On Margo Bennett, “Linked Arms,” and Police Violence at the University of California
There’s been a lot of attention paid to a comment that Captain Margo Bennett of the University of California Police Department gave to a local newspaper late last week. “The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence,” she said of the Berkeley protesters who were beaten by police on Wednesday. “Linking arms in a human chain when ordered to step aside is not a nonviolent protest.”
This is, of course, ridiculous, and so it’s been widely ridiculed. Bennett has been the subject of mockery and outrage all weekend. But if we’re going to understand what’s happening at Berkeley right now, it’s important to see Bennett’s statement in context.
Three important pieces of that context follow.
First, Bennett’s statement reflects official UC Berkeley policy. Her quote, in fact, was a close paraphrase of
