Two unnamed UC Davis Police officers have been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement issued by the UC Davis News Service on Sunday morning. This followed a press conference on Saturday, where UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi addressed police activity during a protest that took place on the UC Davis Quad on Friday.
The press conference was slated to last until 4:30 p.m., however it ended early due to protesters chanting outside and flooding the hallways of the building. Protesters were there in response to police action on Friday, when officers arrested 10 individuals and pepper sprayed student protesters who were sitting on the Quad linking arms.
During the press conference, which took place on campus in Surge II, Katehi and UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza fielded questions from the press. “Our hope was that that the camp would go away and the students would remain to continue their rally and to continue with their expression of the issues. The intent was not to disperse the rally, because that is allowed. The intent was just to remove the equipment,” Katehi said.
During the press conference the chancellor said that she would be attending the rally that protesters are holding today at noon on the Quad.
Katehi also announced that the university would be forming a task force to look into the events that took place on Friday. The task force will consist of faculty, students and staff, and it will review the events and report on them within 90 days. Katehi acknowledged that some university policies may need to be reconsidered after this task force completes its investigation.
The press conference took place among calls for the chancellor’s resignation, specifically by UC Davis assistant professor Nathan Brown and the UC Davis Faculty Association Board. When asked if she plans to resign, Katehi said no.
Approximately seven minutes before the press conference was supposed to end, protesters’ chants could be heard from outside. Protesters managed to get inside the building, and some forced their way into the room the press conference was being held in.
After being asked to leave the building, a group of an estimated 700 people stood outside, forming a human pathway for the chancellor to walk through, which they called “the walk of shame.”
The group of protesters included undergraduate and graduate students, alumni and community members.
“I came out because I felt the way the students were being treated was inappropriate. The violence that was put on them was unnecessary because they were not doing anything, they were just protesting. Even if it was an issue of having tents on campus, it was inappropriately dealt with,” said Neda Yousefian, a UC Davis graduate student.
Shannon Giammichele, sophomore UC Davis student, was one of the protesters who was pepper sprayed by the police.
“I quickly covered, and next thing you knew you just heard the sound of spray going off and felt it in your mouth and your nose,” Giammichele said. “I accidentally slipped the lower part of my cover and inhaled pepper spray, so I ended up being transported to the hospital because I have asthma, and I had an asthma attack as a result. It was all over my hands so I go it in my eyes.”
Many protesters on Saturday echoed Giammichele’s sentiments, and a general sense of disbelief and confusion was evident among the crowd.
“I don’t understand why they did it. We were just sitting there so peacefully, it’s just really hard to understand,” Giammichele said.
Throughout Saturday afternoon and evening, the group chanted things such as, “You can leave in peace” and “Chancellor, if you can hear us, we will not harm you, we have the world as our witness.”
The protesters focused on making the event peaceful, chanting “This is not a negotiation, this is not a hostile situation.”
AggieTV and other local news outlets kept a live stream of the events online. By the time Katehi exited the building, the stream was being viewed by over 600 people. Major news sources such as CNN covered the event, and both Twitter and Facebook were used by protesters to spread the word.
After select protesters negotiated with officials inside, the chancellor’s husband moved her car from right outside the building to farther down the road.
At 6:50 p.m., approximately two hours and 20 minutes after the press conference ended, the protesters sat on the ground in complete silence as Katehi left the building and walked to her car. Katehi walked past hundreds of people, making eye contact with individual students. Participants described the scene as haunting.
As Katehi neared her car, someone asked her if she still felt threatened by students. She said no, got into her car and was driven away.
Protesters rejoiced afterward, chanting “Whose university? Our university!” and rushed into the street.
“I think that now it’s a matter of the university realizing that it’s not just a few students that are protesting, but it’s a mass of students who are upset with this and disagree with their policies,” Yousefian said.
In a statement released by University of California President Mark Yudof Sunday morning, Yudof denounced actions taken by police officers on UC campuses in response to protests.
“I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses,” Yudof said. “I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.”
Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on theaggie.org on Nov. 19. The article has been edited to reflect updates.
HANNAH STRUMWASSER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
[…] protesters’ actions on Saturday night were louder than the screams heard in the video. Hundreds of protesters once again linked arms […]
Has anybody asked the city or college officials if they received or solicited advice how to handle OWS issues and gatherings on campus? Is PERF associated with Homeland Security? Is Homeland Security offering advice how to ‘handle’ OWS issues and gatherings on campus? If so…where PERF guidelines and suggestions followed? Is the president of the US aware of and/or directing Homeland Security in any involvement with the OWS/campus gatherings and protests through PERF?
