UCD police chief placed on administrative leave
Updated Monday, Nov. 21, at 7:45 a.m.
UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza has been placed on administrative leave pending a review of her officers’ use of pepper spray on unarmed protesters Friday. Two of the involved officers also remain on leave.
“As I have gathered more information about the events that took place on our Quad on Friday, it has become clear to me that this is a necessary step toward restoring trust on our campus,” Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a news release issued early this morning.
“I take full responsibility for the events on Friday and am extremely saddened by what occurred,” Katehi added. “I eagerly await the results of the review, and intend to act quickly to implement reforms that will safeguard the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in nonviolent protest.”
On Sunday, Katehi also called on the Yolo County District Attorney’s office to investigate the campus police department’s use of force. The district attorney agreed to conduct a review in collaboration with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department.
In a letter to UCD Police Department staff, Vice Chancellor John Meyer said that the decision to place Spicuzza on administrative leave was necessary to allow “a fact-based review of events, assist in calming the community environment, and allow the department to focus on its current and substantial demands.”
UCD police Lt. Matthew Carmichael will serve as the department’s interim chief.
Katehi said Sunday that, beginning by meeting with protesters on the Quad, she hopes to work with students to avoid a repeat of Friday’s confrontation.
Facing a firestorm of criticism, Katehi has accepted an invitation to take part in Occupy UC Davis’s planned general assembly at noon. She is set to meet with faculty on Monday afternoon and intends to hold a student forum Tuesday.
More discussions will be held after the Thanksgiving holiday, she said.
“My hope is that I’m going to be engaged with students in a dialogue so that we remain safe and we remain calm, as a campus,” Katehi said in an interview Sunday with student-run Aggie TV. “We cannot be a place of learning when there’s no safety for the community, when there’s no calm. I will appeal personally to the students for that.”
Ten students were arrested on misdemeanor charges when police cleared the day-old Occupy UC Davis encampment on Friday.
In a moment viewed more than one million times on Youtube that has now made news worldwide, Lt. John Pike sprayed from close range about a dozen seated protesters with pepper spray. Afterward, 11 were treated by paramedics, while two were treated then released from Sutter Davis Hospital.
Pike and another officer, whom UCD has declined to identify, have been placed on administrative leave while a planned task force of students, faculty and staff completes a 30-day investigation of what happened.
Katehi said that she was “horrified” by videos of what happened. Her goal, she said, was only to have camping equipment removed. She repeated her health and safety concerns about protesters staying on campus overnight.
“The intent was not to remove the people or disperse the crowd, only move the equipment, and that’s where I believe it went wrong at some point,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what happened to go wrong, this way, because of course what you have seen and I have seen on video — it’s horrible. It shows a treatment for the students that we had never wished and I had personally never imagined that it would happen on our campus.
“I will really do everything I can to correct these problems and make sure that in the future we never have a similar event.”
Katehi said that she hoped to work with students in a way that that allows them to express themselves and doesn’t “see students and the police brought into a similar circumstance.”
“We need to spend one year, if not longer, as a campus, to really to ask the very important questions of what happened and how are we going to move forward,” she said. “How are we going to create a university that allows our students to express concern, to express anger, to express frustration, to even, at times, participate in civil disobedience as long as that, for them, is a way to express their frustrations, their fears, their thoughts and their ideas.
“The question that I have, and that all should have, is how can we manage this while at the same time that we, as a community of 60,000 people, remain safe and the students, those who participate in those events, remain safe, as well.”
Asked if she believed police behaved properly, she said, “Technically speaking, the police followed protocol, but … protocol is not appropriate all the time … when you have a gathering of peaceful students.
“As we go forward, we’ll be asking some serious questions about what happened. We also have to ask very serious questions about how to deal with situations like that in the future. Are there changes that needed to be considered on these protocols?”
The board of the Davis Faculty Association has called for the third-year chancellor’s resignation. As of Sunday night, more than 43,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the same.
A video of Katehi’s walk to her car with protesters looking on silence has also gone viral, attracting more than 350,000 hits on Youtube.
