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About 300 protestors confronted a blockade of police today in an unsuccessful attempt to march on Interstate 80 in Davis, resulting in one student's arrest.
Tensions erupted when protestors tried to push past shoulder-to-shoulder lines of 120 officers from 10 law enforcement agencies. Laura Mitchell, a senior sociology-organizational studies major, was arrested on suspicion of inciting a riot and resisting arrest and was dragged from the group of protestors into a law enforcement vehicle. Protestors left the scene after police agreed to cite and release Mitchell instead of taking her to jail.
The protest was part of the March 4 Day of Action, a nationwide series of rallies for K-12 and higher education funding.
Officers in full tactical gear fired pepper balls at the ground in front of the protestors. At one point, police used batons to beat back a throng of students pushing forward.
Some police had stun guns, but a UC Davis police spokesperson said they were not used by any officers, despite what many students reported hearing and seeing. A California Aggie photographer captured an image of a California Highway Patrol officer pressing a stun gun to a protestor's neck. A CHP spokesman told The Aggie that no stun guns were fired.
Protestors encountered three separate lines of police on Old Davis Road and pushed through the first two. At the second line, about 100 yards from the I-80 on-ramp, police began firing pepper balls at the ground. At the last line, Mitchell was arrested and protestors stopped pushing against police.
The day of action began at 11 a.m., when students gathered at the Activities and Recreation Center and began a march around campus. Students marched in protest of fee increases, furloughs, cuts to campus services and the structure of the UC system.
While some students went to the Capitol in Sacramento during this time, many stayed on campus to call awareness to what they believe is a corrupt UC system.
"Even if UC got more funding from the state, they wouldn't spend it on students," said Cynthia Degnan, a graduate student in the English department. "They would spend it on privatizing our university."
Fire alarms were pulled in Storer, Chemistry, Olson, Kerr, Wellman and Hart Halls, as well as at Shields Library, forcing all those inside to evacuate. No suspects have been identified.
"It was a symbolic gesture to show that education cannot continue under these circumstances," Degan said.
Some students inside the buildings said the false alarms were counterproductive to the message of education.
"It was completely and totally disrespectful that they pulled those alarms," said Maggie Mello, a senior history major who evacuated Olson Hall. "We pay $100 a day to learn without disruption here, and I have a right to be in class. It was petty and irrational."
The students marching then moved the MU bus terminal and blocked Unitrans and Yolobus buses in order to communicate the importance of their cause.
"Business cannot go on as usual," said Sergio Blanco, a senior political science major.
After halting bus services for approximately 30 minutes, the march progressed down Howard Way, stopping at the intersection of Russell Boulevard. Unitrans service was severely affected during this time and after, said Greg Strecker, a third year political science major and Unitrans dispatcher.
"Most of the buses could not get through and ran late," he said. "I know a lot of people who were late to school. One guy missed his midterm. I agree with a lot of [the protestor's] ideas, but we are here for an education and we already paid for it."
Still, those involved were pleased with the way the march was able to rally support and draw attention, said protestor Brian Ramirez-Corona at the intersection of Howard and Russell.
"I'm really proud of our students," Ramirez-Corona said. "We just got so many people to come out to this intersection, and I think it's really going to make a statement to the UC regents."
Students then marched 2.5 miles around the perimeter of central campus to the Interstate 80 on-ramp where the arrest occurred at approximately 2:45 p.m. Sheri Atkinson, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, arrived after Mitchell's arrest to negotiate her release and stayed after the protestors left to assist Mitchell.
Protestors then returned to campus and marched throughout the library and other lecture halls, where more alarms were pulled. The march moved to the intersection of Anderson and Russell, where approximately 100 students blocked traffic and danced to the beat of drums.
Earlier this morning at UC Berkeley, 100 protestors held a peaceful rally at Sather Gate. Another rally on Sproul Plaza was held at noon.
Approximately 1,000 protestors - along with high school students - marched south for six miles to rally at Oakland City Hall. The march proceeded south to rally in Oakland and later seven blocks were occupied. At 3 p.m., 1,500 people filled Frank Ogawa Plaza.