What the police officers did was criminal assault, plain and simple. The police are there to enforce the law and arrest lawbreakers – NOT dole out punishment. That’s for a judge and jury to decide.
Worse, university officials – including the police chief and the chancellor’s spokeswomen – clearly lied when they said the officers were in danger. From people sitting on the ground?
Davis students are getting one hell of a civics lesson.
‘The images from UC Davis are painful for their multiple ironies, one of which illuminates California’s pension crisis: students protesting rising tuition and fees were assaulted by state police whose generous pensions have been a big part of making those fee hikes necessary.”
Read more:
http://republicofcostamesa.com/2011/11/20/the-pension-disasters-birmingham-cops-assault-student-protesters-at-uc-davis/
Read more about the UC Davis Police offering a new course in authoritarianism:
http://ucmep.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/uc-davis-police-offering-new-course-in-authoritarianism/
As parent of one UC Davis graduate and one current student, I am ashamed of the entire incident. The school, the administration, and the entire UC System should also be ashamed.
Police Chief Annette Spicuzza reported that officers felt as if they were in danger and that was her justification for the use of pepper spray. I don’t understand why the police offices could not have observed from a ‘safe distance’. Clearly they could have moved in if they saw something ‘dangerous’. They put themselves in the situation. They did not need to be that close. The quad is plenty big enough to observe from a completely safe distance.
It will be interesting to see what the 90 day investigation uncovers. I can only assume that they will conclude that all the actions of the Police Officer was completely justified and that the violent students sitting on the ground posed a clear and immediate threat.
They moved in because they were ordered to remove the tents, and the students were making a human barricade. The question is why did they make use of pepper spray before removing the students.
UC donors are the leverage that this movement needs. What if we circulated a petition that UC donors could sign? “I, _______________, pledge not to donate to the UC development fund unless if tuition is capped at 2005 levels, adjusted for inflation (national CPI).”
I’m from the University of Illinois where Katehi used to be the Provost. She didn’t give a crap about students then, and she doesn’t give a crap now. Don’t back down until she resigns in disgrace.
[…] silence as Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi walks from her press conference to her car. The conference had to be cut short because protesters entered the building, and Katehi’s walk occured after three hours of […]
Chancellor Katehi better not resign. It’s not her fault that students like myself feel unsafe with protestors creating horse shit around campus. If only one individual legitimately feels unsafe over a protest, then that is one individual too many.
While a “mass” is upset, a majority of us are not (based on our absence from these protests.)
So this is the new standard of security: anytime anyone feels “unsafe,” it’s time for pepper spray–or a foreign war.
So if you object, that gives you a veto power over other people’s right to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed right of free speech and peaceful assembly? I think not.
I think there are two separate issues here: police brutality v. the direct logical connection of Chancellor Katehi to that brutality (which, if supplied, should result in her resignation).
Most reasonable people would agree that the police brutality was excessive, uncalled for, and unfortunate, to say the least. But Katehi only called the cops; she did not tell, or ask, the cops to use excessive force (to my knowledge, however limited). Therefore, in the absence of a direct causal link, I also don’t think she should resign.
Had she not called the cops, and allowed the protesters to stay the weekend in their encampments, and someone was hurt, then calls for her resignation would be shouted from a different population. Katehi was, more or less, in a no win situation.
I’m definitely open to new information, and I don’t pretend to know all of the details. If, in fact, Katehi did authorize/ask for police force, then calling for her resignation seems logical, to me (not that that matters much; I am in no way an authority). But I just don’t see the connection between calling the police and being held responsible for the actions of the police.
Martin, free speech is constitutionally protected, but it is not limitless. In fact, free speech is trumped by other rights every day. For instance, it is illegal to verbally threaten someone with credible harm. In this case, an individual’s freedom of speech is effectively limited by someone else’s rights.
How were your rights threatened by people sitting peacefully on the ground? And what evidence do you have that any of the demonstrators threatened somebody with harm, credible or otherwise? It sounds to me that, like Chancellor Katehi, you are making this up as you go along.
I never suggested that I was threatened. The point was that freedom of speech is not without limits, and that, in fact, certain situations do exist where constitutionally rights are overridden. That’s a fact, not an opinion, by the way.
I also never suggested that any of the demonstrators threatened anyone. I merely pointed out a hypothetical in which Katehi not calling the police would have resulted people calling for her resignation.
However, aside from incorrectly stating my position, you have conveniently sidestepped the my core issue. Can you produce a direct link connecting Katehi to giving permission or asking for police brutality? As I stated earlier, I’m willing to absorb new information, and am in no way married to point of view. But in light of the facts (no direct evidence), I still believe that Katehi shouldn’t resign.