In November 18, 2011, campus police at UC Davis pepper-sprayed students sitting on a paved path in he campus quad. The students were acting in solidarity with the growing national Occupy movenent, and joining wich studens of other UC campuses to protest a dramatic jump in tuition that coincided with the firing of professors and campus workers and pay raises for administrators. Videos showed police in riot gear beating the nonviolent protesters with batons and dragging two of them by the hair as well as prolonged pepper-spraying.' The videos of the police brutality electrified the nation, woke up uncounted potential allies who until then had been asleep, and energized the movement. "The paradox of represion" is what sociologists call this dynamic. It happens when the brutality intended to stop a movement instead gives it energy and strength. Another famous example was the police assault on Occupy Wall Street participants walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in 2011. The attack aroused a tidal wave of support for Occupy.

— How We Win by George Lakey (Page 137)