Quotables 2012

“Oh my God. I hope I’m not the scapegoat for this one. …It was really bad out there.”
Former UC Davis police Lt. John Pike
following the Nov. 18, 2011, pepper-spraying of seated, unarmed protesters on the UCD Quad, according to a report on the incident released in April

“I can forgive people for what they believe in, but I hope people will see that this kind of thing hurts others. When people go out and do hateful things like that, it really hurts me.”
Ciara Brown
Davis High School student, regarding the discovery of a noose hanging at the DHS football field

“Many people think of us as some daredevils, young barnstormers. … As my mother used to say, ‘Now you quit doin’ them there stunts!’ What I say is, that’s not stunts, that’s actually what I do. This is my work.”
Russ Stocker
local agricultural aviator

“When I first started, I would text my buddy, ‘I feel like I’m in a crater, on the moon right now!’ It’s pretty amazing, the things you can see,”
Loren Skinner
Davis Astronomy Club member, recently introduced to stargazing

“Let’s go to the local voters and make a case for local control of local schools. … The fact that we have our entire Davis education system resting on what a voter in Bakersfield or Newport Beach does (regarding Proposition 30) — that’s crazy.”
Richard Harris
Davis school board trustee

“It isn’t that there isn’t going to be pain. It doesn’t matter which project you pick, there’s going to pain. Very big pain.”
Elaine Roberts Musser
Water Advisory Committee chairwoman, discussing proposed water rates

“Nothing about this project we’ve done is innovative. (But) this is Davis. This is something for us to do, something innovative, and if someone is going to innovate this type of reform. … I think that we should be the ones to do it.”
David Purkey
Water Advisory Committee member, arguing for an “elegant and innovative” rate structure devised by two fellow committee members

“I just don’t think a store like this can survive anymore.”
Christine Hildebrand
Alphabet Moon Toys & Treasures owner, commenting on her store’s closure

“It is the best thing, the most Godly thing, the county does all year. No one goes unnamed. No one goes unknown.”
The Rev. Norman Callaway
of St. John’s Church in Woodland, speaking at the memorial service the Yolo County public guardian holds every year for the indigent

“Sweat pants, hot showers, down comforters, good bread and cheese.”
Sasha Hill
DHS graduate, explaining what she missed while living and working in Peru

“Sometimes you don’t realize how much a person does for you until they’re not there any more. And she goes so far beyond what any human would expect of anyone else. She will be missed.”

Judy Davis

former North Davis Elementary School principal,on the retirement of the school’s longtime reading specialist, Martha Beetley

“We have a culture in Davis that says binge drinking by our youth is acceptable, and our desire is to change that conduct.”

Landy Black

Davis police chief, on why the Police Department supports a law making it illegal for minors to be under the influence of alcohol

“(Jim Burchill) told me that he was representing a building trades union and that they really wanted the surface water project. He told me that the union was going to pay serious PAC money in our city election and that I could be the beneficiary if I supported the project. I interpreted this as a threat as well as a bribe.”

Sue Greenwald, former City Councilwoman, about the attack mailer sent to local voters during the council campaign