Ongoing student protests continue at the University of Puerto Rico. The university raised fees by $800 this year, prompting sit-ins and demonstrations that have been met with extreme police violence and mass arrests. Students, joined by unionists, continued protesting this week, with numbers high enough to force a retreat by heavily armed police.
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| Images from the Occupy CA website |
Last Spring, students took over all 11 campuses of the University for 30 days, forcing the administration to delay the tuition hike and other cuts. In December, police occupied the campus to prevent further unrest, as the administration attempted to re-impose the fee hike. The police occupation has continued since then, provoking students, who hadn’t seen such a show of force on their university in nearly two decades. Yesterday police beat students with batons and arrested 21. University professors have called for a 1-day strike in support of students.
Now is time that the people will see why all those handouts by a very liberal democratic system, are not always good. I feel that if we expected nothing for free we would make ourselves work hard instead of longing for big government to give us something for free!
ReplyDeleteDear Anon,
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most idiotic comments anyone has ever sent to my blog. First of all, there is no "liberal" or "generous" government. Second, we are talking about Puerto Rico, a colony of the U.S. Third, why should student protests opposing fee hikes make anyone oppose government subsidies? Fourth, why would you want to work harder? Fifth, government doesn't give anyone anything for free. We pay taxes and government uses the taxes to provide services. Unfortunately for the majority of us, the bulk of these taxes do not provide services for us, but tax breaks, subsides and profit-generating programs that benefit the richest 1% of society.