Reynoso: Talks with police union delay pepper-spray report
A task force investigating the pepper-spraying and arrest of Occupy UC Davis protesters has pushed back the date for issuing its report because of negotiations with police union officials.
The chairman of the task force, former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, is now targeting Feb. 21 for the report’s release.
As a result of “several rounds of negotiation” between University of California lawyers and the Federated University Police Officer’s Association, officers who were at the scene Nov. 18 will be questioned by independent investigators, Reynoso wrote in a letter to UC President Mark Yudof.
Off-limits, however, as part of the agreement: UCD police Chief Annette Spicuzza and two of her officers being investigated for wrongdoing, according to Lynn Tierney, UC’s associate vice president of communication.
Spicuzza, Lt. John Pike and a second unnamed officer have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of about a half-dozen probes into what happened on the Quad.
Tierney said in an email message that she did not know whether internal affairs or the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, which is conducting a criminal probe, have questioned the chief or the two officers.
The Reynoso-led task force’s recommendations await a fact-finding report by Kroll Investigations, a firm headed by former Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton hired by Yudof.
Reynoso’s letter to Yudof, dated Jan. 20, was released to the media on Wednesday.
Writes the former chief justice and UCD law professor emeritus, “While the timeline for the release of the report has been delayed for a few weeks, I am very pleased that an agreement was reached for access to non subject officers as this is a critical component in understanding not only the frame of mind, but a complete understanding of the events that took place, including the view of police officers.”
Reynoso reiterated the task force’s desire to release its report in a public meeting on the Davis campus, but no details have yet been set.
After images of officers pepper-spraying seated, unarmed protesters went viral, UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi asked Yudof to assemble a task force that would bring back a report in 30 days, which would have been Dec. 21.
UC officials soon pushed that date back, saying Kroll needed time to do a thorough investigation. Most recently, Reynoso had set a goal of the final week of January or first week of February for the report’s release.
Plans call for Bratton’s fact-finding report to be released in tandem with the recommendation by the task force of 13 students, faculty, alumni and staff.
Reynoso previously has described the task force’s charge as providing “an objective account of what happened at UC Davis on November 18 as well as in recommending changes that can help ensure that the rights and safety of nonviolent protesters and the entire campus community are protected.”
The news of another delay comes as student protesters were debating whether to remain inside a building they’d settled into on campus.
Occupy protesters planned to meet Wednesday evening to discuss whether to stay in a cottage across the street from the Quad to further their message of opposition to tuition hikes and what they see as UC’s rapid privitization.
A UCD spokesperson on Wednesday repeated only that the administration will continue to monitor the presence of protesters in the building.
A source familiar with the discussion among the protesters said some have raised concern about their presence possibly blocking two programs from moving into the building, which has been vacant since December, when the Cross-Cultural Center staff packed up for their move to the new Student Community Center.
The Educational Opportunity Program, which provides services to help students adapt to university life both academically and socially, and the Guardian Scholars Program, which assists former foster youths, are scheduled to move into the cottage now occupied by the protesters.
— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net. Follow him at http://twitter.com/cory_golden.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=130302
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Posted by Cory Golden
on Jan 25 2012.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 03:57:15 PM PDT
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Let us get this straight terrorists take over a building and nobody is doing antything about it? According to the FBI, the occutards are terrorists, under section 1, paragraph 1 and need dealt with accordingly. Please put your name on the Sueoccupy.com website to get back some of the $725M the parasites have cost taxpayers.
Well, by your definition, the Founding Fathers were terrorists too. If you are going to start calling American citizens terrorists, then anyone is a terrorist and the term has lost all meaning. In fact your comment is meaningless.
It is kind of amazing how a simple error in judgement can lead to such procedural intricacies! At the same time, I have a lot of faith in Justice Reynoso to do the right thing so it looks like we will have to wait for his process to unfold and come to a conclusion.
But there are certainly lots of lessons here, probably for just about everybody involved. Certainly the University has had the opportunity to absorb a message of the need for greater respect for the students, their parents footing the bill, and the Citizens of California. Although the University has prized and frequently referred to its complete autonomy in both words and actions, it is fundamentally true that no person and no institution is completely free of considerations of others. EVERY institution has a constituency and UC has been neglected its constituency through outrageous tuition charges and other processes that make some of the members of the community feel like they are “minor players”. That can’t go on anymore….. time for EVERYBODY to realize the we, the people of California, own the University… not the President, not the Chancellors, not the all the way down the line. And, yes, you are accountable to us. The University has many wonderful features and has done so much for the people of California…. but the ‘tude has got to change. You won’t have anybody banging down the door to “occupy you” if you have thrown open the doors and said, “WELCOME” in the first place. :)
There is some truth to the idea that everyone owns the university. The other philosophy is that whoever funds the university is the constituency. Otherwise students could go to UCDMC and claim that the hospital belongs to “everyone”, rather than to the patients who pay for medical treatment through their insurance. Personally I think that it’s a sham for the state government to cut its funding strings to UC, and then still try to pull those strings.
It is unacceptable that these protestors are blocking the planned move of two programs for the most vulnerable and deserving students on campus—EOP and the program for students who were raised in the foster care system. The occupiers had the support of the students–and the world—after the pepper spraying incident. They are now viewed as misguided and are frittering away whatever goodwill they had–with the occupation of this building and blocking the small bank branch at the MU. They need to do something more constructive that is actually directed at making tuition more affordable. If they can’t do that, they should move along.