“I have thought very carefully about all the messages that came to me,” Katehi said. “I have to say, I am committed to staying at this university. I have made the commitment to really make this university a better place from what it is right now, a great place, as a matter of fact, in terms of providing a learning environment for our students.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done and I have made the commitment to work very hard to … really make our campus the place we want it to be.”
Updated Sunday, Nov. 20, 4:01 p.m.:
Saying he was “appalled” by video of a UC Davis police officer pepper-spraying seated, unarmed protesters, UC President Mark Yudof announced Sunday he would convene a meeting of chancellors to discuss how police handle nonviolent protests.
Yudof has asked for each of the 10 campuses to forward to him policies related to protests, including mutual-aid agreements with outside agencies.
A panel of experts and stakeholders will also “conduct a thorough, far-reaching and urgent assessment of campus police procedures involving use of force, including post-incident review processes,” he said.
Ten protesters were arrested as police cleared the Occupy UC Davis camp from the Quad on Friday. Eleven people were treated after being hit with pepper spray. Two were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released.
Yudof said he did not wish to “micromanage” chancellors — “They are the leaders of our campuses and they have my full trust and confidence,” he said — or campus police.
“Nonetheless, the recent incidents make clear the time has come to take strong action to recommit to the ideal of peaceful protest,” he said. “As I have said before, free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and nonviolent protest has long been central to our history. It is a value we must protect with vigilance.
“I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right.”
Yudof’s statement also referenced footage of UC Berkeley police striking protesters with batons more than a week ago. In a New York times opinion piece published Sunday, former U.S. poet Robert Hass, a faculty member there who was protesting alongside students, described being hit in the ribs.
Both the Berkeley and Davis campuses plan reviews of police actions.
Updated Sunday, Nov. 20, 11:16 a.m.:
UC Davis on Sunday placed two police officers on administrative leave for their use of pepper spray in a Friday confrontation with Occupy UC Davis protesters.
Chancellor Linda Katehi said that she also would speed up the timetable for a faculty, student and staff task force to complete an investigation of the incident.
“I spoke with students this weekend, and I feel their outrage,” Katehi said in a statement. “I have also heard from an overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and alumni from around the country. I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident.
“However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place.”
UCD has declined to name the officers, but Lt. John Pike, who led the officers during the confrontation, sprayed a group of about a dozen seated, unarmed protesters.
One Youtube video of Pike’s actions, watched more than 340,000 times as of Sunday morning, has drawn international attention. A search for UC Davis at Google News turned up more than 1,200 hits, and an online petition calling for the chancellor’s resignation had reached 25,000 signatures.
UCD paramedics treated 11 protesters who were sprayed. Two were taken to Sutter Davis Hospital, where they were treated and released.
Ten protesters were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor violations.
UCD is also planning forums with students, faculty and staff. Times and locations have not been announced.
In a video of Katehi leaving a press conference Saturday, with protesters watching her in silence, Katehi said she would meet with students Monday. A UCD spokesperson confirmed Sunday that those are Katehi’s plans.
Protesters are planning a general assembly on the Quad on Monday at noon.
“These past few days our campus has been confronted with serious questions which will challenge us for many months and years to come,” Katehi also said in her statement. “We have created great universities which are challenged in their capacity to accommodate our human needs of expression, anger, frustration and even civil disobedience together with the need to feel safe.
“We need to find a way to change that while at the same time remaining true to our mission of teaching, research and service. We need to think hard and together on how to accomplish this.”
Published Sunday, Nov. 20:
UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi has ordered the creation of a task force to review how police on Friday cleared the Occupy UC Davis encampment, resulting in 10 arrests and the pepper-spraying of about a dozen protesters.
In a letter to the campus, Katehi called videos of Lt. John Pike sweeping a canister of orange pepper spray over seated, unarmed protesters from two or three feet away “chilling.”
Police arrested eight men and two women, on suspicion of disorderly conduct, for lodging without permission, and failure to disperse. They were cited for the misdemeanors and released.
