It's certainly true that the sustained use of torture (Gonzalez and Bush's views notwithstanding) while imprisoning thousands of people is quite different from the use of pain compliance holds. Nonetheless, a methodical sustained use of pain over the course of two hours to accomplish an unconstitutional objective (dispersing a peaceful assembly) has some similarities.

I do not mean to diminish the truly horrendous situation at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo (or, to a lesser extent, perhaps even in certain nearby jails).

But I think drawing connections like this are also helpful in bringing home the point that the climate of violence and repression has apparently become more standardized, even as regards affluent upper-middle-class white students at a major university engaging in obvious peaceful protest, which in no way interfered with anyone else's rights.

Locally in Santa Cruz, we need to understand the outrageous behavior of the police. This is local abuse--which, in theory, we should be able to address more directly, and which impacts people we know. To call it "mini-Abu Ghrab-iana" is to use a kind of "horror" shorthand, which, I agree, is poetic license. But it makes the point that a form of torture is being used.

Shoot the messenger, Vinny, if you must (again), but let's amplify the message. After all, wasn't it was you, who advised me that Evelith was the cop with the loose baton?

Anyway, good work on the reporting.