Now that footage of campus police pepper-spraying nonviolent protesters at the University of California, Davis, has gone viral, the debate about disproportionate law-enforcement responses to civil disobedience can’t wait.

Nearly a dozen students were pepper-sprayed by a police lieutenant who seemed to have little regard for the suffering inflicted on the protesters, who weren’t a physical threat to officers or students. Several protesters were taken to the hospital and 10 were arrested.

The UC-Davis students had gathered to support Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country. …

Protesters understand that a risk of free speech is getting arrested in demonstrations that disrupt public order. But being arrested for failure to disperse is one thing. Getting pepper-sprayed in the face, while peaceably assembled, is something else. …

The Occupy Wall Street movement generally has been peaceful and orderly … . But it has brought out the worst in some police forces.

Municipal and campus authorities have the tough job of balancing free-speech rights of protesters with the rights of others to open access to public places. As police intervene, they must calibrate their response to the behavior they see.

But when those who engage in civil protest are calm and orderly, it’s hard to defend brute tactics. To cite a slogan from a past era: The whole world is watching.

The (Toledo) Blade, Nov. 28

 

Environmental regulations should safeguard public

Ohio already has some of the strongest oil and gas drilling regulations in the nation, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. But new technologies and the ongoing gas drilling boom have prompted state officials to re-examine their rules. Recommendations for new ones should be in place early next year.

As officials in other states could have warned their counterparts in Ohio, that sets up a confrontation between environmentalists and the drilling industry.

It already has begun in Ohio, with the issue of hydraulic fracturing of wells at the dispute’s center.

Reasonable concerns, such as how large amounts of fluid used in “fracking” will be disposed of, have been raised. So have ridiculous ones, such as a claim “fracking” causes earthquakes.

It is possible for the state to have regulations that safeguard the public while keeping Ohio in a competitive position to enjoy the drilling boom’s benefits. That, not a futile attempt to please all parties involved, should be state officials’ goal.

The (Tiffin) Advertiser-Tribune