Before I jump into this too deep let me start by saying I support the Occupy movement and what it stands for.  Assuming that is that you are part of the Occupy movement as a means of making change so that our government is a true democracy that is fueled by the people and their votes and not by large banks and organizations that pay our politicians the most.  That being said, this whole concept of “police brutality” is starting to get out of control on the internet.  Everyday I see a new viral video hit the net that depicts “brutality” by local or campus police.  In some instances, such as the UC Berkeley protests I will agree whole heatedly.  But in other instances I am left to wonder if people are considering, or even looking at the whole picture.

Today Gawker posted an article titled Here’s a Cop, Just Casually Pepper Spraying Peaceful Protesters in the video the officer at UC Davis does just that.  However, what we see is a line of protesters clearly refusing to remove themselves from their position being pepper sprayed. In this particular instance, no other protesters are being sprayed. Just the ones on the ground blocking the sidewalk.

My speculation is that there is some rule/ordinance that prevents people from blocking public walkways at the school.  That most likely is what fueled this incident.  The police probably came, told them they had to move granted they may or may not have pointed out why.  And then ultimately pepper sprayed these protesters as a means of dispersing them and ultimately arresting them.

I agree, there have been a number of incidents where excessive force has been used the UC Berkeley incident being a prime example, but you can’t take every photo and video at face value.  Every time we use freedom of speech or right to protest as an example for why these police are out of control we are grounding these statements in rights that are enforced by law.  Just as we want to be protected by these laws/rights, we need to recognize that these laws aren’t going to prevent us from getting in trouble if we ourselves don’t follow other laws and ordinances in place.

Again, I just as most people talking about the police brutality at the occupy protests are basing this all on speculation, but again my guess is that in instances like that in the case of UC Davis these students were pepper sprayed not for protesting, but most likely for violating some other rule or law. And even after reading the accounts from English Professor Nathan Brown, I am again reminded that these people were probably asked to move multiple times before it escalated to this.

Before you jump to make some of these “police brutality” videos and images viral, take a step back and consider what elements of the story you may be missing.  This applies not only to those of us online, but also those at the protests watching from 5,10, or 20 feet away. You don’t always know what was said or done prior to the outbreak.  Yes, you are there, but you don’t always have the full story like you think you do.  You have your perception of the story.

When all is said and done, even I may be in the wrong here.  Perhaps at UC Davis there was no rule being broken or law being enforced and ultimately the force used by UC Davis police was excessive.  But that being said, my goal here is not to say who is right or wrong, but to say look at the whole picture and think about what elements you may NOT be seeing or understanding before you assume excessive force is being used.

I have been a huge fan of Blink-182 since the 90′s.  Cheshire Cat, Buddha, Dude Ranch, and Enema of the State were the soundtrack to my high school years.  So when they announced they were back from hiatus in 2009 I was ecstatic. Of course today when they announced you could stream the Neighborhoods album online I was even more ecstatic, but when the album kicked off with the song “Ghost on the Dance Floor” a familiar tune hit my ears.  I ran through the catalog of Blink 182 songs in my head, then I dug a little deeper and ran through the catalog of +44 and Angels and Airwaves songs in my head, but when I dialed it back a bit further I remembered a song by the short lived Blink-182 side project Box Car Racer.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Box Car Racer, they were the very first Blink-182 side project taht formed in 2001.  The band stemmed out of boredom between tours following the September 11 attacks as a way for Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker to experiment with material that wasn’t suitable for the Blink-182 sound. During it’s short tenure the band released a self titled album and two singles. The second single off the album was titled “There Is”, and that is where a nearly decade old melody meets the first track on the new Blink-182 album.

Below is a sample from the song Ghost on the Dance floor merged with a sample from the song “There Is” from Box Car Racer’s 2002 release.

There Is A Ghost On The Dance Floor

Though “There Is” is a much slower song, the vocals on “Ghost on the Dance Floor” carry a very familiar tune.

While this one track has haunting similarities to Blink’s original attempt at a more mature sound, I must say that regardless of the comparisons and gripes that the new album “Neighborhoods” is too much like +44, or too much like Angels and Airwaves, or too much whatever, I really like the new album.  It’s a solid effort from a band that was off the grid for much too long.  If you haven’t checked it out already head over to http://neighborhoods.blink182.com and give it a listen with the “neighbors” in your city.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment of the two songs? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

So tonight I watched something bizarre unfold on Twitter and I realized that celebrities using social media are susceptible to the same insane behavior online that they are offline.  What caught my eye was the tweet below from actress Rose McGowan:

After digging a bit I discovered that user mygirlrose1 had actually been harassing Rose McGowan and a number of her fans via twitter for roughly 5 hours straight.  Tweets from both McGowan and Baptiste Piriou, the author of the Rose McGowan fansite mcgowan-rose.com, hinted that the user had been harassing them not only through this account but a number of aliases on twitter.  You can view some of the highlights from his tweets below.

The tweets featured above hint that perhaps this was a crazed fan that felt ignored by Rose McGowan, but other tweets blatantly attacked people with racial slurs, hate speech, and various other rants towards fans defending McGowan against the user.

What’s sad about this particular case is that it goes to show that even online celebrities are faced with the same sort of insanity and dangers that are posed in public.  On one hand social media gives us insight into the lives of celebrities that we never knew (personal pictures, anecdotes, etc.) and many times even a direct line of communication with our favorite stars.  Unfortunately that same sort of access and interaction opens celebrities to a whole other threat like the one that has unfolded this evening.

Have you ever seen something similar to this with one of your favorite celebrities?