report on the incident says an officer "deployed pepper spray by sweeping the chemical over the crowd.

"There were no direct exposure of pepper spray by any individuals within the crowd," the report states. "Orange County EMS was called to the [scene] to assist with decontamination efforts. Upon arrival no one was in need of assistance."

The group said that some had protesters planned to debate Tancredo, others wanted only to protest outside and still others intended to shut down the event. The news release called it "extremely unfortunate that a lack of coordination" between the various tactics led to the silencing of dissent.

Some of the accounts of the confrontation were based on fact, while others were "wildly speculative and untrue," the SDS said.

"We are proud to see that so many people came out to participate in the demonstrations," the group said. "At the same time, it is regrettable that police violence led to an escalation which prevented many individuals and organizations from expressing their dissent towards Tancredo through speaking at the event."

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones wants the UNC-CH students who disrupted Tancredo's talk to be punished.

"I hope that disciplinary measures will be taken as warranted against any students or professors who participated in disrupting Congressman Tancredo's talk," said Jones, a Pitt County Republican, who like Tancredo has been a critic of illegal immigration.

He also urged that Tancredo be invited back to speak to speak "in a more secure setting."
eric.ferreri@newsobserver.com or932-2008

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher ... 89038.html

I wonder if La Raza had anything to do with it ? (sarcastic)

William was exactly right when he said in his video of the event that if the Universities shut events down after a $5 window is broken by protesters, protestors will be conditioned to use the same tatic repeatedly to stop any speaker they don't like from speaking.

Tancredo should have stayed in the room and demanded that he be able to finish his speech.

Good for you William for sticking up for what was right while others gave up too easily.

Steve

Oh, where to start............<chortle> <snicker> <snort>

The student group, UNC Students for a Democratic Society, claims UNC-CH police used "violence and extreme force" against protesters, escalating a confrontation during Tancredo's speech at Bingham Hall.

WHAT violence and extreme force? These people are absolutely unbelievable in their lies and idiocy. Quite frankly, I thought that the officers displayed a remarkable amount of self control and restraint given a circumstance in which they found themselves greatly outnumbered, were facing a situation which had escalated

"All organizations involved in the protest were nonviolent," the UNC Students for a Democratic Society said in a news release. "Rather, it was the violence employed by the Campus Police that created a climate of fear and chaos."

"A climate of fear and chaos" And where have we heard all of that before? It's always the same Stepfordesque, zombielike, robotic responses straight out of the Little Golden Book of Community Organization and Activism.

And they still think that anyone is listening to this crap?`

The SDS claimed that police dragged two women out of the room where Tancredo was speaking

Are they forgetting that there is at least one set of videos.....W's......which show what happened? No one was DRAGGED anywhere, those two little Hope and Change hags were herded out of the room yes, but they walked out under their own power. I'd like to see them produce one SHRED of evidence showing that they were dragged.


"Five minutes later and without verbal warning, police started pepper-spraying," the organization said. "Contrary to police reports, the pepper spray was not 'broadcast' into the air; it was sprayed directly at people's faces."

No verbal warning? How many times on the video are officers asking and warning them to disperse?

Oh, that's right.....they're so programmed to believe that only their voices should be heard that they just don't hear anyone else.

The organization also claimed that an officer "sparked" a Taser over people's heads

So?


The group said that some had protesters planned to debate Tancredo, others wanted only to protest outside and still others intended to shut down the event. The news release called it "extremely unfortunate that a lack of coordination" between the various tactics led to the silencing of dissent.

"We are proud to see that so many people came out to participate in the demonstrations," the group said. "At the same time, it is regrettable that police violence led to an escalation which prevented many individuals and organizations from expressing their dissent towards Tancredo through speaking at the event."

I must say that there definitely seems to have been some "lack of coordination" in getting their lies straight, that's for sure In one paragraph they blame lack of coordination between groups for leading to the "silencing of dissent". In the next they blame it on "police violence"

Which is it? For a bunch of allegedly intelligent people, they certainly don't act like it much of the time.

Either way though, they've hung themselves with their own rope. Their own words make it very evident that this was NOT an attempt at peaceful protest by well meaning,if naive, and amatuer, college kids, which got out of hand in the heat of the moment, due to some miscommunication, or rogue troublemakers.

This ugliness was a very well planned out and premeditated action. They have been cited in other articles as stating that their ultimate objective was to not just shut this particular event down and run Tom, and those who agree with him, off campus that night, but to also ensure that their actions were effective enough so as to ensure that UNC would be compelled to prohibit any future such events and ban groups such as the one who hosted the event from campus. In other words, they want the campus open and welcoming solely to those of THEIR views and activities.

This was their stated objective so I think that it's pretty clear that not only did they fully intend to conduct themselves exactly as they did but to also take advantage of what they knew would be light security in order to escalate the situation to a level of violence and pandemonium.

Where I think it went wrong for the core group which was instigating this disgrace, was when they failed to whip up the necessary level of mob mentality among the protestors and didn't elicit a rage response from the other side either. Honestly, in watching the videos, and reading various accounts, it's pretty obvious that quite a few of those kids who showed up for the protest were not expecting anything like this and there was a very tangible disapproval being expressed by their fellow students, even the ones who were there and not necessarily in agreement with the topic of discussion.

When all is said and done, if this had gone in the direction they intended it to go, they'd be running around all puffed up and nobody would be hearing any of this crap coming from them now. Instead, they fell flat on their asses, made complete fools out of themselves, are not being looked upon very kindly by their peers or UNC at this point, know they're in trouble, and that's the ONLY reason they're playing the "victim".

I hope they get every last bit of punishment they've got coming, are shut down on campus themselves, and the faculty behind this goes down with them.

It's never their fault. Were just bad right wing extremists.

Maybe Obama will apologize for us.

More chaos from a few students and teachers than the whole country of real nonviolent protesters!!!