[CW-Grad] CWPA students react to UC Regents Protest

[David Campos]

Please add my name to the letter.

Instead of marching around the students to take their positions, the
officers marched directly through the crowd as if they wanted to
incite violence. I was there, afraid, as I saw them using their batons
to push students out of the way. One Sheriff, the name tag read
Martinez, stabbed one student in the chest with his baton just to get
him out of the way. I was further terrified when, six to seven feet
away from me, the police started firing paint balls. At that moment I
ran away unsure what other methods they were willing to employ. I do
not believe these tactics were necessary.

Add my name to the letter,

David Campos

On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Joe Powers <Joe.Powers at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Sounds like a movie about Kent State . . .
>
> bottom line it is not okay . . .
>
> you have my full support . . .
>
> good letter . . .
>
> all for now . . .
>
> Joe Powers
>
> Personal sites:
> http://web.mac.com/codypowers/joepowers
> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-powers/12/73a/392
>
> Cody Powers Films:  http://www.codypowersfilms.com/
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rachelle Cruz
> To: Mfa Listserve
> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 9:37 PM
> Subject: [CW-Grad] CWPA students react to UC Regents Protest
>
> Dear CWPA students, alumni, faculty and staff,
>
> Andrea Gutierrez and I have drafted a letter to Chancellor White in response
> to last Thursday's UC Regents Meeting and protest on campus.
>
> We would love your feedback, support, signature, and/or anything else to
> strengthen our voice and concerns regarding police presence and brutality at
> UCR, students' rights to assemble, and the Occupy Movement on campus.
>
> The letter is both attached to this email and pasted below.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best,
> Rachelle Cruz
> Andrea Gutierrez
>
> ***
>
> January 22, 2012
>
> Dear Chancellor White,
>
> As graduate students and teaching assistants in the MFA Program for Creative
> Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, we are deeply disappointed and
> ashamed by the actions taken by the University this past Thursday.
>
> Many of us participated in the campus-wide action of students across the UC
> system, faculty and staff outside of the HUB, while the UC Regents continued
> their meeting in privacy.  This day-long action was indeed an expression of
> outrage over rising tuition and depreciating quality of education.  It was
> also a celebration of community and solidarity.
>
> We witnessed our students chanting or engaging in discussion about the grim
> future of UC Riverside and their disappearing classes; for many of them,
> this was their first political protest.  One of our students, a mother of
> two, brought her three-year-old daughter.  This student lamented forgetting
> to dress her daughter in her Highlander shirt.  She wanted her daughter to
> bear witness to the fight for her future education.
>
> We witnessed UCR students and community members dressed in black bearing
> colorful, lifesize banners depicting the book covers of liberatory texts.
>   These books envision equality and freedom and question privilege and
> cultural hegemony, such as Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, bell
> hooks’ Feminism is for Everyone, Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy for the Oppressed,
> among others.  The book bloc remained at the front of the line, facing the
> staggering number of riot police at the HUB exit and protecting protesters
> from police violence.  We couldn’t help but recognize the clear metaphor in
> all of this.
>
> Despite what your Friday Letter states, there were more than just a “few”
> individuals at this action.  We witnessed hundreds of students, faculty, and
> staff who merely wanted to engage in an open discussion with the UC Regents.
>  As police helicopters circled above us, we witnessed our students (your
> students) pushed, shoved and humiliated by riot police because of this
> desire to converse and be heard by the Regents.  We witnessed members of our
> community shot by riot police with pellet guns; one young man was knocked to
> the ground by the shock and force of the pellets.  We witnessed sheer
> violence by your “co-workers,” the police who treated your students like the
> Asian Citrus Psyllids plaguing the orange groves at UCR and throughout
> Southern California.
>
> The “few individuals” who peacefully disrupted the UC Regents Meeting
> represents more than a handful of marginal opinions.  These “few
> individuals” exercised an essential act of civil disobedience and represent
> many of us in the UC Riverside and UC community who are fed up with business
> as usual.
>
> We urge you to provide opportunities for students to engage in dialogue
> about last Thursday’s events and the implications behind police presence as
> the University’s response to student assembly and protest.  We urge you to
> take responsibility for putting your students’ safety on the line.  We urge
> you to ensure their safety and right to express their discontent with the UC
> system by supporting future student actions.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Students of the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Writing for the
> Performing Arts
>
> Rachelle Cruz
> Andrea Gutierrez
>
> *****
> Rachelle Cruz,
> Host of "The Blood-Jet Writing Hour" Radio Show
> www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
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> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>
>
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