Monday, January 24, 2011

U of O alumni is disgusted

Commentary: Inviting Angela Davis to campus an abomination
Can it really be so, Angela Davis on University-funded invitation, came to campus this past week, for pay to "preach" on rights abuses and moral and ethical and civil compasses?

Her publicity states: "She worked with prisoners." Here's how:

Angela Davis supplied guns to friends in 1970 that took over the Marin County, Calif., courtroom of almost retired 65-year-old Judge Harold Haley, duct-taped a cut-down, sawed-off double-barrel shotgun to his neck like a tie and terrorized him like that for several hours. When a rescue was desperately attempted, they cut short his retirement plans but ended his suffering by pulling the trigger and literally blowing his head off with both barrels.

Today, Angela Davis is now an honored guest of the University of Oregon.

How about the "prisoner work" she did do prison time for — trying to smuggle a handgun into Folsom Prison buried in her then beehive-styled hairdo?

With a resume like that I'm just shocked she wasn't there to help launch Barrack Obama's political career.

I'm glad to see University Alumni expressing outrage at the school helping a criminal profit from her crimes.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Brave Sir Robin, Brave Sir Robin, when danger reared its ugly head he bravely turned his tail and fled..."

Kaelri said...

You're right. Once you commit a crime, you're a criminal forever, no matter what sentence you receive. We should never allow criminals to rehabilitate, make amends, or contribute anything with the rest of their lives. Criminals should be condemned, shunned and harassed until the day they die.

(For the sake of argument, I'm ignoring the fact that Davis was acquitted on all charges.)

Honestly, Daniel. I believe that your activism is sincere and principled, regardless of whether I agree with it. But on this issue, you can't expect people to ignore your hypocrisy. You've been on the other side of that scenario, and if your community had taken the attitude that you're taking against this woman, you would have no home, no family, no job, and no readers.

I know you don't often respond to comments, but I'm honestly interested to hear your answer to this question: if we shouldn't listen to Angela Davis, why should we listen to you?

Anonymous said...

I was going to make a comment about pots and kettles, but as usual, Kaelri rises above us all and simply asks the obvious question.

DAVE01 said...

Kaelri, how many deaths did Daniel cause?

It looks like Daniel smartened up. Did Angela smarten up after her acquittal?

Kaelri said...

> Kaelri, how many deaths did Daniel cause?

That is irrelevant to my question.

> It looks like Daniel smartened up. Did Angela smarten up after her acquittal?

Assuming she hasn't committed a crime since her acquittal, which there is no reason to believe happened, the answer is obviously 'yes.'

innominatus said...

OJ was acquitted, too. Jus' sayin'.

Kaelri said...

That's why I said I'd ignore the implications of the acquittal for the sake of argument. My question pertains equally to the convicted and the absolved.

LW said...

I'd be curious to know what Miglavs thinks of the very profitable career Oliver North has made for himself. The reason I have to ask, of course, is because I do not believe Miglavs has ever written a single word about it. And if I'm right about that, I guess I also have to ask: Why not?

DAVE01 said...

Kaelri, you might want to read the article.

Kaelri said...

I did.

DAVE01 said...

Kaelri , she continued committing crimes with guns after her acquittal.

Kaelri said...

No, she didn't. The article got the chronology wrong on that point. Davis was accused of participating in an attempted prison break, but that took place before her acquittal and release in June of 1972.

[Source]

Anonymous said...

Now you've done it Kaeli. He's going to run from this thread and start another like nothing ever happened.

Daniel said...

"if we shouldn't listen to Angela Davis, why should we listen to you?"

Because I now condemn the bad choices that I used to make rather than continuing to defend people who make those same bad choices.

This woman defended Tookie. She hasn't come around and used her experiences as a lesson to do good, rather she continues to encourage people to do bad.

I'm not asking for taxpayer dollars to fund my speech. I'm a big believer in second chances but you can also pick and choose based on what people did with their first chance.

People can and should suffer continuing and appropriate consequences for bad choices they make. Social stigma, can't work certain jobs, etc. These don't apply to all crimes or bad choices.

A U of O alumni questions whether this woman has the appropriate pedigree to lecture on her "working with prisoners" when her worked consisted of helping them commit murder. I happen to agree with the guy in this case.

Kaelri said...

Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate your response.

