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

Tue Jan 24 12:24:45 PST 2012

Mine too comrades! 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 24, 2012, at 12:23 PM, David Campos <dcamp009 at ucr.edu> wrote:

> 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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
>> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
>> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
>> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
>> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements