Well, earlier this week the encampment at my university was raided by police. It was extremely violent, people were pepper sprayed and multiple students were sent to the emergency room, and multiple students and community members were arrested. And it was really sad, a place that was our home and so community oriented was destroyed.
The raid was early Tuesday morning around 5:30 am and in the middle of a Christian sunrise service. (People were literally sitting around singing Kumbaya until the police showed up.) And it was at a time where people thought they were in the clear for the night, which is annoying. The cops gave a 10 minute dispersal order, but they started spraying around minute 6. From there, they forced the protesters off of the camp, again spraying even while people were backing up and complying, and they clearly coordinated with the school to lock the doors to all of the buildings in the area.
Eventually the protesters made it to the street. The police were not letting aid through, there was a huge perimeter around the area and they were running out of water to wash out their eyes and things like that. Once they came to stop at a park, some of us were able to get through with more water. About then we found out that the arrested people were at the county jail, so a lot of us headed that way to start a rally. We managed to get them out that afternoon, and it's good we did, because the arrested individuals were not given medical attention at all.
It was gross, and it really exposes the brutality of the police. Not to mention that afterwards the president of the university sent out an email that was full of lies and the Regents have been gloating on Twitter. (They have both been criticized pretty heavily which is good to see.) But it is so sad and disappointing, even though I knew it was going to end this way.
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