Were they or weren't they? That is the question. I mentioned about Berkeley and history earlier. BOTH sides seem to know that history it seems. I went on a little trip of nostalgia last night, recalling how a person in the name of James Rector is no longer with us. His crime? Basically being in Berkeley. Unarmed, shot dead by the county Sheriff department. Also we now have a blind man named Alan Blanchard, shot in the face by the same law enforcement agency in the same incident. Both men were sitting on a rooftop in May 1969 watching the mayhem below. Then there were the several dozens (128 is the number seen in the clinics, we can surmise many more didn't go for fear of arrest) seen at local hospitals for OO buckshot wounds in their backs, the same buckshot used by the Sheriffs department that day. What was their crime? All we know is that most of them were shot in the back. We also know that we have the hero Ronnie Reagan and his henchman Ed Meese to thank for the over-reaction of law enforcement that day. We also know that the Sheriff did admit that did admit that some of his deputies (many of whom were Vietnam War veterans) had been overly aggressive in their pursuit of the protesters, "as though they were Viet Cong."
Seems we have that same mentality on the UCPD today in their being overly aggressive. The human chain was there to separate the crowd from the cops. Want to break it up? Then arrest them, don't club them and beat them. Or shoot them in the back with shotguns, repeating history.