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Katehi’s Saturday message to the campus
Assistant professor of English Nathan Brown’s call for Katehi’s resignation
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The chancellor then scheduled a press conference at the Surge II building on campus for 4 p.m. Saturday to address the incident, but the conference was cut short when several hundred protesters surrounded the building demanding her resignation.
Katehi did not leave the building for three hours because, according to Mitchel Benson, associate vice chancellor for university communications, the crowd outside was perceived to be hostile.
Inside, the chancellor addressed the calls for her resignation.
“I don’t believe it would be appropriate for me to resign at this point,” Katehi said. “I don’t think I have violated the process of this institution. As a matter of fact I believe I have worked very had to make this campus a safe campus for all.”
The chancellor also expressed her sadness for the events at the press conference.
“The events of yesterday have been very hard for me personally and for the whole campus,” Katehi said.
Videos went viral
Photos and videos of the pepper-spraying went viral, passed on through social media and posted on left-leaning websites like the Huffington Post, Daily Kos and The Nation, then on news sites like that of Time magazine.
On his website, filmmaker Michael Moore echoed a call by Nathan Brown, an assistant professor of English at UCD, who called for Katehi’s resignation.
“You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis,” Brown wrote in a blog post. “In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis.”
Later, the The UC Davis Faculty Association Board posted a letter on its blog calling for the chancellor to step down.
The letter cites that “The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership.”
In addition to the faculty board, Attorney Natalie Wormeli said Saturday that the Yolo County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union “is quite concerned by what appears to be excessive force used on the students who were exercising their First Amendment rights and were peaceably assembled.”
“As the footage shows, the campus police, dressed in their dramatic helmets, which are designed to protect them from their noxious chemicals and any other non-lethal weaponry they were prepared to use, set the stage for a nonpeaceful ending to a student protest,” Wormeli said.
Police called in
The confrontation took place after UCD held off on enforcing a camping ban overnight Thursday. On Friday morning, a Student Affairs representative delivered a letter from Katehi asking the protesters to take down their tents by 3 p.m.
The bulk of the protesters chose not to budge.
Ugliness followed.
Protesters “(offered) us no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal,” Katehi wrote in a letter Friday night.
“We deeply regret that many of the protesters today chose not to work with our campus staff and police to remove the encampment as requested. We are even more saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal,” she added.
As the Quad emptied in a light rain afterward, protester Eric Lee said that the administration and police were “shooting themselves in the foot.”
“What they’re doing is taking off their masks. They’re making it blatant that social equality is not something that they want,” said Lee, who graduated from UCD in June with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
“It also shows that the First Amendment is worthless. Here we are addressing government grievances — tuition has gone up 300 percent in the last decade — and this is how we get treated when we sit down and peacefully protest.”
At 3:30 p.m., about 35 officers wearing helmets and carrying batons on their hips, some with guns filled with pepper balls, crossed the Quad as about 60 protesters chanted “Shame on you!”
“We’re fighting for your children’s education!” yelled one.
Shouting into the crowd noise, Pike three times ordered them to clear out under section 409 of the California penal code. The law requires that those taking part in an unlawful assembly disperse.
By the time Pike ordered the police skirmish line forward, the crowd of onlookers had swelled to perhaps 150, many recording the slow-motion confrontation on cell phones.
Officers almost immediately dragged three protesters to the ground and pinned them. Many in the ring sat down, arms locked, chanting, while supporters pulled away the tents.
Police took down more protesters, tightening plastic restraints around their wrists.
Some onlookers joined the protesters, chanting “Set them free!” They rose as a group, then, slowly moved to surround the officers, who drew their batons.
Having at least once ordered the sidewalk cleared, so that those arrested could be taken away, Pike then pepper-sprayed seated protesters blocking the officer’s path.
Officer must file report for review
At the news conference Saturday, Police Chief Annette Spicuzza explained the process of review that Pike will go through for taking the action that he did.
“The officer who made that decision, we need to know why he made it,” Spicuzza said. “He’s going to be required to make a report and then it will be reviewed and it will be looked at through this task force.”
