Here we are again, caught in the same yes/no trap that progressives always get caught in. When are liberals going to realize that the actions of radicals pave the way for reform to take place? No John Brown, no end to slavery. No Tea Party, no America.

The first response to this will most assuredly be "how dare you compare The Boston Tea Party with a "riot" at TESC!!". They were both acts of rebellion, acts of revolt. The police have, maybe since the beginning of police, come down hard on youth, poor people, non-whites, queer people, etc. What happened at TESC was an example of a group of people realizing they had the upper hand against the police and saying, "We aren't going to let you win this time. You will not take one of us today."

Yes, there were people who had been drinking, and people who had been smoking weed, and maybe a couple of people looking for trouble. It was also a group of people that have studied or seen first hand the way police control The People with violence in order to protect capital.

Events like this are not to be taken lightly, it would be incredibly unwise to just right this off as if they were soccer hooligans, or drunks blowing off steam. Events like this provide a spark that can ignite a movement. As a community, I believe it is in our best interests to start a conversation about the police and how they do their jobs. Now that this has happened, the police will undoubtedly ramp up their reactions to college students, especially at protests. If we want to live in the kind of society we dream of, with real freedom, and real access to community, we have to come together and support one another. We can't criticize each other and bicker because that only does our "enemy's" job for them. Everybody is needed, every idea is valuable, every tactic is a step closer to accomplishing our goals.

"It's only criminals and their enablers who feel the police are out of control."

I hope you are only speaking in relation to the recent events at Evergreen. Because I have misgivings about the behavior of our police force on a few occassions during the last round of port protests. I had no probelm when the police enforced the laws by arresting the women who were blocking the street or their reaction to outbreaks of violence. But I have serious problems with the level of force they used on some other passive protesters. We clearly do not agree on whether or not any police actions constituted excessive use of force that week, but I hope you are not characterizing my concerns about the 4th and 14th ammendments as "enabling." Since you are a reasonably fair person, I can only imagine you are speaking about the most recent events.

Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.! --John Maynard Keynes

This conversation has gotten way off topic, I suggest people start a new blog entry about racial profiling somewhere else. It can be titled, "Does racial profiling exist in Olympia? One open gun carrying white man thinks not." Move it along! This is article is about justice over vengeance and the bigger subjects behind the riot. No more back and forth trying to convince someone who can find this stuff out on his own. Sorry security six, gotta stop k?

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The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

"Unfortunately the police are determined to seek retribution beyond what is fair. Unless we stop them, rationality and wisdom will be defeated by vengeance and abuse of power. "

Unfortunately?  I say fortunately.  An unruly mob of kids who think they are above the law destroyed government property while threatening officers of the law.  The police should be determined to seek retribution on behalf of the police department and the law abiding citizens of this great city who helped pay for the destroyed property. 

A group of individuals who believe they are above the law have no right to even try to stop them.  Do you seriously believe the police are solely seeking revenge and abusing power?  What if it was your car that was totaled while you were in class one day.  Wouldn't you want them to pursue the offenders?  Wouldn't you expect to be reimbursed?

One destroyed cop car is not equal to ten years in jail served by people used as scapegoats.

While I agree 10 years is harsh, I'm sure that's just a maximum and none of those who flagrantly broke the law will ever serve 10 years.  As for scapegoats, let's call them what they really are:  criminals, felons, and law-breakers.  They are far from "scapegoats".

The police officers will receive no punishment for beating and dousing the public, yet again, with pepper spray, sending one student to the hospital with bruised ribs. Instead they will receive over time pay, which will continue to increase the costs of the incident.

The police officers shouldn't receive any punishment for doing their jobs.  They have as much right to protect themselves as you do.  They also have as much right to use whatever force necessary to protect property and lives.  The criminals who were threatening them were lucky they only got pepper sprayed and a few bruised ribs.  I don't know why you think they'll get overtime pay but again, half of your post is baseless theories, speculation and statements without facts.

Finding someone to blame is a priority for the police force.

Because it's their JOB.  When criminals create havoc and threaten the lives of officers of the law and destroy property, it's the policemen's job to investigate, charge (blame) & arrest the offenders. 

 Anyone who was there knows that it is impossible to fairly blame one person or even a small group of people. How many people were shouting ‘fuck the cops’? A hundred.

Shouting profanity isn't a crime.  So what?  Where your buddies went wrong was threatening the officers and damaging their property and stealing belongings from the car. 

I stood unable to stop the increasing mayhem, provoked by the police. I watched people getting angry as their friends and community members were crying from pain.

What were you doing to stop the increasing mayhem that certainly was not provoked by the police.  Again, they were doing their job.  Your friends and community members wouldn't have been crying from pain had they not rioted in the first place, damaged and stole government property and threatened lives.

 Sheriff Dan Kimball shows himself again to be a divider in our community, promoting repression. He has proven his inability or unwillingness to bridge divides, repeatedly using excessive force on the public. This has left Olympia grumbling and cost the taxpayers in unnecessary police overtime pay. I demand his removal from office by the Olympia City Council.

