Maximilian Probstel 

ASA 002 A03 

In this week’s reading, the article that struck me the most was the article “Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the Way for Campus Activism”, since it was alluding to topics that are still very alive in today’s campuses, especially at UC Davis. The article written by Robby Cohen is about the peaceful activist movement at UC Berkeley by the students in the 1960s. It all starts when Jack Weinberg, a former Berkeley student, refused to go with campus police after his tabling for Free Speech Movements, which at the time, Berkeley strictly forbid. Jack Weinberg actions were not as significant, but it sent out a message to students to protest in solidarity against the University's strict oppressive laws.

This incident was interesting to read about because the students of UC Davis experienced the same kind of conflict in 2012 as the students of Berkeley in the fall of 1964. Berkeley students after a long and intense peaceful protest of sitting down, whilst barricading the passage for campus police to arrest Jack Weinberg came out victorious. The campus police could not infiltrate the 5,000 protestors and the Berkeley university decided to abolish its strict oppressive laws concerning free speech at the university. Davis students on the other hand were not as victorious. Whilst UC Davis university students during an occupy movement sat down as a protest thus blocking police once again, these protestors faced extreme and violent pepper spray use by the police. The article was therefore so interesting because it shows the different ways universities deal with protests. Berkeley students of 1964 were able to protest without police brutality whereas students of Davis got pepper sprayed. This leads me to the question of “how far will police brutality go to stop future protests, especially since universities now-a-days have become very open?”.

I decided to compare a picture of the Berkeley Free Speech movement to a picture of the Davis pepper spray incident.  

Sources: 

          Cohen, R. "Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism." OAH Magazine of History1.1 (1985): 16-18. Web.

          Cox, John Woodrow. "Berkeley gave birth to the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s. Now, conservatives are demanding it include them." The Washington Post. WP Company, 20 Apr. 2017. Web. 14 May 2017.

          LUKIANOFF , GREG , and JONATHAN HAIDT. "The Coddling of the American Mind." The Atlantic(September 2015 ): n. pag. Web. 14 May 2017.

         "UC Davis pepper spray incident." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 May 2017. Web. 14 May 2017.