Pike has served the UCD Police Department for 10 years and according to Spicuzza, is a “very good officer.”
The incident “raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this,” Katehi wrote Saturday.
She called for a task force made up of faculty, students and staff to review the incident within 90 days to “ensure our strategies to gain compliance are fair and reasonable and do not lead to mistreatment.”
She also ordered a review of policies banning encampments: “If our policies do not allow our students enough flexibility to express themselves, then we need to find a way to improve these policies and make them more effective and appropriate.”
Administrators and police are unlikely to have 90 days to make their decisions, as protesters have vowed to return to the Quad on Monday at noon.
On Friday, protesters were taken to Sutter Davis Hospital, where they were later treated and released.
UCD paramedics treated with saline the eyes of 11 protesters. One young woman sat on her knees, crying with her eyes shut and pink streaks of Pepto-Bismol and water running down her cheeks.
‘Horrified’
Kristin Koster, a post-doctoral lecturer, used a scarf dipped in another home remedy, Maalox and water, to help Dominic Gutierrez, who was barely able to open his eyes.
He was sprayed, he said, when he tried to shield others with his jacket.
Koster said that she was “horrified” by both the actions of police and the inaction of staff and administrators standing nearby who did not seek medical assistance for those hurt until asked.
“In a way it’s very abstract to be protesting about money or debt,” Koster said. “There’s really nothing like the moment when they find out that the university — and all these smiling ladies, who are supposed to be there to protect you — will protect the university from you, with pepper spray and guns. They will injure you and injure your friends.
“When you protect the things you believe in with your body, it changes you for good. It radicalizes you for good.”
Tuition hikes are one protest issue
Gutierrez, a junior mechanical engineering major from Sacramento, had never been much of a protester until he saw the video of Berkeley police striking students and professors.
That and a UC proposal to increase tuition by another 8 to 16 percent each year from 2012 to 2016 pushed him to take action.
During a rally, an overnight occupation of the campus administration building and marches through campus this week, other UCD protesters echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement, railing against the financial and political power wielded by corporations and the rich.
“When they see us on the quad, a student might think that maybe there are weird people camping on the Quad,” Gutierrez said. “Once they see this, all they see is cops hitting students. They might have thought, ‘Those are people different than me, I would never (protest).’
“Now they see this is awful, and they’ll come out for the same reason I came out.”
In her letter to protesters Friday morning, Katehi wrote that she sympathized “with the profound frustration” expressed by protesters in trying difficult economic times.
However, she continued, the administration is responsible for ensuring all “can live, learn and work in a safe, secure environment without disruption.”
“We take this responsibility seriously,” Katehi wrote. “We are accountable for what occurs on our campus. Campus policies generously support free speech, but do included limited time, place and manner regulations to protect health, safety and the ability of students, staff and faculty to accomplish the university mission.”
Liability concerns
The chancellor wrote that while she appreciated the peaceful nature of recent protests, liability concerns and limited staffing to supervise protesters meant the encampment must come down.
“Our resources must support our core mission to educate all students,” she added.
At about 2:30 p.m., Spicuzza delivered to about 60 to 70 protesters an order to take down the remaining 29 tents. Those who did not would risk losing their possessions and arrest.
In the final minutes before the deadline, a few among protesters assured the group that those arrested would have legal backing and would not lose their financial aid.
Some tents were packed up. About a dozen were pushed into a tight circle ringed by the protesters, who locked arms before police moved in.
“The camping was really a priority for us,” Spicuzza said later. “I appreciate that the tents are gone, and now we (the police) are gone.”
Spicuzza, who observed the chaotic events on the Quad, said immediately afterward that she was “very proud” of her officers.
“This was a tough scene to walk into,” she said. “This was 50 people and before you knew it, it probably grew close to 200. When you encircle a group of officers that are just trying to do their jobs, it’s kinda scary, but they did a great job.”