About 120 protestors were arrested for blocking traffic on Interstate 880 during rush hour, just before 5 p.m. Although police reopened lanes at 5:30 p.m., traffic was already backed up for miles in all directions.
One protestor either fell or jumped from the freeway onto a tree and roadway about 25 feet below. Paramedics took the protestor away.
For more information on today's march in Davis, read Monday's Aggie.
JEREMY OGUL contributed to reporting. LAUREN STEUSSY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org. POOJA KUMAR can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
UPDATE - March 5, 2010: CHP has confirmed they did not fire any stun guns. Laura Mitchell is a sociology-organizational studies major. Cynthia Degnan's name was misspelled in the original version of this article.
Comments (44)
put down the bongo drums and respect your peers, please.
I completely agree with turtle, I can't believe that they stopped the buses. I felt like protesting against the protestors for being so unreasonable and inconsiderate to the other students. I agree with what they were fighting for but the way they went about it was childish and rude.
Completely agree with you Turtle. The excuses for the alarms and bus lanes are just, that excuses. Irrational. Childish even. I am in fact BEGGING for someone to try and justify those actions with some kind of rational though. But the reality is, they can't. Hurting/hindering other students - just because they were not a physical part of your cause - is absolutely INEXCUSABLE.
"Even if UC got more funding from the state, they wouldn't spend it on students. They would spend it on privatizing our university." What the hell does that even mean? WTF!
Maybe they should protest their liberal buddies in Sacramento who hand out sweetheart deals to public unions to the detriment of higher education. Karen Bass, former CA Speaker (D) and UC Regent, voted for the fee increases and gave her staff RAISES today. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/05/2584343/bass-promotes-20-staffers-boosts.html Wake up, kids. Someone has to pay for your education and worker salaries. Why not YOU?
My boss gives my staff a raise everyday.
In solidarity with those who are defending a right to high quality public education everywhere!! support the international movement. stop funding wars, stop funding the war on drugs, start funding education!! stop privatizing the military. stop privatizing the prisons. education should be free!!
I thought that today's events were quite badly executed by the protesters. Could they have been more considerate to the people they say they are representing?
Aaaa, whatever happened to the "good old days" when the National Guard would be called, a few shots fired, and the protesters scatter like the ungrateful cockroaches they are. Memories, memories. BTW children, let us not forget that the “right” to a free and public education only applies to K through 12. Any of you who actually believe that a college education is a right have been smoking too much of the dried cake left over from your last pressing. If you really don’t like the cost at UCD, why not try USF, or Stanford, or any other non-state funded university. Just be glad that the people of this state who are still employed are willing to underwrite the bulk of the costs associated with your education. Otherwise, we would probably find many of you balding, middle aged, and working in the well at your local “Econo-Lube-and-Tune.”
@ "Reality Check": That was me being quoted. That's not precisely what I said, I said that I didn't *believe* that the university would spend the money on students b/c they've made no verbal commitment to do so by, for example, promising to role back fee increases or reduce classroom sizes with extra state money. Very different, I think, from claiming to know what would actually happen, which I would never do. However, it seems like maybe you don't know what privatization means and I wanted to explain. Privatization is the process of turning a public resource or institution, that is one funded by the state and provided for the state's residents, into one that is funded very differently and therefore has a very different purpose. The UCs have been doing this for years by growing their revenue-generating units like student housing, by moving the burden of paying from the UCs from the state to individual students, and by relying more heavily on corporate and individual donors (which has significant results, for example, in one csu, where similar things are happening, a corporation that produced beef forced the firing of a professor who criticized the beef industry. Corporations dictating research and teaching is a scary scary thing). the process of privatization makes a lot of people who are already rich even richer and passes the burden of paying for this onto college students and families who largely cannot afford to pay. So I don't believe that UCOP and other University administrators have any motive for changing this trend. It's making the uber-rich (Mark Yudof, the president of the University, makes $800K/year - which includes his $10,000/month that your tuition pays for. Two months of rent is more than grad student TAs make in a year) richer and leaving actual education by the wayside, reducing the value of the degree that you are all getting in the process, making your earning prospects after graduation much less bright than they were when you started here. That is what privatization does. That's why we're fighting it. The state needs to fund education, but the administration needs to assure us that this funding will actually be used to educate and not to consolidate wealth onto fewer and fewer individuals.
just to clarify - the beef corporation was a significant donor to the school and threatened to withdraw donations if the professor was not fired, leaving the school that depended on that donation in a very difficult position.
