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Subscribe to RSSUp to 30 people were pepper-sprayed Tuesday by police after students tried to storm a Santa Monica College trustee board meeting in protest over proposed higher course fees. KNBC-TV's Robert Kovacik reports.
Up to 30 people were pepper-sprayed by police after students tried to storm a Santa Monica College trustee board meeting in protest over proposed higher course fees.
A handful of protesters suffered minor injuries as campus police tried to prevent dozens of students chanting, "Let us in, let us in" and "No cuts, no fees, education should be free," from disrupting the meeting during a public comment period, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Capt. Judah Mitchell of the Santa Monica Fire Department told NBC News that up to 30 people had been sprayed, five of whom sought treatment for the effects of the spray and were transported to nearby hospitals.
Priscillia Omon, 21, claimed a police officer fired the spray into the mouths and eyes of people standing arm's length away, NBC Los Angeles reported. She said a family, including a 4 year old, were in the crowd when the officer used the pepper spray.
PhotoBlog: Cops pepper-spray 30 as Santa Monica students protest fees
"They were trying to silence our voices by not allowing students access to this supposedly open forum," Omon told the station.
However, Mitchell said a mother and young child were not among those treated for the effects of pepper spray.
'Students care about their education'
The meeting was slated to discuss a controversial tiered payment program, which has drawn the ire of students and professors claiming that the plan would make in-demand summer classes -- such as English, math, history and biology -- more expensive.
NBC Los Angeles said some courses would rise from $46 per unit to $180 during the summer session, meaning a high-demand 3-unit course would cost about $540.
"The students wanted to be heard and we wanted to be in the room where we could fairly discuss this topic, and be seen by them," said Aura Chavez, 18, who was standing in the back of the crowd when the pepper spray incident happened. "We wanted to let them see how many students care about their education."
Bruce Smith, spokesman for Santa Monica College, said the school had set up an overflow room with an audio visual feed so students could take part in the meeting, but a fairly large group of students showed up in the corridor and demanded to go into the meeting room.
He added that the college and Santa Monica College Police Department will be investigating the incident.
Samantha Tata and Robert Kovacik of NBC Los Angeles and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Who brings a 4-year-old to a protest?
This is the best way to teach her to hate the police..
demanding a free education? these protesters should take an economics course. free to them means someone else pays. me? already paid for my degrees. and there are occupancy limits for safety reasons. not all saying no by persons in authority is arbitrary and capriciious. when told to disperse, it is time to leave. knowing when you've overstayed your welcome means little to no chance of having your primary message heard. after told to leave, the message becomes how stubborn in refusal you can become. mobs accomplish nothing more than chaos, destruction and waste. get a reality check and grow up.
You would think the protesters would start packing mace and start firing back at the damn cops. No wonder why cops get such a bad reputation and no one likes them.
If protesters protested in peace, the police would have no need to use pepper spray.
I agree. Yet another blatant disregard for the Law!! Oh ya, I forgot, once you get away with ILLEGALLY coming into this country, you don't have to obey the law.
Kathy Smart is not so smart. Who do you think pays for all this? Do the dollars come out of thin air? And yes, Europe has a lot of free medical, etc. Guess what - they're broke.
The seriousness isn't the fact of the protest and their actions. What most are missing is the right to protest and how of recent around the country the simplest protest is being met with severe repression. Our rights are more rapidly being taken away without most citizens realizing this serious fact.
I paid my way through college, worked 40hours and also held a full semester for four years. That doesn't bother me as much as how the so called protectors of the community react to our constitutional right to free speech and public gathering.
Cant afford an education? Anyone that cant pay for post secondary education is the same dolt that wishes to remain on thier parents insurance, Live in a home they are unable to pay for, swear to god they needed all 2 years of unemployment compensation, and of course drive up min. wage so as to not have to better yourself to get ahead. Interesting watching the left. Natural selection will prevail but why must the rest of us pay for it?
Delusional rationalizations by someone who has fooled themselves into believing they're self-made.