I completely disagree.  Dan Kimball and his officers acted within the laws and did their jobs. He neither divides our community or promotes repression.  If anybody has proven their inability or unwillingness to bridge divides, it's TESC.  If you read the comments from others at The O and listen to talk radio, people have had it with TESC, it's policies, it's teachings and the shenanigans of the student body.  Most are calling for the removal of TESC completely.  Close it down, stop funding it, etc.  If you truly want to bridge divides between TESC and the community, encourage those who were responsible to come forward.  Don't post propoganda like above encouraging others to hate police and paint your college and student body as little angels who did nothing wrong.  Don't destroy our city, it's name & reputation.

Evergreen has procedures for disciplinary action, counseling services, and a community who can better creatively determine a course of justice. We are willing and capable of handling this ourselves fairly without outside interference. We even have our own competent and intelligent police force. The city cops and courts must be stonewalled.

Obviously TESC's can't provide adequate policing services and neither are they a court of law or seperate entity entitled to a private justice system.  TESC is a member of the community of Olympia which requires it and it's student body to abide by the laws of the state and community, not their own made up rules and justice.

The riot was provoked by the cops and encouraged by the majority watching.

Only TESC believes this statement.  The police did not provoke or encourage the majority.  They were doing what they could to difuse the volitale situation and protect themselves.  I haven't seen or read anywhere where they jumped on bullhorns and encouraged rioting by others either.  This is seriously a delusional statement, one without fact or basis to back it up. 

Sentencing friends to ten years in prison for something we all have accountability for is intolerable. Do not help the police in their retaliation on our community. We can stop them and we must.

Sentencing felony criminals to ten years in prison for something they have accountability for is not only tolerable, it's required.  As a law abiding citizen of Olympia, I encourage others to help the police department seek the arrest and prosecution of these criminals who destroyed property I helped pay for on a college campus I am forced to fund.  We will not allow you to stop the police and you won't.  Justice for all and all for justice.  If you don't like the laws and don't want to live in society by them, move. 

"A point of view is only a view from a point..." ~ Unknown

to step back and convene a meeting with the activist community to reduce tensions and to give this particular instance of mob violence a pass.  

I am not keen about this kind of activity, but I was not there, I do not know what went on.  I do believe that the activist community has significant resentment simmering against the City and various pds at this time.  

Sometimes, the smart move is to step back instead of squaring off.  

I was also present at the concert and although anyone and everyone's prespective is limited to what they themselves see and their surroundings/thoughts/culture etc. I can also say from what I personally witnessed the viloence engaged by the concert goers did not surface until after the initial pepper spraying, which was a result of a crowd chanting 'let him go' as well as an occasional 'fuck the police'. I feel the whole situation could have easily avoided the escalation into what occured if the police instead of pepper spraying the chanters released the detained like they later did, they could have questioned him out of the car, if that is all they attended to do. He was standing next to me inside the CRC when the officer hand cuffed him, and did not fight (as I recall)the arrest. Upon leaving the building five to ten minutes later there was a small crowd watching as a few people sitting in front of the cop car were being pulled by their arms, legs and hair by a few police officers. There were a few officers there before the crowd even began to gather and chant. I am not condoning what happened. Nor am I taking any sides. I am just stating what I observed.

Your one of the few then, the exception. You have money for lawyers and I guess time to sort it out. I would be interested in hearing how much time and money was spent for your little wins, and they are little. The means is not available to everyone. It also helps to be a white male gun advocate. I doubt you would have the same results if you were a black male that walked on that bus or in that police station with a gun.

I can agree with you on that. I love this country, the land and the people.

Well said for the most part although I cannot agree with your sentiment.

I do have to wonder why you think the OLYMPIA CITY COUNCIL can remove the THURSTON COUNTY SHERIFF? 

 

The story so far: In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people mad and been widely regarded as a bad idea. -The Restaurant at the end of the Universe

You won't get very far with them, at least if you continue in your anti cop/government rhetoric.  You are very articulate about it, which is more than most in that vein :-)

Of course I'm the guy walking around openly wearing a gun, so who am I to criticize the viewpoints of others?  :-)

Do you think if you went to a metting of the commissioners and presented a solid case with facts and ideals to back up your opinion you would get heard out?  Or do you think you will get dismissed as a kook? 

 

The story so far: In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people mad and been widely regarded as a bad idea. -The Restaurant at the end of the Universe

You have some solid points, but if the cops hadn't been violent, nothing would have happened. If a mob of people got together in downtown Tacoma and told all the Chinese they had to leave, the police should hold them accountable. Although when that really happened what did the police do and who got prosecuted? It's been a long time but some things haven't changed very much. Police prosecute some mobs and don't prosecute others. There are reasons for that. I will agree with you that the grabbing at a fire arm is very disturbing. I'm not sure that claim is true though. People were very close together. Also people didn't steal weapons from the overturned cop car even though they were inside of it.

...it was still hard to tell who got nasty first. It seemed that there was one or two students beginning to get bold possibly after some nasty exchanges and then the cops opened up with a full on spray of pepper. After that it got frantic with people all of a sudden super angry and throwing stuff. The police had over an hour to settle this before it got ugly and they let him go only after it did, even though for 15 minutes they said they would. I think if they had let it go sooner the crowd would have dispersed. It is tricky.

Poor people are kept out of concert halls, but if they tried to enter I'm sure the guards would change that statistic around real quick. As far as the spray paint, the whole thing took place within 5 minutes walking distance of the dorms and less to the parking lot. People had plenty of time to run home and grab their gear.