The Kid Has Arrived

Police use pepper spray at point-blank range on peaceful demonstrators at Occupy UC Davis.

Follow up article from the LA Times here.

Excerpt from article:

Faculty and students reacted with outrage. Nathan Brown, an assistant professor of English, said in an interview that the episode was the latest example of “the systematic use by UC chancellors of police brutality” to suppress protests.

In an open letter, he wrote: “Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.”

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi initially did not criticize the police, but she said Saturday that she had since watched the video and reviewed more accounts from the scene.

“It left me with a very bad feeling of what went on,” Katehi said in a telephone interview. “There was enough information to show that we need to take a serious look at what happened.”

She said she authorized police to remove the tents, but not to use the pepper spray in the manner shown on the video. “Absolutely not,” she said.

In a statement announcing the formation of a task force to investigate the matter, Katehi said Friday “was not a day that would make anyone on our campus proud.”

“The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.”

At a news conference Saturday, UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said the decision to use pepper spray was made at the scene.

“The students had encircled the officers,” she said. “They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out.”

Give me a break. Anyone who advocates for or defends the use of pepper spray in peaceful civil disobedience situations like this one is advocating for the incitement and escalation of violence. These students were sitting there quietly with locked arms. If the police were going to arrest them, they could have done so without first walking up to them and spraying them with pepper spray at point-blank range. The use of pepper spray in a situation like this is a clear case of police brutality, and it’s inexcusable. Luckily, the crowd showed better sense and restraint. If you watch the video through to the 6:30 minute mark or so, you’ll hear the crowd calling for a mic check and call out to the police that they should take their weapons and leave, which the police then do.