Which of these three videos do you find most upsetting?

15 Comments

1. Thom Elliott
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 10:22 am | Permalink

   Wow, the Politichicks segment (frankly I didn’t have the heart to watch the other videos) is a goldmine of unbelievable depth for analysis. Just dipping my toe into it I’d have to start with Frau Jackson’s alleged quotation from her father, that “we’re lucky most Muslims are lukewarm or we’d all be dead”. This is an astonishing claim. The religious way of life that completely dominates the cultures and lives of (now) a billionish humans, for hundreds of years, are just too half hearted in their beliefs? and that is sole reason why they haven’t murdered every man woman and child on earth who doesn’t think like they do? They still stone women to death for adultery for being raped, does this sound like the behaviour of people who don’t believe what their diety says about adultry?

2. Josh
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 11:38 am | Permalink

   the third one’s satire, right?

   right?

   at least it’s got a really negative youtube rating.

   that first one sucks. they could have just cuffed him. was he trespassing or something?

   that image of dozens of cops in riot gear marching down a street is too classic an image to be real. it’s like we’re in the world’s most stereotypical dystopian novel. don’t they realize that it’s just laughable? how do they take themselves seriously?

3. Hillary
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 11:39 am | Permalink

   Pretty sure that the Politichicks segment is a put on. Victoria Jackson is a funny comedian, but not the best actress.

4. Edward
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 3:48 pm | Permalink

   Here’s a fourth to consider. Peaceful kids getting pepper sprayed for sitting on a sidewalk.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnR7xET7Uo

5. Christine M
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 7:17 pm | Permalink

   I think Victoria Jackson is just an idiot who is spreading her ignorance all around now. It’s sad. Let’s all sit around and talk about how all muslim’s are violent and sell it as conservative politics.

6. K2
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 9:59 pm | Permalink

   A U.C. Davis faculty member writes to the Chancellor in response to the video linked to above by Edward.

   18 November 2011

   Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

   Linda P.B. Katehi,

   I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.

   You are not.

   I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:

   1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today

   2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality

   3) to demand your immediate resignation

   Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.

   What happened next?

   Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

   What happened next?

   Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

   This is what happened. You are responsible for it.

   You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.

   One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.

   You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.

   On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”

   I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”

   I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.

   Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.

   I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.

   Sincerely,

   Nathan Brown
   Assistant Professor
   Department of English
   Program in Critical Theory
   University of California at Davis

7. Mark
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 10:32 pm | Permalink

   I think that Victoria Jackson has been at it too long for it to be fake. She may just be doing it for the money. My sense, though, is that it’s legitimate.

   I’m going to write a letter to Marc Maron now and ask for him to interview her.

8. j
   Posted November 19, 2011 at 11:38 pm | Permalink

   Poe’s law:
   “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.”
   http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe%27s_Law
   or
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

9. Portland Dave
   Posted November 20, 2011 at 12:17 am | Permalink

   Here’s a ray of hope from Portland. On Thursday riot police clashed with largely peaceful protesters. And the chief of police added fuel to the fire bu claiming that a rape victim had to wait 3 hrs to get help because the police had to deal with OWS.

   Today the police released this statement:

   http://www.portlandonline.com/police/pbnotify.cfm?action=ViewContent&content_id=2621

10. JC
    Posted November 20, 2011 at 11:59 am | Permalink

    Chancellor Katehi’s walk is one of the most moving pieces of film I’ve witnessed.

11. Bob
    Posted November 20, 2011 at 6:54 pm | Permalink

    I don’t think Victoria Jackson is doing any kind of satire. I also don’t recall a single example of her ever being funny or a good actress.

12. Eel
    Posted November 21, 2011 at 9:04 am | Permalink

    I just occurred to me that, somewhere in this great nation of ours, at this very moment, a proud Tea Partier is masturbating over a photo of Victoria Jackson. I feel like I’m going to vomit.

13. Robert
    Posted November 21, 2011 at 11:21 am | Permalink

    It’s really sad, and a little frightening, that you folks can’t tell the PolitiChicks thing is a spoof. It says a lot about your powers of observation and ability for critical analysis. It’s no wonder you’re all suckered by every political trick in the book.

14. K2
    Posted November 21, 2011 at 1:07 pm | Permalink

    You can argue, I suppose, that Victoria Jackson is playing a character, and the whole thing is a joke, but, if that were the case, I doubt the others would have agreed to play along. From what I can tell, having read over their resumes, they’re all sincere. As much as I would like to, I don’t see how this could be a put-on.

15. Meta
    Posted December 27, 2011 at 10:06 pm | Permalink

    From the Huffington Post:

    Former “Saturday Night Live” actress Victoria Jackson, working on confidential information she as a web talk show host has special clearance to obtain, has claimed that the United States is being overtaken by radical Muslims bent on bringing the nation under Sharia law.

    “I just went to a briefing in Washington DC, across the street from the Capitol, at the Longworth building at 8:30 am two days ago and it changed my life,” Jackson said last week on her web show, “Politichicks.” “For six hours, I saw pictures and names and dates and facts and Islamic law books and Korans, Surahs for six hours and they proved to me… that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our highest positions in government and this is serious.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/victoria-jackson-muslim-brotherhood-fbi_n_1170790.html