That reminds me...
Rob Weir tells us to mind our manners.
I actually blew a conf proceedings deadline, and the extension, for a review paper for the first time this year. I had a good excuse, but still...
Freedom!
Apparently universities in Pennsylvania don't actually in reality discriminate against students based on their political views. Duh.
Just in case there is anyone who hasn't seen the UCLA taser video.
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Maybe I'm getting conservative in my old age, but I actually sympathise with the cops. What exactly were they supposed to do? Their job was to escort him from the building
and he wouldn't go. It might be worth noting that he was initially asked to leave by library staff before the cops were called, so they came in expecting resistance.
Or maybe I'm just tired of students whining about their midterm grades!
Well, he was supposed to leave. And I gather that he did decide to leave after he realised
they seriously wanted him to leave.
But tasering him seems an overreaction, at least given the evidence on the video. There
were many of them, he was unarmed, and did not appear to threaten violence.
Tasering him many times is disproportionate, to say the least.
Campus cops should expect students to have attitude and be arrogant about their rights,
they should be able to deal with it nicely.
'Course when I was an undergrad the campus cops were all retired Rhodesian mercenaries,
made for an interesting relationship. Nice guys, but one time I was out late, dressed in
all black (it was an all black kinda decade) and I decided to surprise a pair on patrol.
Not such a good idea, fortunately one of them knew me.
Where the hell did you study, Steinn?
"If this was a real gun you'd both be dead! Urrrgh.."
Sussex, towards the end of its hayday as liberal bastion (I was there for the impeachment of the student union executive, the egging of a conservative MP, the last occupation of MAPS [someone eventually explained to the SWS crowd that there was no phone exchange anymore and occupying the physics labs did not trouble the admin at all, but that it did annoy the third years doing their final labs, including these lovely lads from the rugby team...]) and the Great Rent Strike - which ended ignomiously with the Great Everybody Pay Their Rent All at Once so We Won't Get Evicted, Hah That Will Show Them).
I was a bar licensee for a couple of years, and one night after closing up late in Park Village (allegedly one of the founding sited at CAMRA) I was heading back up slope and came upon Pete the Rhodesian and one of the younger guards and actually got close enough to them to tap them on the back.
Fortunately Pete was a good friend at that point - it was imperative that security and the bar staff be on good terms.
I don't know why the security were Rhodesian ex-army types, but essentially all of them were when I arrived, although younger locals (ex-cops and army types) were being hired while I was there. Some great stories over late night pints.
I suspect some senior staffer had a soft spot for them and they got a friend-of-a-friend hiring chain going in the 70s.
Good security actually, nothing students did could bother them.
Only hint of trouble I recall was when Sussex initiated a fellowship scheme for senior ANC staff to come take master's degrees. The first fellow rubbed a couple of the security guards the wrong way, some muttering, but nothing actually happened.