There were a couple of incidents worth remembering. In the morning someone somehow got twigged that somebody was an undercover cop, asked him, and as the law requires when they are asked point-blank, he admitted it, and a bunch of people surrounded him and hassled him till he left in disgust. Not that there were any secrets -- it was all quite open. But nobody likes being spied on. I figured the cops could find out all they needed to know by sending a guy in uniform to chat in a friendly way. And I do believe there were questions that they legitimately could desire an answer to: how many do you think are coming? How long? Will anybody be moving? Is this an informational picket line or one you are expecting to be honored? Are there a lot of people here who are not aligned with your program and don't know the drill? -- since the primary job of the traffic cop, and that's who we had, is to insure traffic safety, these are legitimate questions.
Some time after the students took the intersection and the cops barricaded Empire Grade, Bay Avenue, and High Street (the three streets that meet at the main entrance), some of the students went on a walk up Empire Grade to the other entrance, and along the way they picked up the police barricade and carried it with them to the other entrance. Then they decided to walk back, still carrying the police barricade, and when they came back they found another, bigger barricade, which they also picked up and carried back to the main entrance with them. I heard about this during my second trip to the picket line.
While I was standing there, I saw the AFSCME professional organizers returning the barricades to the cops.
I don't know what's next. Talks are stalled, but this was only a warning shot and they're going back to work tomorrow. I think the nice fellow, who was out there for six hours, may have a touch of too much sun: he's exhausted and warm to the touch.
The students are organizing "tent classes" for a week, where they will have their classes down at the entrance (how can they? There are fifteen thousand of them, and the vacant lot at the entrance is not nearly that big!). I don't know how that's going to play out.
Anyway, it's the most interesting thing that's happened around here in a long time. The University is the single biggest employer in the county(or second biggest after the county, I forget). So it's kind of a big deal.
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timeasmymeasure
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There were a couple of incidents worth remembering. In the morning someone somehow got twigged that somebody was an undercover cop, asked him, and as the law requires when they are asked point-blank, he admitted it, and a bunch of people surrounded him and hassled him till he left in disgust. Not that there were any secrets -- it was all quite open. But nobody likes being spied on. I figured the cops could find out all they needed to know by sending a guy in uniform to chat in a friendly way. And I do believe there were questions that they legitimately could desire an answer to: how many do you think are coming? How long? Will anybody be moving? Is this an informational picket line or one you are expecting to be honored? Are there a lot of people here who are not aligned with your program and don't know the drill? -- since the primary job of the traffic cop, and that's who we had, is to insure traffic safety, these are legitimate questions.
Some time after the students took the intersection and the cops barricaded Empire Grade, Bay Avenue, and High Street (the three streets that meet at the main entrance), some of the students went on a walk up Empire Grade to the other entrance, and along the way they picked up the police barricade and carried it with them to the other entrance. Then they decided to walk back, still carrying the police barricade, and when they came back they found another, bigger barricade, which they also picked up and carried back to the main entrance with them. I heard about this during my second trip to the picket line.
While I was standing there, I saw the AFSCME professional organizers returning the barricades to the cops.
I don't know what's next. Talks are stalled, but this was only a warning shot and they're going back to work tomorrow. I think the nice fellow, who was out there for six hours, may have a touch of too much sun: he's exhausted and warm to the touch.
The students are organizing "tent classes" for a week, where they will have their classes down at the entrance (how can they? There are fifteen thousand of them, and the vacant lot at the entrance is not nearly that big!). I don't know how that's going to play out.
Anyway, it's the most interesting thing that's happened around here in a long time. The University is the single biggest employer in the county(or second biggest after the county, I forget). So it's kind of a big deal.