Too many cops are mindless dogs following thier masters orders. If they only realized they are killing freedom, but that would take brains.
I will take those cops over the "government should pay for everything" crowd that these protesters belong to. They will end up killing freedom by bankrupting this country and putting it into Chinese receivership.
Neal, Amen.
Will-1866747
Too many LIBERALS are mindless dogs following thier masters orders. If they only realized they are killing freedom, but that would take brains.
There, now your comment makes sense!
I believe in the right to peacefully and legally march and protest. However: Why is it that when White people march and protest (as above and the Occupy events), they are pepper-sprayed, arrested and carted off to jail? When Black people march and protest, nothing happens. In fact, consessions are made for them to march and protest as much as they want. Seems to be a double standard here...at a minimum!
You, the protester, get pepper sprayed when you stop being peaceful, stop obeying legitimate order from the police and by your actions generally become a threat to others. There are specific rules to protesting and breaking those rules gets you pepper spray, fire hosed, tazed, etc.
You protest in a public space you should accept the consequences good or bad. Also the parents that take their children to a protest should be charged with child abuse!
I think it would be pure poetic justice if this little photo-op that the liberal media deliberately used to sensationalize this story were to backfire.
Seriously, I would love it if this child and her parent got a nice little visit from Child Protective Services.
I am simply amused, that this even made headlines. The proteters could have had themselves scheduled to address the proceedings, but instead chose to "Storm" the doors. If you have never stood your ground in front of an on rushing crowd, you have no right to criticize the police response. Why would you be in the forfront of a crowd like that with a small child? If she was not in front how did the kid get sprayed? Do people really think education is free? It's like healthcare, someone has to pay for it. Maybe not the one who is getting the service, but someone is paying. Can your grandparents or parent afford $500 a month for their medicare? My mom can't. That is part of national health care, as well as a federal tax on the sale of all commercial property. So if you have a rental home and sell it you would pay a federal sales tax on it. That also is part of the health care bill. When did we change from a work for it attitude to an I'm entitled to it attitude. I used to get angry, now I'm simply amused.
Oh? You think bum rushed would be more dramatic?
So? You used to attempt to manipulate people with agressive displays of anger and now you choose to mock people passive agressively. Neither are healthy.
You choose to muddy the waters by misstating another's realistic expectations. I can imagine that very, very few people actually believe that something costs nothing. Even air at a gas station is now $1.25 in some places. No, people should rightly expect public education, even at the college level to be cost free to those attending college. Not forever in an unlimited fashion, as in being a perpetual student. But, reasonably making training that leads to a living wage (or better) career a possibility. It benefits the employer, the employee and the country. At the moment, college education in state schools is partially subsidized, but that is being incrementally removed. That's what much of the protests are about, from the words of the people protesting, and not your attempt at insertion of words into their mouths.
Democracy or even a representative republic demands an educated electorate. A healthy job market also demands an adequately trained work force. Expecting people to be indentured servants for many years after they complete a bachelors degree is unreasonable - particularly when bachelors degrees don't go as far as they used to.
You will disagree, of course.
On the news the other day I noticed where California has at least 42% of its citizens receiving some form of government assistance, also California lost over 250,000 taxpayers in the last few years. Meaning people are voting with their feet. When are these students going to realize the days of free giveaways are going to doom their state? I really want to see how these same students feel in a few years when the government is taking nearly half of their paycheck to pay for all of the entitlements people seem to think they deserve. How about policing the state's welfare system and illegal immigrants stealing from the legitimate taxpayers. Maybe once all of this is cleaned up the state will not have to raise tuition. Being idealistic is one thing being realistic is another.