"stop privatizing the university?" I feel that the term "privatize" is being misused by the protesters. If they are using "privatize" to describe rising tuition, then a better term would be inefficiency within the system. A lot of private schools in this country aren't having to raise their tuition by astronomical amounts, whereas the state-funded institutions are. The UC system is run by public-bureaucrats. No wonder why the private shools avoid many of the problems we face! Privatize the UC!
Hypothetical scenario for the protestors: After hearing your protest, the State of California decides to make all public education, from K-12 to university, completely free for every student. They will admit every student who applies to any public school. They will fully fund all teachers, professors, research projects, everything. But they will only do this if you can come up with feasible solutions to pay for it. So do you do it? How do you propose to pay for either completely free or low cost public education?
legalize drugs. use the money from the war on drugs to fund education as well as taxes from the sale of drugs to fund education. release non-violent drug offenders thereby saving money from the prison system. have the us military pull out of south korea, japan, germany, italy, guantanamo bay, yemen, stop funding israel's war against the Palestinians, pull out US spy planes currently using the netherlands island in the carribean to fly over cuba and venezuela, US government out of afghanistan and iraq NOW!! rather than telling the poor to join ROTC and JROTC, give more scholarships towards a non-military education, legalize prostitution and gain revenue through taxes. don't pay millions of dollars to the ucb football coach. don't talk about cutting funds to education while at the same meeting raising the salary at the top. try to think of more!!
The protest is retarded. No one says you have to go to a UC. If you can't afford it then go to a city college or a CSU. If you aren't willing to pay for your education then leave. Like someone mentioned, your protesting against the university which has absolutely no control over the fee increases. If you want to protest, sack up and go protest at the capital. Clearly you guys don't have the balls to make a "real" difference, so instead you ruin people trying to learn in lecture, prevent people from getting to school, and waste even more state money by requiring hundreds of police to watch over you guys. Against Yudof, yeah he makes a ton of money. But if you took away his entire salary, that'll do what, lower every UC student's tuition by 2 dollars? Woww...you guys have done so much. This is my university too and I hate you guys
Cynthia, thanks for responding. I understand the activist definition of privatization. But the state is forcing the university's hand. If the state reduces funding by about a billion dollars in two years, how can the university respond to that without raising fees and seeking more research funding from private businesses? Maybe there are some overpaid people at the top, but there's not a billion dollars worth of overpaid administrators. This is a problem of GOVERNANCE in the State of California -- we have a system that allows uninformed voters and corrupt politicians to make poor decisions about how the state's money is brought in and spent. And we have a constitution that makes it extremely difficult for us to fix the mess we're in. People need to stop blaming the Regents, who have very limited realistic options, and start looking at what we can do to make sure our priorities are reflected in what the state spends its money on (i.e. schools not prisons).
In other words, I don't buy into the narrative that this is all about the rich trying to make themselves richer and keeping the poor and marginalized down. This is about California's fatally flawed system of governance. But of course, that's not as sexy as class conflict, and it doesn't make for good social revolution slogans.
It's quite obvious that we, as a society, benefit by making education free to those who prove their merit. This was the foundation of the Master Plan for Education, and the reasoning is as true today as it was then. If you restrict education to those who can pay, you end up with a school overrun with the vapid children of rich donors. Recall, if you will, that George W. Bush has a Yale degree. Additionally, if education is only available to those who can pay and pay and pay, the best and brightest are kept outside of the system, and their talents will be squandered. By opening education up to the best and the brightest, regardless of their class background, California ended up with UC Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and Google, amongst other benefits. Paying for the educations of the best students is an excellent investment of the state's resources.