In contrast to other campuses, protests at UCD sometimes have been disruptive, but largely peaceful affairs since the UC Board of Regents began approving of series of tuition hikes aimed at backfilling slashed state funding.
Friday’s confrontation led to the largest number of arrests since 53 tuition-hike protesters were arrested at a Mrak Hall sit-in, in November 2009.
— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8046. Track him at http://twitter.com/cory_golden. Enterprise staff writer Tom Sakash contributed to this article.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=106041
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Posted by Cory Golden
on Nov 21 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 03:57:15 PM PDT
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[...] [Davis Enterprise, The New Civil Rights Movement] /* [...]
Just tried to call. Mailbox is full. I hope he gets the message that the obvious enjoyment that he had while torturing others is unacceptable in 2011.
The UCDavis polic officer Lt. John Pike who paper sprayed the seated students should be fired and sent to courtroom!!!
Oh, hey, good job–you made Mother Jones, too, BTW.
Also, in that letter demanding resignation, the professor alleged that the cops sprayed pepper spray directly into the mouths of students, not just into their faces, and that one of the protesters was spitting up blood a long time afterward and remains hospitalized..
That’s a little more direct action that a picture of a cop spraying from six feet away. That is not a measured, appropriate response. And actually, tactically speaking in a busy riot scene, it’s incompetent. Pepper-spraying somebody before you haul them away passively actually makes your job more dangerous, because you’ll get it on yourself, too.
Exactly like Mayor Quan of Oakland, Katehi’s response sounds like somebody who was lied to by her police authorities, and believed it without bothering to check anything before speaking, and then had to eat by saying she “regretted” it. Can’t admit fault, the lawyers won’t have that–but it really doesn’t matter.
What part of “unacceptable litigation costs” do these authoritarians fail to understand?
[...] Good coverage at the Davis Enterprise. [...]
Are you aware of the rules for using pepper spray against non-violent protestors? In California, the judiciary has given this issue much more rational thought than you.
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1332957.html
hopefully that was robm that posted tht link not anthony bc that would be really ironic.
“If these kids are our future then we are all screwed because they can’t follow simple directions.”
I’m suring “following simple directions” is your highest value, and probably also your highest accomplishment. Not true for everyone.
Mark C if we all had your mentality there would be no United States. This country was founded on protest. If we had followed the rules we never would have kicked the British out.
[...] another said that eleven students were treated by paramedics at the scene and that two were transported to a local hospital. (That second report also notes that university staff and administrators watching the protest [...]
[...] Brown was referring to an incident Friday in which UC Davis police arrested 10 protesters and pepper-sprayed about a dozen more while trying to clear an Occupy encampment on campus, according to the Davis Enterprise. [...]
Let good old Linda know how you feel:
http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/contact.php
[...] hospitalized afterward, according to local reports. Ten were arrested. Interviewed at a hospital by a local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise, one of the protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, said that he had been sprayed while trying to shield [...]
The Chancellor needs to step down tomorrow. Outrage!!!!!!!
The Chancellor needs to step down TODAY!
All chancellors need to be fired. It is just another usless waste of tuition. Chancellors or someone’s buddy that can’t do anything else. Wake up and smell the tuition hikes.
In the 60s, the rules also said things like no “negroes” at lunch counters or in white bathrooms, and they had fire hoses instead of pepper spray. Prior to that, the rules said no women may vote. I for one am glad these students are using their intellect and their conscience in disobeying rules.
This country was founded on disobeying rules one doesn’t believe in – ever hear of the Boston Tea Party?
This country was also founded by putting you life on the line not yelling “No fair”. If you want to compare this to the Boston Tea Party then these guys got off light.
You ever hear of the current “Tea Party”? You’re descending to their level.
The Chancellor, nor anyone from the University, contacted the pepper spray victims. Not only that….
their emergency contacts ( parents!) were not notified.
A “task force” to investigate themselves will be, of course, nothing more than a prolonged whitewash.
Kathehi ordered the police there, and she owns it. Quit or be fired!
