MY ALMA MATER
I see that the school where I earned my degree, the University of Florida, has made international headlines. During a Q&A with Senator John Kerry a student rambled on at length with his question. The student’s microphone was cut off and then university police moved in. The student was arrested and tasered.
Now as I recall when I was an undergrad, it was unsafe for a young woman to be pretty much anywhere on the streets after dark. It was unsafe for a young woman to be in fraternity house during parties for that matter (except ATO, they at least kept their hands off the girls). Occasionally it was unsafe for a young woman to be in her home. Gainesville was just about a rapist’s dream.
But times move forward and UPD has at least declared war on long-winded bores. Had that been the case in my day, about 9 out of 10 classes would have ended up with the prof being tasered. As for undergrads with stupid questions, well, it would not have been pretty.
I look forward to the day when UPD can end every visiting speaker’s lecture with tear gas and a baton charge. Why stop there? I’m sure Kerry was twice as boring as the presumptuous fool who dared think that questions at UF didn’t involve electric shocks. Let’s just have the police command all “Free Speech Zones”. “Free” as in savage, “speech” as in beating.
So for all you folks palnning to send your kids to UF, look forward to your daughters being raped by thugs and your sons being tortured by the police.
Go Gators!
I see that the school where I earned my degree, the University of Florida, has made international headlines. During a Q&A with Senator John Kerry a student rambled on at length with his question. The student’s microphone was cut off and then university police moved in. The student was arrested and tasered.
Now as I recall when I was an undergrad, it was unsafe for a young woman to be pretty much anywhere on the streets after dark. It was unsafe for a young woman to be in fraternity house during parties for that matter (except ATO, they at least kept their hands off the girls). Occasionally it was unsafe for a young woman to be in her home. Gainesville was just about a rapist’s dream.
But times move forward and UPD has at least declared war on long-winded bores. Had that been the case in my day, about 9 out of 10 classes would have ended up with the prof being tasered. As for undergrads with stupid questions, well, it would not have been pretty.
I look forward to the day when UPD can end every visiting speaker’s lecture with tear gas and a baton charge. Why stop there? I’m sure Kerry was twice as boring as the presumptuous fool who dared think that questions at UF didn’t involve electric shocks. Let’s just have the police command all “Free Speech Zones”. “Free” as in savage, “speech” as in beating.
So for all you folks palnning to send your kids to UF, look forward to your daughters being raped by thugs and your sons being tortured by the police.
Go Gators!
-Dave Hardy
2 comments:
I've never been a fan of Florida. Although I know a few rabid fans. Give me a small rural college every time. Not that bad things can't happen there too,.
I like Gainesville in many ways. I liked being at UF for that matter. But seeing a trivial tiff over a microphone extended to delibrate sadism sickens me.
UPD has a lot of defenders who say that if you don't follow a cop's orders you should expect pain. Essentially this argument says the only thing that matters in dealing with the police is immediate and unconditional compliance under all circumstances on pain of torture or death (more than a few people, armed or not, have been shot by Austin police). At the same time, the rest of us are admonished to respect and glorify policemen. So their loyalty is to power and our loyalty is to them. I sense a contradiction.
Just how much are we to loosen our standards of behavior for police? It’s very easy to justify the argument that they have to treat every encounter as a life or death battle. So police should expect us to fear them because they are constantly hyped up for maximum violence. At what point do the police become indistinguishable from the criminals?
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