I agree completely with RealityCheck. The problem isn't the regents, Yudof, or even Schwarzenegger; the very structure of our state government enforces poor governance. The protesters would do a lot more for the cause of education if they educated themselves, their friends and their families about how our politicians get elected and the constraints they must work within once they are elected, and the need to find an alternative. Senior political science majors should be coming up with smart ways to change our constitution, not march in the mindless pursuit of "disruption."
RealityCheck, It's not just sexy and good sloganeering. This country (and we are not alone in this)is founded on the principal of rule by elites. This is evidenced in the original right to vote being the sole domain of white male owners of property. Two of the greatest levelers in our history were the founding of the land grant colleges and the GI bill after WW II. The expansion of the educated masses in this country are responsible, more than anything else, for our economic, political and military status in the world. Those at the top have always sought to restrict the leveling of our society. Whether it is resisting legal equality for all, resisting the regulation of business and commerce or resisting the levying of taxes, corporate and big money interests will always fight(either directly or through surrogates) for a bigger slice of the pie and against anyone else getting a piece of theirs. Our "flawed system of governance" is a reaction to a time when this state was controlled by railroad and land development interests. They made sure that whatever reforms came out of the process (the ability of the legislature to control to the budget effectively and the initiative process)were flawed and limited. If we allow access to education to be restricted, if we go back to the time when only elites could go to college we will weaken our economy and increase the rate of social stratification that started 30 years ago.
Interesting, though, that there isn't an easy means to obtain an education on those problems and constraints within our education system. The protests actually provide an excellent opportunity to talk to one's peers, get educated, and hear the things that others have learned about the Regents and the structure of the university. The protests have led to the creation of blogs like ouruniversity.wordpress.com, where such information is shared. It pays to talk to new people and gain new perspectives, outside of the narrow circles of one's roommates and occasional classmate. Get out and learn.
For those who think the protestors were being rude and childish or whatever not, you got a point, but take a step back and look at it from a sociological or even a psychological stand point. The higher powers want us to get on a bus, go to school, go to our classes, etc. By simply disrupting that routine and being different from the norm, we draw attention. Yes, skipping a class that you paid for just to protest paying higher prices for that class is counterproductive, but it's a sacrifice to a greater goal. Also, a lot of it was symbolic. If you have a baby crying, what do you try to do? You try to sooth it and make it stop crying! Well, we're crying and throwing traumas, and the next move is theirs. Besides, a lot of this would not be happening if the UC Regents actually took the high road. I don't see them proposing cuts in their own pay while they don't mind cutting teachers' pay and faculty workers' without hesitating. I don't see them reaching out, call town hall meetings with student representatives from each UC to discuss increase proposals, and actually explain the situation clearly and personally. I don't see the point of teaching a democracy in school, emphasizing we have a voice and then enforcing a dictatorship on us. Even though we're being "immature" about this, they are too.
I dont understand why people whine every time protesters do anything. Theres always a grip of republicans bawling about how the protesters are all overprivliged/stoners/liberals. Some people want to protest. Doing anything is better than doing nothing. If you are willing to let them take public education away from you, you do not deserve it in the first place. I could not possibly care less if we disturbed your classes. The 32% fee hikes and growing privatization of the university should be disturbing you much more.
@MilesPrower "I could not possibly care less if we disturbed your classes. The 32% fee hikes and growing privatization of the university should be disturbing you much more. " This is where you and some of the protestors crossed the line. What gives YOU the right to make that decision for other people? Everyone has the right to choose and say how they want to support/not support the causes behind the protest. If they want to go to class, let them go to class. If they want to study in the library, let them study in peace. It's the principle of the matter that ticks off a lot of people - the students you disrupted have rights to, but clearly they were ignored.