[...] Brown was referring to an incident Friday in which UC Davis police arrested 10 protesters and pepper-sprayed about a dozen more while trying to clear an Occupy encampment on campus, according to the Davis Enterprise. [...]
[...] hospitalized afterward, according to local reports. Ten were arrested. Interviewed at a hospital by a local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise, one of the protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, said that he had been sprayed while trying to shield [...]
The pepper spray was in no way necessary to secure the safety of anyone involved as they were sitting still on the ground. The only reason I can see is to punish those involved. A civilized society does not inflict pain and injuries requiring hospitalization as punishment. A civilized society does not dish out punishment without trial. A civilized society has punishments that fit the crime.
Do you disagree with any of these claims? Unless you are going to disagree with all of them, you must stop claiming that whatever the authorities do to someone who breaks any rule is justified.
Telling college students they must “disperse” from their own campus is a bad idea.
If the chancellor asked Lt. John Pike to remove the tents, then he should have done so without a dispersal order and without pepper spray.
And if possible, without arrests.
Am I the only one wondering what cowards these police are if they feel “endangered” by something like 150 students, circling them in a line no more than two deep, and doing nothing more aggressive than chanting at them?
The students are the heroes here.
Everyone’s ignoring that ridiculous statement, as it is so patently obvious in all the videos that the students *and* the police are all calm until Lt. Pike starts shaking his spray can. The police were asked to do something unwise and unwarranted. I’m waiting for an unbiased evaluation of all the facts, but I can see no way that Pike should not avoid jail time. There is clear legal precedence that pepper spray must be limited to “hostile or violent” subject (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1332957.html). Ironically, the only justifiable use of the pepper spray here would have been against Lt. Pike.
give another dime to UC Davis until Katehi is no longer Chancellor. She came here with the stench of scandal on her from her prior position, and with a huge salary increase and $100K “relocation” bonus. She is busy pimping for out-of-state, full-fee students and now this police fascism.
The rules used to say no black people on the front of the bus. The rules used to say women couldn’t vote. The rules used to say you could ignore the rules if you were powerful. Not anymore.
Word.
[...] Brown was referring to an incident Friday in which UC Davis police arrested 10 protesters and pepper-sprayed about a dozen more while trying to clear an Occupy encampment on campus, according to the Davis Enterprise. [...]
[...] sue the pants off this guy and win.” The U.C. Davis police department has, not surprisingly, defended its actions. Ten students were arrested — eight men and to women — and about a dozen others were [...]
I’m sorry, but some of this article is blatantly biased and completely untrue. For instance, the protesters did NOT ‘surround’ the police, at least not until after they sprayed those students (which is clearly evident in the video). Second, the protesters were not blocking the police officer’s way. If they were then why did the police leave in the opposite direction of where the students were sitting? And where were the arrested people while this was happening? I don’t see them in the video, which makes me believe they were already taken away somewhere and booked, which would not have been possible if the students were truly in the officer’s way. Also, there is clearly plenty of room for the officers to go around those seated students. So the arrested students were not present, the cops left in a different direction (which looks like the direction they originally came from) than the students were ‘blocking’, and the students weren’t even blocking them (as you can see in the video). I think that shows that your article is inaccurate in those regards, and it really sounds like pro police propaganda to be honest. I’m not saying that’s the case, but that is how it sounds to me.
Consequences children. Please explain what did they expected to happen? Didn’t they do this so they could be pepper sprayed? They acted just like my 2 year old, when she doesn’t get her way (without the head pounding on the floor) when I say “no” you may not eat all the candy. Tough love.
You’re a monster.
I would like to see her pepper spray her 2 yr old in the grocery store next time she has a tantrum. I bet CPS would be called real quick
You should pepper spray that little brat in the mouth next time she pulls a stunt like that! Candy?! The nerve of some people.
You’re a sorry excuse for an American. You sound like one of the people who would have justified Bull Connor turning the firehoses on Black ministers and their wives protesting against Jim Crowe
Please learn to use commas.
this is what you say when you cannot converse? That’s typical of a republican!!
tough love? I guess you believe water boarding is not torture also? Violence begats violence!! Maybe you as a parent need to be investigated? I’m worried about any child you would raise after your comment! You would let a stranger treat your child this way? No wonder this country is declining so bad!