Anonymous said...

this thread is proof liberals/progressives can never do anything wrong.

just ask Kaelri.

Good day.

Anonymous said...

I never thought I'd say this to anyone at this blog, but why don't you follow the example of Kaelri and Miglavs ... and try being polite?

DAVE01 said...

Kaelri, if the chronology of the paper is wrong, then I was wrong. That is the problem with media these days, they start reporting on something and fuck it all up. I should have verified it with another source; but, I was too busy.

I still have a problem if she committed two crimes with guns. She should have realized that the first instance was wrong. What type of life has she lived since then? I don't care to research it.

DAVE01 said...

ANON 5:04 PM
Are you talking about me? Why do you hide behind an anonymous? Typical idiot, calling someone out and hiding behind an anonymous. Why don't you just fuck off and get back in your mother's basement.

Kaelri said...

So much for "politeness," I guess. :-/

LW said...

Miglavs makes it sound like Davis continued to make the "same bad choices" that she'd made nearly 40 years ago, which is obviously false. He also implies that she "defended" what Tookie was accused of doing, which also is false; while in prison, Tookie had become outspoken in his condemnation of gangs and violence and in fact had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; Davis was opposed to his execution -- as thousands of others were, I might add.

Miglavs won't respond to this, of course, but I can't rule out the possibility that Dave will spin this into the charge that I'm a Crip who supports blowing judge's heads off with shotguns.

DAVE01 said...

Lw, did you see the pictures of his victims? It wasn't very pretty. As for the Nobel Peace Prize, didn't Obama get one before he did squat? Hell, the only thing he had done is spend money. That pretty makes the Nobel worthless besides the cash prize. Anybody can nominate anybody. In fact, I nominate you for the Nobel.

Kaelri, I don't hide behind an anonymous handle as that idiot does. Why should I be civil when somebody is giving me shit and won't put a name or handle to their posts? He/she/it is a coward. I call it like I see it.

LW said...

Dave, no I didn't. I'm really not in the habit of Googling for photos of corpses and murder victims online.

You miss my point, as you nearly always do. He wasn't nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for murdering four cops. He was nominated for the significant body of work he did after he had been imprisoned for it -- and if you know anything about the case, you know that he maintained his innocence until the end, even though admiting guilt and remorse probably would have won him clemency from Gov. Schwarzneggar.

I don't know enough about the case, frankly, to know if there was reasonable doubt about his guilt or innocence, although it is indisputable that innocent people in this country are arrested, convicted, imprisoned and even executed, so we really can't rule out that he was telling the truth.

My only point was to note that Davis was not in ANY way defending what he did, or what he was accused of doing. Hers was a principled opposition to the death penalty.

Have you found any photographs of the thousands of corpses resulting from gunshot wounds inflicted by weapons that Oliver North illegally put in the hands of the Contra "freedom fighters" in the 1980s? I'm guessing that they're not very pretty, either.

DAVE01 said...

I remember seeing the pictures when his execution was getting close. One of his victims had a shotgun blast to the face. He killed a few people for a few hundred bucks. Don't forget he was the co-founder of the crips. There have been a lot of innocents deaths and lives destroyed because of him. He was not such a good guy as he has been portrayed in the media. He did a lot of evil.

As I mentioned previously, the Nobel is crap. I still nominate you. Now you can say you have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Let me know where I send the paperwork for you nomination.

LW said...

Dave: One more time:

MY POINT was to note that Davis was NOT defending the crime, she was opposing a man's execution.

The other primary point was that Daniel's insinuation that she was making the "same bad choices" was false. Untrue. A lie. Bullshit. Davis has not been accused of any crime in decades; she's become a scholar and writer.

THOSE are my points, not to debate the relative merits of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Kaelri said...

> I don't hide behind an anonymous handle as that idiot does.

Well, yes, you do. The only difference is that you use the same anonymous handle from post to post. But I don't know who "DAVE01" is; I don't have any reason to believe that David is even your real name. You're not exposing yourself to anything more, or displaying any greater courage or integrity, than those who go by "Anonymous." I would take that into consideration before casting stones.

> Why should I be civil when somebody is giving me shit...

If not for civility's sake, then because a comment like "fuck off and get back in your mother's basement" doesn't convince anybody of anything, and is therefore wasted breath.