So you guys were protesting budget cuts, which would prevent students from getting an education, by disrupting classes and stopping buses, which prevented students from getting an education?
only some of the issues that will result from budget cuts: lower quality of education loss of jobs for janitors, faculty, staff, and student-workers, fee Increase: Every students' educational fee will increase 32%. Undergraduate tuition will increase $2,378 per year, going from $7,473 to $9,811. This follows a long line of fee increases, closure of affordable and sustainable housing, closure of the geography grad department, closure of the Breastfeeding Support Program, cuts to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: $3.8 million cut in funding for 2009-2010. It will go from $70 million to $66.2 million, a 5.2 percent decrease, privatization of the University, closure of the Textiles and Clothing division. No longer funding the department nor hiring teachers to replace those that retire. "There will be fewer TAs for discussions and laboratory courses, reduced maintenance and expansion of facilities and fewer student service and outreach funds, closure of Nematology, closure of Environmental Design
@TheForce2Swear: While I agree with most of your points, I think something needs clarification: "Besides, a lot of this would not be happening if the UC Regents actually took the high road. I don't see them proposing cuts in their own pay while they don't mind cutting teachers' pay and faculty workers' without hesitating." Regents don't have a salary. They aren't paid for being regents, they don't get anything. The only one being paid at all in the higher UC-system governance is Mark Yudof (granted he gets paid a shit ton). So, while I think the regents make some poor decisions and have contributed to the downfall of our university and the fee hikes and so on, the common claim that they should be cutting their salaries to help our fees is bs -- because they don't even have a salary. In other responses: Yes, some of the protestors' actions were inconsiderate of other students' rights to learn. But that's just what happens when people protest -- things get interrupted and certain segments do more idiotic things (like the fire alarms). But, it would be far worse to have no protest at all. One day of inconvenience is nothing compared to the grander scope of the students' situations, and the symbolic message behind the protests across the state were heard. We want education funded more than prisons, we want AB Bill 656, we want a fee freeze on tuition/fees. We aren't asking for everyday taxpayers to be taxed more, so I really don't get why people think the cause is so wrong.
Just a note to The Aggie...since this issue isn't going away anytime soon, you should probably pick one spelling of "protestor"/"protester."
To everyone who did nothing yesterday, and to everyone who is whining about the protesters: Be sure to tell your kids you witnessed the end of public education, and did nothing about it.
I will upload protest pictures this afternoon on my website and fan page: http://www.martinwongphotography.com/ http://www.facebook.com/martinwongphotography.com
Did nothing?!? Just because we didn't choose to take place in your disruptive, childish "protest" doesn't mean we aren't doing anything. A lot of students and their families have been writing to their lawmakers, which is by far a better way to get things done. Just because we think that you're idiots for running onto the freeway with bongo drums doesn't mean we don't support the cause.
the squeaky wheel gets the grease...
and stupidity just gets laughed at
We should be protesting the teachers: they're the ones stealing all of our free state money. The teachers need to step up and take voluntary paycuts. If they don't, many of them will lose their jobs--due to the reduction of students. Steelworkers, coalminers, truckers, and skilled tradesmen have been taking salary cuts for decades now in order to save their jobs--temporarily, until management can find some foreignors to do their jobs more cheaply . . . HEY! Wait a minute. Maybe we should just get rid of all these overpaid dinosaur professors and hire Indians and Pakistanis to do the teaching for a quarter of the cost.
I have protested, my mother and father protested, my brothers and sisters have protested and even my grandparents have protested...Yes, we all did it on different events...but we did it...We -NEVER- blocked traffic or prevented -anyone- from getting to/from work/school/their destination. All that does is make you look like assklowns. I have many friends who go to Davis and my younger brother goes to LA and even they think your fake hippy crap is just that... If you're going to fight for a cause, go to it's source! If you want to make a difference, use your brains, not stupid tactics. Oh...And take off the goddamn face masks! You look like freaking terrorists! And you deserve to get maced/beat/tazed when you do that! For those of you writing letters and who didn't block traffic...thank you. I am very proud of you, even though I'm sure you care less about an aged and wondering hippy.
Oh, one other thing. For those of you wastes of flesh that trashed American flags for your fake hippy trip. I hope someone beats you. If it's -that- bad, move somewhere else. Do -NOT- disrespect our flag. To many men and women have given their lives for you to act like the idiots you are and I seriously hope someone smacks you around for doing that to our flag (or any other for that case).