So you would pepper spray your child for have a tantrum? I sure am glad your not my parent.
what is wrong with you? you obviously are part of the soulless,consiousless 1% If you have a 2 yr old she should be taken away from you because you are certainly not able to raise a child with a soul
[...] hospitalized afterward, according to local reports. Ten were arrested. Interviewed at a hospital by a local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise, one of the protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, said that he had been sprayed while trying to shield [...]
[...] http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/protests-again-gathering-steam-on-campus… [...]
[...] UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi scheduled a press conference on Saturday to address the pepper spray incident heard ’round the world, where she pledged to review the police actions and said defiantly she would not resign. She also refused to leave the building for three hours afterward because, as The Davis Enterprise notes, “the crowd outside was perceived to be hostile.” [...]
Next time you will be ticketed for speeding I suggest that you will be pepper sprayed first, based on your own logics.
[...] ET: Two campus police officers have been placed on administrative leave, the university says. And, according to The Davis Enterprise, Katehi today issued a statement saying she wants to speed up the timetable for an inquiry into the [...]
[...] were treated by paramedics at the scene and that two were transported to a local hospital. (That second report also notes that university [...]
idiot
[...] haste, article after assault after report over the police "attack" hit the news. Because of this public outcry, a mob mentality has struck [...]
[...] (Click the Davis Enterprise for a bunch of pictures,THE video, video of “The Silence” later, and comments by Katehi, the faculty, the university, police, and others) [...]
Anthony said “If they didn’t want to be pepper sprayed then maybe they should have followed the rules.”
You mean, we should all just follow the rules. Like the people followed the rules in Germany backing the 1930s, right?
USA is fast becoming a fascist police state, G.W. started it all. The police and intelligence communities have complete immunity. Freedom of speech and the right to assemble has become a joke in the USA.
The bottom line: incidents like this are illustrating a growing problem with this countries police forces. They have been increasingly militarized, they get advice from a private non-government corporation, their training obviously focuses more on how to harm people than knowing the laws, and their immunity from most consequences makes them dangerous. That some states have even passed laws preventing a citizen from defending himself against police -under ANY circumstance- should have the entire nation outraged.
This is criminal assault, plain and simple.
I’m left wondering how many other bad behaviors these officers may have been involved in. A good person could not have done what Pike did. Since Pike and his supervisor are in charge of the Police Dept that hires, trains, sets ‘professional standards (?!)’ AND handles all complaints about campus behavior cops – it is quite possible that many other incidents have never come to light.
The National lawyer Guild will represent any of these victims for free. They also strongly encourage civil lawsuits to be filed against the individual officers for damages, punitive and material. Only by enforcing repurcussions against abusive officers will there be any chance of slowing this sort of behavior. Contact info: http://www.nlg.org/occupy/
Kateri is in the wrong from the jump: the first words out of her mouth should have been that two wanna-be campus cops violated State law and were immediately suspended without pay, and subject to arrest.
The law (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1332957.html) clearly states that OC spray is “limited to controlling hostile or violent subjects.”
9th Circuit Ct. also stated that officers were “not entitled to qualified immunity because the use of pepper spray on the protestors’ eyes and faces was plainly in excess of the force necessary under the circumstances, and no reasonable officer could have concluded otherwise.”
To supply these police officers with these chemical agents without proper training as to when it’s use is allowed is the height of irresponsibility. This goes way above Lt. Pike, tho he was clearly acting far beyond any reasonable standard. Pepper spray should be completely disallowed until all police agencies do a thorough review and re-training. This is indeed a sign of a decline from a nation of laws to a police state.
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What the police have done cannot be justified by citing whatever rules students were breaking. Any reasoning which attempts to place onus for this incident on the students is erroneous. This is true for two reasons:
- Police actions were grossly disproportionate to whatever offences or threats existed.
