You know, I may not have liked the New Left, but at least they protested things that were rational. Being opposed to the Vietnam War and promoting workers rights is something typical in left wing politics. We may not like it, but it’s not abjectly insane. Saying that cops are rapists—and part of the oppressive capitalist system—is where the left stands today. On May 12, hundreds of students at Portland State University staged a “die-in” to push their message that their campus police should be disarmed (via Campus Reform):
Hundreds of students at Portland State University shut down traffic Tuesday while staging a die-in to protest the school’s armed public safety officers.“So, I do believe I have mentioned the die-in before—what that entails is a lot of us who are abused so to say…we’re going to be laying down in the street outside so [the president] can see us so he knows what the Board of Trustees does to us, which is it kills us,” one protester explained.
A video published by Vidmax shows nearly 200 students proceeding to lay down in the middle of traffic causing a backup in both directions.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” protesters shouted.
“Disarm PSU! Disarm PSU!” they continued.
The shutdown, though, was only the latest incident in Disarm PSU’s long history of protests dating back to 2014, when the group was formed in response to a Board of Trustees vote that brought armed campus police to campus.
[…]
“The police are a tool of capitalism to control people in the state they are—staying in slavery, staying in poverty wages, staying in ridiculous working conditions,” one protester exclaimed at a rally after the die-in.
“We are fighting against racism, we are fighting against capitalism, and we are fighting against patriarchy,” another protester neatly summarized.
One student, in the course of haranguing PSU Public Safety, criticized officers for their alleged mishandling of sexual assault cases, and even accused them of being rapists.
“Police are notorious for mishandling sexual assault cases. We all know that. They are often also rapists themselves,” she said to cheers from her fellow students.
Dickinson College—my alma mater—had armed police. I didn’t feel oppressed. They didn’t rape people, and they certainly didn’t deport people. How is disarming the campus police going to be effective in combating patriarchy? They’re campus police officers. It’s not like their jurisdiction is huge. Is this because disarming police is an abjectly stupid campaign? Is it because they need to keep the goals about knee-high because there’s already a slim chance this campaign will succeed? I think the answer is yes to both. Portland State university police are tools of an oppressive capitalist system—give me a break, folks. Oh, and the Board of Trustees aren’t going to revisit their decision anytime soon, so you guys totally failed; get back to class.
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