Protesters please explain to me why the hell you are punishing your fellow students for the budget cuts with your childish behavior! Instead of inspiring solidarity you pissed off and disrespected a majority of your fellow students at Davis, shame on you. Go to Sacramento because its your government that needs to be punished and leave the rest of us to our studies, its less than 2 weeks til finals and you pull the alarm at the library?! That is so selfish and rude. We are all suffering with the budget cuts, but let us decide for ourselves how we choose to deal with it. And just FYI, by pulling those damn fire alarms the fire department had to be called out every time. Guess who pays for the UCD fire department????? You've embarrassed our university, I would think we'd have more intelligent individuals than what we saw on Thursday. Blocking a freeway? Are you kidding me? You will get no response in action, nor respect from your university or the government if you act just plain dumb.
My day would have been much more entertaining if you had made it to the freeway. Protesters vs 65mph traffic = better UCD student body. Grow up or get out of UCD. You embarrassed our school and I am ashamed you get to call yourself and Aggie.
@ Vintage Hoo-doo: Protests in the past have never blocked street? I'm sure MLK, Cesar Chavez, and other civil activists in the 60s, etc. never blocked streets, always used sidewalks, and obeyed traffic signals. Also, wouldn't you want to wear something over your face if getting hit with rubber bullets releasing a pepper gas?
re the priorities, and everyone laying the blame this way and that.. my slogan now is "DONT BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR A BLACK WOMAN! (who's an actual progressive, not just a lipservice pro.)" http://www.alternet.org/economy/145857/obama%27s_budget_revealed%3A_money_for_wars_and_weapons%2C_while_more_americans_face_joblessness_and_hunger Yes, I was bicycling my way around as usual that day, and saw the throng blocking the bus area-- which I immediately found to be distasteful and which makes me suspicious. There's no way a movement honestly protesting class war would block mass transit, what with a parking garage charging exhorbitant rates (making it loved only by the filthy-rich elite) DIRECTLY ADJACENT, ripe for potential targeting. Please, kids.. before you start thinking what youre meant to think ("Oh, infiltrators and false flag operations are the stuff of Conspiracy, which by definition can never happen!") you really need to read up on actual history, as oppposed to what the oligarchs (MSM) choose to tell you about: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/search?q=cointelpro http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17663 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12195 http://consortiumnews.com/2010/020810.html
@alberto.s - I never said protests didn't. I said the ones I have participated in did not. Please learn to read...unless you're one of these proud students who was more busy pulling fire alarms, wasting money and being retarded, than learning how to read...then I'll forgive you and I will get a crayon to spell it out... Also...HOW DARE YOU COMPARE SOME WHINY RICK KIDS TO MLK AND THE SUFFERING THOSE PEOPLE SAY IN THE 60's! Oh..and I've been maced for things I believe in. It sucks. I still don't want to look like a terrorist who's faking being a hippy. I'd rather someone has to look me in the face like a human being instead of a coward who's trying to hide and still 'participate'.
I meant rich, not rick* pardon the typo.
your right to a free education ends at 12th grade. college costs money, and you are already getting an incredible bargain because the state is subsidizing the cost of yours. look at tuition at private colleges, some of which now charge over $50k/year. if you don't like it, go somewhere else. i think you will be hard-pressed to find a college of the same caliber for cheaper. oh, and the "raising cost of tuition on the people who can least afford it" argument doesn't hold water because of a little thing called financial aid. if the costs of college are being raised out of your price range, you will likely not pay the full increase. fukcing hippies.
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I agree with the motives behind these protests, however the way in which they were carried out was counterproductive and flat out rude. Students have midterms, major assignments due, and finals coming up and shutting down the buses, needlessly evacuating buildings, and making tons of noise is a really crappy thing to do. The excuse is "our voices were heard." But were they really heard? You spent hours yelling at and disturbing students who are not responsible for the fee increases! And because of the crazy stunts involved, all the media is focusing on is this "insane" group of college students and not the message you were trying to get across. Best yet, you overshadowed the demonstration on the steps of the capitol, which was peaceful, organized, very well supported, and had a chance to make a real impact. You have a lot of passion, and the general message is supported, but passion without simple common sense just leads to chaos. And when you purposely hurt students in order to get attention, it just pisses people off. So put down the megaphones, STOP harassing your own peers, and turn your passion into reasonable, effective action!