- If financial laws were enforced the way park laws were enforced, there would be no protest movement in the first place.
No further debate on this subject is necessary.
What you seem to fail to understand is that these young people are NOT breaking the law by gathering peacefully to protest. I am not an American, I am an Australian and I know that you Constitution proclaims your citizens the right to ‘peaceful assembly’. I stood in front of that document on a recent visit, I believe it is inspired wording that stands as strongly today as the day it was written. Do YOU believe that, because that is the issue here.
Directly spraying pepper-spray on peaceful protestors is delivering a form of punishment.
The police are not given the power to punish — it is NOT their directive to punish but to enforce the law.
Therefore, those law enforcement officers who gave the order to use punitive actions on the protestors and those law enforcement officers who directly punished the protestors with a painful substance should be released from their duty in law enforcement and fired.
They have failed to protect the public and have failed in their job.
Moreover, the violated protestors have full legal rights to bring the entire Police Department into court and demand remuneration for the punitive acts put upon them.
John Pike needs to go to jail for a long time. He’s obviously a threat to a civilized society. I hope every one of those students presses charges against him.
I agree with you mark, this guy is a psycho.
It’s such a nasty spectacle to watch him take his time, gain composure, take even more time, a deep breath, turn around and even joke and wink at a colleague, shake the pepper bottle, then take even more time, adopt an alpha macho position ready to attack and coldly direct the spray at passive people, while tripping on the joy of torture. This man needs to pay.
[...] to chant and protest outside the building; Katehi refused to leave for three hours, because “the crowd outside was perceived to be hostile.” It was. But it wasn’t violent: Here’s Katehi leaving the building, finally, [...]
[...] Times: Some protesters were hospitalized afterward, according to local reports. Ten were arrested. Interviewed at a hospital by a local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise, one of the protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, said that he had been sprayed while trying to shield [...]
If Ms. Katehi indeed wants calm, she had best realize that there will not be calm until she resigns Not now, not tomorrow, not ever.
As the students chanted so eloquently, “You can go.”
[...] Koster, who helped one of a protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, told The Davis Enterprise that she was “horrified” by what took place. “When we strengthen a things we trust in with [...]
[...] Koster, who helped one of the protesters, Dominic Gutierrez, told The Davis Enterprise that she was “horrified” by what took place. “When you protect the things you believe in with [...]
““We need to spend one year, if not longer, as a campus, to really to ask the very important questions of what happened and how are we going to move forward,”
True. But you would think that someone as booksmart as Katehi would realize that she is the wrong person to ask those important questions, and precisely the wrong person for UC Davis to move forward with.
I’m sorry, but she’s going to have to lose her $400K-a-year job. Thems the breaks.
America can be proud of the Davis students, your community can share that pride and most of all those magnificent young people should always know, that if they are right, they will win, and they shall. Sadly as ever there two sides to every story and the incompetence of the College Chancellor and the breathtaking brutality of the police involved bring shame not only upon America, but all of humanity.
Katehi has no option but to resign, if she did not know that when she took that walk of shame, then she clearly has none of the communication skills required for her position. I am from Liverpool UK, and I feel the shame that these people have brought upon humanity. Those who ordered the deployment of the spray and those who used the spray, must be brought to Justice and account for their violence!
[...] the University of California-Davis announced that it was suspending two of the police officers who pepper-sprayed protesting students. Eleven of those students were [...]
I add my voice to the many condemning the UC Davis police and the chancellor. The University of california system has a very long history of brutality and violence towards dissent. It is time that students, faculty and alumni join together to starve the UC system of donations until it changes.
Katehi said, “We cannot be a place of learning when there’s no safety for the community, when there’s no calm. I will appeal personally to the students for that.” However, I do not understand why she does not seem to acknowledge that the lack of calm stems not from their actions but from hers. The students protesting at UCD have shown time and time again their amazing ability to be forces of calm, even when being sprayed at with chemicals by the police or when waiting for hours for her to leave the Saturday news conference. The appeal to calm should go to the administration and the campus police, not to the students.