Non-Violent Resistance In The Face Of Brutality

by Dick Mac

Occupy students at UC Davis have been completely non-violent in their approach to redress for grievances.

Even when the chancellor of the University set the police in their militaristic riot gear upon them, they remained non-violent. In the face of brutal and vicious violence that most Americans would condemn in another country, they remained non-violent.

After the police finished their brutal attack against passive, non-violent students and teachers, the students prepared another protest. A silent, non-violent protest outside the office of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, the woman who ordered the brutal attack that injured many.

They sat in deafening silence as the chancellor left the building and made her way to her ride in the parking lot. The only noise is that of the media.

See for yourself:



Non-violence in America has always been met with violence. The civil rights movement and the anti-war movement are historical reminders of how the police treat non-violent protesters.

For an educated person to say they did not know that the police brutalize non-violent protesters is an insult. For the leader of a university to allow police to set-upon non-violent protesters shows a disregard for humanity and a remarkable of ignorance of history. A history she condemned us to repeat.

Her remarks about health and safety in relation to tents in the quad is embarrassing; and the only part of her statement that matters is this simple phrase:

. . . I take full responsibility for the incident. . . .

See, Chancellor's message to protesters on the Quad, 11.18.11, at The Sacramento Bee.

The person responsible for this brutal attack must be dealt with forthwith, she must be fired from her job with prejudice. She is in violation of the laws of decency, if not the terms of her contract. Anything less than forced termination of her employment suggests that the State of California has no regard for education, student safety, and the United States Constitution.

When Martin Luther King, Jr., accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964, he said:

Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in chains, and carved highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man's scientific and technological progress.

Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

See, The Quest for Peace and Justice

I applaud the students of UC Davis. I applaud their non-violence, their peaceful protest, and their resolve to remain non-violent in the face of brutal attack.


Dead Enz
Kyle G. Brixton