Why on earth should education be free--Why do these kids blithely feel that their education should be paid on the backs of taxpayers because that's how free education would work.Why are these kids unable to fathom that they may actually have to get jobs while in school?Does it take away from their social media time or anything.We are seeing the culmination of the heres a trophy generation for just showing up coming to fruition.Lazy,entitled,huge self esteem(unearned)and very few have a work ethic.So many were worried bashing politicians over gas,deficits,wars and so on that the supposed educated elite and people who went to college never saw the elephant in the room which was tuition.No one griped till it affected them.Society teaches college is the be all and end all.Guess what its not.My friends and I chose a field--electrical to go in.We are all in out 50s( I am 52 and have been retired for 5 years and loving life) and all are retired and at young ages we went solo due to skills we learned.Maybe society needs to tout trades as much as college.Very few degrees nowadays pay even close what a good journeyman electrician or plumber makes.If kids today had work ethics,common sense,mechanically inclined and can work in the elements--Their future would be assured much quicker but vast majority posses none of those qualities.Just a shame.No one owes you people anything.Get off your asses and earn it like every one else did even though thats an alien concept to you brilliant college minds lol
"......education should be FREE"!!!!???? Is it free in your country? If so, go back there. Please!!
Why the hell should these freeloaders get college "education" free? Our taxes already pay for grades 1-12. After that PAY YOUR OWN WAY! The taxpayer shouldn't have to fund your lifelong pursuit of a degree in why grass grows when it is watered.
These whiners should be grateful that the police only used pepper spray, they could have sprayed the crowd of freeloading lib thugs with bullets.
Grants! Student Loans! Work-Study programs! Scholarships! I feel your pain. 2004 local community college $470 a semester. 2008 $900 a semester. 2012 $1050 semester. You do what you have to do to further your education. It's unfortunately that the law had to be called and that children suffered. Children should not be at ADULT PROTESTS... Any harm that comes to them, is the blame of the PARENT!!!!!!!!
Nordek: I would LOVE to see the result of YOU firing pepper spray at police. Or are you merely an armchair anarchist?
Why would a parent allow their child to be an area that pepper spray was being used? Some people should not be parents because you can't fix stupid.
$46/credit.....$180/credit? That's nothing. The education is already basically free. Most state universitys' per credit cost is something around $500-700/credit. Thousands of dollars for that single three credit course. Crybabies.
Here we go again.... Those quoting the constitution and bill of rights appear to be so onesided. The freedom of the press is also quilty of bias. First of all when these rights were drawn up I am sure those people never imagined the abuse their words would indure. These people repeating Freedom of speech and freedom of the press have most likely never never exersized the responsibility that goes with it. It is persisly these phenatics that are going to make it imposible for the responsible folks that rely on these rights. for the truth and unbiased facts. Why would any saine person bring children to a protest another reference to poor judgement. Why would the news media post that picture with a child victim. Why infringe on some peoples rights just to bully others. Learn how to be civil you are only degrading yourself to behave like a mob.
"exersized , persisly , phenatics , saine , imposible" ?
It isn't your terrible spelling that bores me the most,
it's the fact that you're too lazy to use the "spell-check"
or even care; please grow a brain [and a spine] soon.
Well, now that you've patted yourself on the back and made yourself feel superior by merely pointing out spelling errors, why don't you actually address the subject of MEKB's post?
You're a tart, a libertine and a hooker; you smell and probably are writing
your posts on a computer in the prison library where you're incarcerated.
The Sarah Apawling tactic of hauling your children out and then self-righteously claiming to be an abused victim has already been attempted, several times, unsuccessfully.
what kind of stupid parents would take there kids to a riot. that is poor parenting! then to use them as a prop for sympathy is even worse!
CPS needs to get involved. you dont take your kids to get sprayed. this lady needs to vote for someone other than oboma to fix this. things are only going to get worse as long as he is the president.
very sad...
The child was intended as a human shield...I know other cowards that have done that.
I would expect nothing less from you Bob, excellent observation. Could you report further on what happened since you were obviously there based on your comment.
Firstly, enough with the pepper spray! It is being over used!
Secondly, while I wholeheartedly support the right to protest, I believe it is wrong to take small children to such events. The nature of a protest is ripe for violence and I don't think it is safe for children..... OR pets. Please use some common sense.
SRG
I agree. They need to go back to using lead.....
That's what those Commie-Hippies deserve [and maybe a billy club to the head too]